Gov. Brown signs new restrictions on firearms

I hope that each of you will review these new California gun laws, and in doing so realize how little impact they will have on criminals while having a large impact on law-abiding citizens.

Realize, too, that while mass shootings involving so-called “assault weapons” are highly-publicized, they account for a relatively few deaths – fewer than you might think. Some statistic for your review:

• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 1993 and 2001 the average annual number of homicides using a rifle of any type (which includes assault rifles) was 611 (3.4% of all murders). In contrast, knives or sharp objects averaged 2406 homicides (13.5%), while blunt objects such as hammers averaged 823 (4.6%).  If our lawmakers are so concerned with saving lives, they’d be regulating kitchen knives and carpentry tools, not “assault weapons”.

• Between 2006 and 2010 (after the Clinton-era assault weapons ban expired), homicides involving firearms continued their multi-decade decline, include those involving “assault weapons”. Note the following average annual number of homicides by weapon type from the FBI for 2006 through 2010:

Rifles (all, including “assault weapons”): 396
Shotguns (all types and gauges): 437
Blunt objects (hammers, clubs): 606
Personal weapons (hands, feet): 829
Knives or cutting instruments:  1815

Perhaps our legislators should be regulating “assault kitchen knives”, since they are designed to so effectively cut through meat and bone. Or “assault hammers” designed to break through hard objects. In any case, these contribute more to the homicide rates than any “assault weapons”.

• So-called “assault weapons” (a class of firearms actually known as “modern sporting rifles”, or MSR) are highly customizable, making them configurable to be ideal target, hunting, or defensive firearms. Different types of barrels, stocks, sights, handles – the combinations of components and accessories are almost endless – allow users to personalize these firearms for a specific purpose. This has made these rifles one of the most popular types sold in the United States. By some estimates there are more than 8 million MSR in the United States.

• From 2005-2014, there were an average of 3,536 fatal unintentional (non-boating) drownings annually in the United States – nearly 10 times the number of people killed by assault weapons. Maybe we should be banning “assault pools”, such as pools that have specific features like a diving board or a deep end. Or maybe we should only allow those who go through a background check to purchase pools, and then make them go through another background check to purchase the water to fill their pool. This would likely have a larger impact on deaths than any ban on “assault weapons”.

Let’s face facts, people: these so-called “assault weapons”, while highly visible in the media when used, are not the problem they are made out to be. It is a manufactured crisis developed for the benefit of politicians, not citizens. Their initial goal is to manipulate you into allowing the restriction of a right guaranteed to you under the constitution, but I doubt it will be the last. I’m not foolish enough to believe that this is the only right they would like to restrict.