Twenty children’s handprints pop in bright colors against the black background of a billboard along the Massachusetts Turnpike. They look like elementary school art projects, but they are not: They represent the 20 first-graders shot and killed last week in Newtown, Conn.
The prints were painted on the billboard in Boston on Saturday by the nonprofit Stop Handgun Violence as a call for a federal ban on assault weapons.
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If an AWB is passed, let's make sure to print up millions of copies. Those copies can then be given out to school children as their protection against the Lanza's of the world. When one attacks a school, the kids can hold up the paper and announce "That weapon is BANNED!"
These rabid anti gun nuts are going to put our children at further risk by ignoring the real issue: security.
Does anyone really believe that Federal government is going to collect all the "assault weapons", or even pass a law that does not "grandfather" in the ones people already own? Confiscation? By whom? House to house? The country would be plunged into a civil war if they could even find a force to attempt confiscation. A voluntary buy-back? Obviously that does not result in all the weapons being turned in. It would only be a matter of time before one surfaced again.
In reality, our political leaders weigh this issue in terms of the next election cycle despite all their emotional statements.
As a final thought, when Menino gets rid of HIS armed guards, the Police Chief turns in HIS weapon and their children/grand children start going to unprotected public schools maybe they will have a different perspective of this problem.
Nothing can be done, nothing can be done, second amendment, my rights, too late to start. If another school shooting takes place, your attitude would surely have made it possible.
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I'm not sure banning assault weapons will be effective. Gun manufacturers are very adept at working around restrictions, which they did effectively when the previous ban was in effect.
We don't know enough about the human brain for psychiatric screening to be very effective either. Psychiatrists disagree too much and diagnosis in difficult. Just getting two psychiatrists to agree is problematic. *No one* can predict whether someone will commit a violent act in the future if they've never committed one in the past.
It certainly can't hurt to ban assault weapons and to have more extensive background checks, even if we don't know they will be effective.
Better control of ammunition, though, would take effect relatively quickly. Magazines should be limited to 5 or 6 shots, not 10 or 20. If you can't hit a deer in 5 or 6 shots, you should pack it up and get out of the woods.