Alphecca

IL House Rejects AWB

Daley and Blagojevich are having a tough year! From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Illinois lawmakers narrowly rejected a proposed ban on assault weapons and .50-caliber rifles Tuesday amid intense lobbying by both sides in the debate.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has repeatedly called for stronger gun control measures, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Chicago Democrat also got personally involved by calling lawmakers and distributing videos demonstrating the firepower of assault weapons.

The National Rifle Association argued that the proposed ban was too broad.

[...]

Rep. Edward Acevedo, a Democrat and also a Chicago police officer, denied the ban would have such a broad impact, saying it contained specific exceptions meant to exempt hunting and target-shooting guns and focus instead on weapons with more sinister uses.

"I believe these weapons are made for mass destruction and war," Acevedo said.

The definitions of an assault weapon vary, but the term generally applies to semi-automatic rifles with large ammunition magazines and such features as folding stocks and bayonet mountings.

As I've said before, any gun, or knife or baseball bat or pork chop is "assaultive" when misused by a criminal. In this context, assault should be used as a verb, not an adjective, and the user should be prosecuted accordingly.