Assault weapons should be banned and confiscated. They exist for one purpose; to kill people, and they are unfortunately very successful.
I believe in the 2nd amendment as written by our founders in 1787. You can possess as many flintlock pistols and single shot muskets as you wish. This is what Jefferson and Madison envisioned, not 30 bullet magazines which can be emptied in less than 30 seconds.
In 1996 Australia banned and confiscated semiautomatic weapons following a mass shooting shooting that killed 35 people and wounded an additional 25 people. The gun owners were compensated. Over a 12 month period the government bought back and destroyed more than one million firearms. It is far past the time for similar legislation to be passed in this country. No civilian should the right to possess a weapon that exists only to kill people.
There was a small but definite decrease in the homicide rate by firearm and a substantial in the suicide rate by firearms, but more importantly there have been no mass killings in Australia since 1996. During the same 20 years in the USA there have been 15 mass killings of 10 or more people. USA today in their in depth review of the past 12 years found a mass killing (4+ people) on the average of every two weeks!
There is no rationale for such a weapon to be in the hands of civilians. Prayer has been tried after every mass killing and hasn’t prevented the next one. Arming every teacher, security guard and front desk clerk is nonsensical.
There are an estimated 100 guns/100 residents in the United States (not adults!). The per capita gun ownership has doubled between 1968 and 2009. Yemen and Serbia are far behind in 2nd place with 50-60 guns/100 residents.
Please join the cause for rational gun legislation.
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/GDContent/mass-killings/index.html#triggers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States#cite_note-usatoday-11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country
www.theatlantic.com/…