DC City Council afflicted by pistolgriphobia

March 15, 5:03 PMDC Gun Rights ExaminerMike Stollenwerk

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Some Americans are unfortunately afflicted by hoplophobia, the  unnatural fear of guns, which causes them to lose all common sense in public policy discussion about the right to bear arms.  This fear may or may not be treatable by gun range therapy and other measures.

But a new phobia that has arisen over the last few years that afflicts some elected officials:  pistolgriphobia, the unnatural fear of pistol grips on otherwise ordinary long guns.  In a few states, state legislatures have gone as far to say that a rifle or shotgun with a pistol grip is an "assault weapon," requiring special registration, or perhaps banned from private ownership. 

The term "assault weapon" is a pejorative term for otherwise ordinary rifles and shotguns apparently pushed by Brady Campaign spinmaster Josh Sugarmann in his March 1989 report "Assault Weapon: Analysis, New Research and Legislation."  Sugarman's report recommended exploiting:

  ". . . the public's confusion over fully-automatic
   machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons
   --  anything that looks like a machine gun
   is assumed to be a machine gun."

The result of that disinformation campaign was the now expired 1994 federal assault  weapons importation and manufacture  restrictions and some isolated but onerous anti-black rifle regulations enacted by a few state legislatures.
In December 2008, the DC City Council appears to have also become gripped with pistolgriphobia when it banned possession and registration of long guns with pistol grips, and even pistols with forward pistol grips. As a result, DC residents who have already registered such weapons, will become criminals in less than three years when the guns must be re-registered. 

There is no rational basis for either pistolgriphobia or the DC City Council's ban on rifles containing pistol grips.  Rifles with pistol grips may look scary to some people, but they are often less deadly than normal hunting rifles as the Washington Post's investigative reporter Tom Jackman discovered in reporting on the 2006 slaying of Fairfax County, VA police officer Vickey Armel by madman Michael Kennedy.  It turned out to be Kennedy's run of the mine hunting rifle, and not his "AK-47-style assault rifle," which fired the rounds capable of penetrating officer Armel's vest.

Objectively speaking, DC's ban on guns with pistol grips is nothing more than gun bigotry. If you don't believe me, then watch this video of a California police weapons expert showing how a normal looking ordinary rifle can be transformed into a scary black rifle banned by the Dc City Council by the attachment of a few cosmetic gizmos, such as pistol grips [at time hack 5.54].  The video also includes testimony by a police expert [at time hack 9:33] dispelling the myth that 'black rifles" with pistol grips are easily converted into real machine guns. 

The DC City Council's pistolgriphobia is just one more reason why, it's time for Congress to tell DC's rulers:  If you wanna vote in America's House, no more gun registration!