BCS - Massachusetts Firearms Laws

……About Assault Weapons and Large Capacity Magazines Presented by three citizens:

Bruce Blessington, Jesse Cohen, Esq. & Rick Swasey

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Copyright 2013 S2 Alpha Training, LLC. All rights reserved.

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This presentation addresses the common misperceptions about so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines as well as the history and effectiveness of the regulations applied to both.

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AR-15 Modern Semi-auto Rifle

This is an AR-15 rifle. Today, it is the most popular rifle in the United States. Millions have been sold to American citizens since 1963.

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The AR-15 is the most common example of firearms that are sometimes called assault weapons. But what does this term actually mean?

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First, it is important to understand what an assault weapon isn't. The terms "assault weapon" and "assault rifle" are often confused. According to Bruce H. Kobayashi and Joseph E. Olson1, writing in the Stanford Law and Policy Review: Prior to 1989, the term "assault weapon" did not exist in the lexicon of firearms. It is a political term, developed by anti-gun publicists to expand the category of "assault rifles."

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If an assault weapon is not an assault rifle, what is an assault rifle?

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M4A1 Carbine

This is a M4A1 carbine. It is a U.S. military service rifle. It is also an assault rifle. The M4A1 is capable of fully automatic operation. It is able to fire multiple rounds each time the trigger is pulled. The M4A1 can fire up to 950 rounds per minute.

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The M4A1 and other fully automatic firearms are also called machine guns. In 1986, the Federal government banned the sale or transfer of new machine guns to civilians.

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AR-15 Semi-auto Rifle

Like the majority of firearms sold in the United States, the AR-15 is semi-automatic. This means it fires one (1) round each time the trigger is pulled. The AR-15 can fire between 45 and 60 rounds per minute depending on the skill of the operator. This rate of fire is comparable to other semi-automatic firearms.

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The truth about “assault weapons” is that they function like this Ruger Mini-14 ranch rifle...

...and this Remington semi-automatic shotgun...

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...and this Model 1911 pistol...

...and this S&W double-action revolver.

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All of these guns fire one (1) round each time the trigger is pulled.

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But if that's true, what makes this semi-automatic rifle a ranch gun...

...and this semi-automatic rifle an “assault weapon”?

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The answer is perception.

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According to a 1988 report2 by the Violence Policy Center, an anti-gun lobby: “[H]andgun restriction is simply not viewed as a priority. Assault weapons ... are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with 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—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

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In the late 1980s, more than two decades after the AR-15 was first sold to the American public, the anti-gun lobby began a systematic campaign to conflate it and other "military-style" firearms with machine guns. The media followed suit3, and soon the American public began to think that an assault weapon was, like the assault rifles it resembled, a machine gun.

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This strategy came to fruition in 1993, when the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) was introduced in Congress. The AWB would ban the sale of new “assault weapons” to American civilians.

However, since "assault weapon" was an invented term, it had no technical meaning. Before “assault weapons” could be banned, legislators had to define them.

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Here’s the BATF’s proposed definition:

Assault Weapon Derived Semi-Auto - a firearm cosmetically similar to an Assault Weapon, but incorporating entirely different receiver and internal components, designed in cooperation with BATF, not to be convertible to full-auto, rendering the firearm capable of semi-auto fire only, it is functionally identical to commercial semi-auto hunting rifles, target rifles and shotguns and may incorporate a detachable box magazine[,] bayonet lug and pistol grip/folding type stock.4 …which Congress ignored.

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..and so since assault rifles were already banned, and because an outright ban on semi-automatic firearms wasn't considered politically feasible, the Congress in drafting the AWB defined “assault weapons” as semi-automatic firearms that shared too many cosmetic features with their fully automatic, military counterparts.

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These banned "military-style" features included certain combinations of collapsible stocks...

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...flash hiders...

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...and pistol grips.

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None of these cosmetic features changed the functioning of the firearm or actually made the firearms more lethal.

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According to a Department of Justice study5, the firearms that the AWB would ban were used in only 2% of gun crimes.

Nevertheless, the AWB's passage was aided by the fact that many Americans believed the bill would ban machine guns and "weapons of war," something that had, in fact, already been banned. The AWB also banned magazines having a capacity greater than ten rounds. This restriction applied to all firearms, not just so-called “assault weapons”. To secure enough votes to pass the bill, a sunset provision was added. After ten years, the AWB would end.

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On September 13, 1994, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban went into effect. A Washington Post editorial published two days later was candid about the ban's real purpose: “[N]o one should have any illusions about what was accomplished [by the ban]. Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control.”

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In 2004, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired. It was not renewed. The AWB had failed to have an impact on gun crime in the United States. A 2004 Department of Justice report5 concluded: “Should it be renewed, the ban's effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. [Assault weapons] were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban.”

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Banning firearms because of their cosmetic features was misguided.

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Regarding large capacity magazines, the same Department of Justice study said: “[I]t is not clear how often the outcomes of gun attacks depend on the ability of offenders to fire more than ten shots (the current magazine capacity limit) without reloading.”

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In 1999, five years into the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, the Columbine High School massacre occurred. One of the perpetrators, Eric Harris, was armed with a ban- compliant, semiauto Hi-Point 995. Undeterred by the ten-round capacity of his magazines, Harris simply brought more of them: thirteen magazines would be found in the massacre's aftermath. Harris fired 96 rounds before killing himself.

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At Virginia Tech in 2007, Seung-Hui Cho again showed the futility of regulating magazine capacity when he carried 19 ten and fifteen-round magazines in his backpack as part of a carefully planned massacre.

Cho used seventeen of the magazines and fired approximately 170 rounds—or ten rounds per magazine— from two handguns before killing himself.

Although the Virginia Tech massacre was and remains the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, it resulted in relatively few calls for new gun control, possibly because so-called assault weapons were not used.

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Like Eric Harris before him, Cho demonstrated that a magazine's capacity was incidental to the amount of death and injury an unopposed murderer could cause in a "gun-free zone."

Limitations on magazine capacity are therefore of marginal practical utility in the prevention of gun violence. Limitations below ten rounds will likewise be ineffective and will put law abiding citizens who rely on firearms for personal defense at risk.

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Summary and Conclusion Modern semi-automatic rifles with cosmetic features that resemble military firearms (so-called assault weapons) are not assault rifles. Legislators and the public have been misled and influenced by firearms opposition groups and some in the media to confuse modern semi-auto rifles with machine guns. The AR-15 and other modern semi-auto rifles have been depicted as military weapons whose only purpose was to rapidly kill large numbers of people. In fact, these rifles are widely used in competition, hunting and for home defense. 3.3 million have been sold for these purposes between 1986 and 2009. Despite their political appeal, limits on magazine capacity have been shown to be of little utility in reducing the death rates in mass shootings in particular and gun violence overall.

Efforts to regulate the AR-15 and other modern semi-automatic rifles diverts scarce legislative time and attention from more effective means of addressing gun violence.

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Summary and Conclusion Modern semi-automatic rifles with cosmetic features that resemble military firearms (so-called assault weapons) are not assault rifles. Legislators and the public have been misled and influenced by firearms opposition groups and some in the media to conflate modern semi-auto rifles with machine guns. The AR-15 and other modern semi-auto rifles have been depicted as military weapons whose only purpose was to rapidly kill large numbers of people. In fact, these rifles are widely used in competition, hunting and for home defense. 3.3 million have been sold for these purposes between 1986 and 2009. Despite their political appeal, limits on magazine capacity have been shown to be of little utility in reducing the death rates in mass shootings in particular and gun violence overall.

Efforts to regulate the AR-15 and other modern semi-automatic rifles diverts scarce legislative time and attention from more effective means of addressing gun violence.

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References 1.

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In Re 101 California Street: A Legal And Economic Analysis Of Strict Liability For The Manufacture And Sale Of "Assault Weapons” Bruce H. Kobayashi * and Joseph E. Olson Stamford Law and Policy Review vol.8, no.1 1997:41 Violence Policy Center Assault Weapons and Accessories in America “Conclusions” para. 2 1988

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Shooting Blind: Tonso, William R., November 1, 19954 Hearings to Consider S. 386, the Assault

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Weapon Control Act of 1989, and Similar S. 747 the Antidrug, Assault Weapons Limitation Act of 1989 Before the Subcomm. on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Comm., 101st Cong. (Feb. 10, 1989) (Attachment 1 to the statement of Edward D. Conroy, Deputy Associate Director, BATF). In his prepared testimony, Mr. Conroy stated: "The AKS is a semi-automatic that, except for its deadly military appearance, is no different from other semi-automatic rifles. As a matter of fact, the identical firearm with a sport stock is available and, in appearance, no different than other so-called sporting weapons" (emphasis added). Accepted firearms terminology includes the term "assault rifle" but not "assault weapon." GARY KLECK, POINT BLANK: GUNS AND VIOLENCE IN AMERICA 70-74 (1991). An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003 Report to the National Institute of Justice, United States Department of Justice: Koper Christopher S. A special note of recognition to the anonymous author of The Truth About Assault Weapons whose original work was the inspiration for this piece and may be viewed at www.assaultweapon.info.

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