| | |  Editorials | Issues | April 2009 
Who Really Benefits from the Expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban?
 Kristopher Seydel - PVNN
 |  | A semi-automatic is a quintessential self-defense firearm owned by American citizens in this country.
- NRA Vice Wayne LaPierre |  | | |
During last Thursday’s press conference in Mexico City with Presidents Obama and Calderón one of the more discussed topics was related to the large number weapons bought in the US that have been confiscated from Mexican drug cartels.
With the majority of these weapons being identified as assault rifles, Obama was asked what his position is concerning the re-instatement of the Assault Weapons Ban. Originally instated under the Clinton administration the ban prohibited the sale of 19 types of semi-automatic military-style guns and ammunition clips with more than 10 rounds. It expired in 2004.
While many American gun-enthusiasts celebrated the expiration others were not so enthusiastic, pointing to studies evidencing its effectiveness in the prevention of violent crimes. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence concluded that "since the law’s enactment... assault weapons have made up only 1.61% of the guns the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has traced to crime — a drop of 66% from the pre-ban rate."
The pre-ban rate of 4.82 percent was drawn from data during the five-year period prior to its instatement in 1994. Additionally, the study underscores the ATF data that shows “a steady year-by-year decline in the percentage of assault weapons traced, suggesting that the longer the statute has been in effect, the less available these guns have become for criminal misuse.”
Since the lifting of the ban however, sales have increased to such a degree that caused the late Santiago Vasconcelos to describe assault weapons as “being sold like candy.” Others have called it a “buying bonanza” that has “stripped some stores almost bare of assault weapons and yielded a national ammunition shortage.”
But where do these weapons go and how are they used? NRA Vice Wayne LaPierre said in an interview that, “A semi-automatic is a quintessential self-defense firearm owned by American citizens in this country.” But is self-defense all they are used for and is the law-biding American home the only place they end up?
Acknowledging estimates by Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials that 90 percent of the assault weapons and other guns used by Mexican drug cartels are coming from the United States, President Obama said Thursday that “many of them come from guns shops that line our border.”
The effects of their presence on the border and in Mexico resulted in violence. So much so that a US State Department travel warning was issued last February: “Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades.”
In addition to the combat, several police, military and political leaders have been assassinated by these heavily armed cartels (including Mexican police chief Edgar Millán Gómez in May of 2008.) Other statistics suggest that more than 7,000 civilians have been killed since January of 2008 as a result of the increased violence.
In his interview, Wayne LaPierre said he believes assault rifles are “clearly protected” by the 2nd Amendment. But if the right to bear arms is made to include assault rifles which enables drug cartels easier access to them, who is really benefiting from the lifting of the ban?
Does this ban infringe more on US citizens’ right to bear arms or provide traffickers the arsenal they need to gain the edge in the war on drugs? The large post-ban increase in violence counterpoised against the consistent yearly decreases during the ban’s decade of tenure seems to favor the cartels.
Kristopher Seydel is a student at Arizona State University, who is currently studying as an exchange student in Guadalajara, Mexico. |
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