Anti-gun zealots Not Above Lying

Steve Dirlik (Montgomery Journal Article)

Many Montgomery County residents are hearing a ridiculously misleading radio ad from the Brady Campaign, formerly known as Handgun Control Inc. Their spokesman, former U.S. Rep. Mike Barnes of Maryland, implies that repealing the so-called assault weapons ban would result in ``Uzis and AK-47s in our neighborhoods."

To put it bluntly, the former congressman represents his gun control lobby quite well because he is a liar among liars.

First of all, the so-called assault weapons ban has nothing to do with true assault rifles, which are automatic weapons that have been heavily regulated since 1939. As such, we will not see more Uzis and AK-47s in our neighborhoods regardless of what happens to this misleading and deceitful law.

Secondly, the assault weapons ban merely places certain cosmetic restrictions on the appearance of semiautomatic rifles. For example, if your semiautomatic target rifle has enough ``ugly" features on it, such as a pistol grip, a folding or telescopic stock, a flash suppressor, or a bayonet lug, it may be classified as an assault rifle, and it would be illegal to manufacture or import. Conversely, if it doesn't have enough of these ugly features on it, it is called a ``sportster" and is legal to manufacture and import.

So what does the assault weapons ban do? All it does is prevent dangerously law-abiding people like myself from putting purely cosmetic features like a bayonet lug on our AK-47 sportsters.

So why was the gun control lobby so eager to get this absurd law on the books, and why are they so eager to guard it? Because the assault weapons ban is a key steppingstone to complete civilian disarmament.

Comparatively speaking, not many people collect military-style rifles, so politically, we are an easy target. With a bogus assault weapons ban in place, it is far easier to suggest regulating and ultimately prohibiting handguns and hunting rifles, which are far more popular.

The gun control lobby wants to decide for themselves what kind of guns the rest of us law-abiding citizens should own. Since they don't like guns at all and they don't want anyone but the police or military to own them, that means complete civilian disarmament.


STEVE DIRLIK
Silver Spring
Montgomery Citizens
for a Safer Maryland