Too much misinformation
17 September 2004 - Palm Springs Desert Sun

With the amount of misinformation having been spread (and still being spread) about the so-called “assault weapon” ban, I couldn’t in good conscience let Irving Vigdor’s hastily-written letter go without comment.

Twice he states that the ban was on automatic weapons and then insinuates that machine guns will be flooding our streets by the end of the year. This is completely untrue – only semi-automatic weapons were banned in 1994; automatic weapons have been illegal since 1934.

He then asserts that “some of those weapons are going to be used against our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, others in the U.S., and around the world.” Is he suggesting that terrorists who operate in Afghanistan and Iraq will come all the way to the US to buy semi-automatic rifles just now made legal and take them all the way back to the Middle East to use against our troops, when the terrorists have already proven their ability over the years to obtain fully-automatic rifles from other nations friendly to their cause?