Assault Weapon Hysteria

[jgaffney]

The PeeDee has an article this morning about the shooters who were headed up to Lake County to rob someone of their pot. The robbery never happened, so they were headed back to Sonoma County when the police, operating on an anonymous tip, found them and arrested them.

In the vehicles, deputies found one loaded pistol, four assault rifles, one loaded shotgun, a short-barreled shotgun with a pistol grip, six loaded assault-rifle magazines and two types of shotgun ammunition, sheriff's officials said.

At least one of the guns was stolen. (Sgt. Glenn) Lawrence said detectives were trying to trace the histories of the remaining guns.

Finding numerous illegal weapons is troubling, but unfortunately not so unusual, Lawrence said.

"We're seeing more than we want to be seeing," he said. "It tells me there's a whole lot of illegal assault rifles out there."

Waita, waita, waita minite!! How did Sgt. Lawrence make that leap of logic? He found four "assault rifles" (no details given) and extrapolates that to the presence of "a whole lot of illegal assault rifles out there."

It's this kind of thinking, that any weapon that is not possessed by law enforcement, is a "bad" weapon, that will foster a new wave of restrictions under the Obama administration. We have been successful (sorta) in beating back legislation in the California legislature, but fighting for our rights in Congress will be much more difficult.

[The Big Dog]

And you are absolutely right... it's a hysteria and the politically correct press release from the Sheriff's Office is feeding it.

I raised the question on the first day the story appearred as to what, exactly, were these "assault rifles" all about. Were they fully automatic military weapons, hence true assault weapons under the internationally agreed upon definition, or were they otherwise legal semi-autos with some evil cosmetic feature.

And the original press release mentioned "illegal high capacity magazines". Newsflash for the SCSD... simple or constructive possession of a high capacity magazine is not a crime in and of itself. Check your Penal Code and the DOJ Firearms Guide if you don't believe me.

The Sheriff's Office used to have a lot of solid, knowledgeable and level headed gunnies in the ranks from top to bottom. There are still some there, but the command staff up to the high sheriff himself is largely anti-gun. And clearly at least some in the Detective Bureau have been transfused and indoctrinated with the Brady Kool Aid.