Why people buy 'assault weapons'

May 14, 11:32 AMDenver Gun Rights ExaminerDan Bidstrup

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The term "assault weapon" was manufactured to define scary-looking legal civilian weapons.  They have big magazines, flash suppressors and bi-pods and folding stocks like military weapons, but the critical feature missing is full-automatic firing.  At heart they are no different from the plain looking guns that employ gas pressure from the fired round to recock the gun and chamber the next round.  This gun design has been around for decades and is legal.  We should be able to buy legal guns that look scary-as-all-get-out for the same reason we can buy cars that go 120 MPH and look like they go 500.  We who buy guns want the capability and the looks even if there's no promise that we'll get the chance to use it.

Think about most everything we buy.  We are attracted to cars that go fast.  According to my Chevy Venture's telemetry, I average 21 MPH as I live and work in the Denver area.  I am still drawn to Corvettes, and would own one if I could afford it.  I used to drive a 1968 SS396 Camero in high school and college.  I didn't get into any accidents.  I usually didn't drive fast, but I knew I could and that was the pleasure. New computers are sold by touting the speed and power of the processor and video cards yet we mostly do web surfing and e-mail on them which three year old computers can handle nicely.  Home theater gear is sold for its ability to make your ears bleed and rumble the house as you watch "Star Wars", yet most of us listen at comfortable levels both for our own health and consideration for the neighbors. Even car insurance is sold with swashbuckling cartoon figures fighting bad guys (Esurance) by an action person who is prudent enough to get insurance. We buy expensive watches that calculate lunar phases and chronometers for yacht racing and we use them to tell us when the next train leaves or when to pick up the kids.  Most of us don't race yachts.  All the laser sights and bells and whistles sold for guns don't make them any more deadly, they just add to the sizzle for marketing.

 I doubt that many of us will ever face hordes of killers attacking our house and forcing us into pitched battle for our survival, but that should not preclude the sale of guns that are capable of that.  I like large clips because loading them is a drag, and I like to shoot more than load clips. The flash suppressor looks cool, but I shoot during the daytime and it is irrelevant.  Where is the harm?  Ten years of experience with the last "assault weapon" ban showed that criminals rarely use such guns and the law abiding citizens don't do any harm with them. 

Diane Feinstein, Eric Holder, et.al., you have many more real problems to deal with in America than the fiction of one with scary looking guns.