The Assault Weapons Ban

The assault weapons ban is one of the most widespread new methods of gun control, which has been largely embraced by gun control activists, and marketed under the banner of common sense. Statements like "Who needs an AK-47?" echo throughout our political landscape, conjuring horrifying images of school shootings and deranged murderous killers. And that image is directly applied to any gun owner who happens to own of these 'assault weapons,' regardless of whether or not he's been law-abiding and minding his own business. But, who can oppose such a 'common sense' measure? Well, there is a difference between conventional wisdom and actual knowledge. Conventional perceptions are vulnerable to biases, and weak against false ideas that have become mainstream. Given the choice of listening to an expert as opposed to an armchair general, I will almost always side with the expert. That is the way a system should be run. With knowledge and expertise. Except, the assault weapons ban isn't based in that. It's sort of a modern equivalent to passing laws about minorities in public areas. It targets the perceived problem through the lens of society. In short, why do we perceive assault weapons as a problem to be banned? It comes with what we watch. Let's just say America has a thing for violence. Whether we're mowing down brown people in another country on a tv screen with our M-16 rifles or gunning down random citizens in the latest Grand Theft Auto game, we've always had this obsession with guns. It's definitely easiest to gravitate to the scary rifles too. People want to play with them in games, see them in movies. Once mass shootings became 'common' we grew more accustomed to associating 'assault weapons' with them. The thing is, however, an assault weapon is responsible for less than 1% of gun crime in this country. If the media focused in on 1% of crime in this country, the way they focus on mass shootings, then we'd have weekly specials about how the Croatian Mafia is taking over the meth market in Boise. Could it happen in your town? Why is it all over the media then if it's so rare? Well that's because nothing sells like fear and tragedy. Your typical news viewer is an older white person. Depending on the network of choice, they either like to get scared of brown people (Fox) or guns (everyone else). It's just juicy for ratings. Nothing sells ad time quite like dead kids. Or barring that, a bunch of dead people. The media is just waiting for the inevitable shooting at a petting zoo, so they can run sad photos of sad animals. This is what sells, so they will jump at every story they can. And yes, you'd better believe the national obsession is driving up the rates of mass shooting as well. Any nutcase loser knows his ticket to infamy is mass murder. So these weapons account for maybe 1% of all gun crime. [http://bjs.gov...] Why does anyone want something so insignificant banned? The answer is in the term. What is an assault weapon? A semi-automatic rifle with a number of cosmetic features. So yes, what makes this special dangerous weapon that no one should own different from a hunting or sporting rifle anyone can own is... Little bits and pieces that don't affect how it works in any way. It's a category clearly defined by appearance, preying off of fear. Calling for an assault weapons ban because you saw a mass shooting in the news is basically the same as calling the flight attendant over because a Sikh guy used the bathroom twice during your flight. Or crossing the street to avoid an Hispanic kid with tattoos on the sidewalk. Or following a Black teenager in a hoodie because he looks suspicious. Yes, that's right. The AR-15 is the Trayvon Martin of guns. Don't hate it because it's black.