Common Sense Solutions
We seem to hear it all over the media...”common sense solutions”. Does anybody really know what it means? Common sense is by definition: “good sense and sound judgement in practical matters”. However, the problem that alarms many people is that these are not presented as “common sense solutions” to curb violence. They are in reality common sense solutions to promote gun control. The promoters of “common sense” are doing so assuming that gun control equates to a reduction in violence, specifically homicides. If these were truly common sense solutions to violence then they should be backed up with facts related to a reduction in violent crime. Here are three of the most common arguments promoted as “common sense”:
Ban High Capacity Magazines: Typically the limits for high capacity magazines seems to be ten rounds (bullets). The federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 banned the sale of new magazines with a capacity exceeding 10 rounds. At best the 10 year ban had mixed results, and most experts agree that the results of the ban in terms of a reduction in violence were largely ineffective. In fact, the concept of banning high capacity magazines was actually presented to congress by William Ruger, a firearms manufacturing mogul who presented the idea to congress with the aim of crushing the handgun competition market as most of the firearms his company produced did not accept high capacity magazines whereas his competitors (like Glock, Beretta, and Sig-Sauer) did. Clearly this is not common sense but a completely debatable issue.
Ban “Bump Stocks”: Bump stocks are essentially an interchangeable part (the “stock”) of a gun that causes a semi-automatic gun to replicate a fully-automatic gun. While it is pretty unclear whether banning fully automatic guns (which have been banned in the US since the 1930′s) have had an impact on violent crime, it would stand to reason that a ban on fully-automatic guns is pretty ineffective if you can simply replicate the function of a fully-automatic gun with an accessory that is 100% legal. Therefore, within the context of the current law where fully-automatic guns are banned, it is common sense that these bump stocks should be treated the same as fully-automatic guns.
Ban assault-style weapons: We hear a lot of clamor about banning assault weapons but nobody seems to know what that means. Most people think an assault weapon is a fully automatic machine gun, which are already banned. The most common rifle described as an assault weapon is the AR-15 (Arma-Lite 15). The AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle, made to look like the M-4 which is the rifle used by the US military. Semi-automatic guns and fully-automatic guns are very different, and anyone who has ever played Call of Duty can attest to this. Assault style simply means a gun that looks like a modern military rifle. Because an AR-15 looks like an M-4, it has become the boogeyman among gun control advocates. But the real question is, does it help stop violent crime to ban them? The verdict is completely inconclusive. Again, study after study has concluded that there is no clear indication that the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 had any effect on violent crime. In fact, less than 2% of gun-related crimes involve an assault-style gun...interesting indeed that this is considered a “common sense” solution. Therefore, this is also not a common sense solution to stemming violent crime but rather another debatable topic.