Breaking News: You cannot legally own an assault weapon. That has been a law and a fact since 1934.
Allow me to explain…
There are many lies foisted upon the American public by politicians seeking to take from our citizens the “God-given” rights enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The use of “assault weapon” fear mongering is one of the most pervasive and frankly irritating.
The terms “assault weapon” or “assault rifle” are constantly used as, no pun intended, trigger words to inflame the general public and increase unsubstantiated fear of firearms. The clear and overtly stated agenda of the left is to ignore the strict wording of the Constitution and remove or significantly modify the Second Amendment: quoted, in full, here with emphasis:
Over the 231 years since adoption, that amendment has been consistently “infringed” upon far more than any other of our current 27 amendments. Some of the infringement may be deemed logical, but much of the over 10,000 extant gun regulation laws are not. Additionally, those numerous federal, state and local ordinances have never been enforced consistently or logically, and these laws have been twisted to the ever-increasing subjective rule of law desired by politicians, state attorneys and district attorneys.
Among the numerous blatant inaccuracies by Joe Biden in his candlelit harangue from the White House on June 2, 2022, was this statement:
“We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines… Like most rights, the right Second Amendment — the rights granted by the Second Amendment are not unlimited… There have always been limitations on what weapons you can own in America.”
I would add Biden and his cronies continue to advocate for increased, unneeded, and illegal infringement of the constitutional rights of the citizens of our Republic to protect themselves. All this cacophony of political noise screams against law abiding citizens’ possession of semi-automatic weapons while the real threat is from increasingly unconstrained-by-law criminals, primarily in Democratically governed cities. The same criminals who do not and never will obey the existing gun laws and consistently do not observe “gun free zones”. These social deviants know they can invade GFZs with impunity with weapons to kill our citizens without quick law enforcement reaction or any law enforcement reaction at all, as was the case in Uvalde, Texas.
As a soldier of over four decades and an owner, user, and trainer of safe firearm employment for more than sixty years, what Biden and his leftists want to ban or severely restrict are NOT assault weapons.
The U.S. Army defines assault rifles as "…short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges." - US Army intelligence document FSTC-CW-07-03-70, November 1970
There is a major difference between selective-fire and semi-automatic firearms. Selective-fire means that the firearm can switch between semi-automatic and fully automatic fire. A distinction lost in the myopic argument on “assault” weapons. The leftist politicians want to ban the possession and use of a wide variety of semi-automatic rifles and other “scary” small arms that only appear to be similar in shape, color, and general appearance to what are actual assault weapons.
Civilian ownership of machine guns, including selective-fire rifles, has been illegal and regulated since 1934 under the National Firearms Act and since 1986 under the Firearm Owners Protection Act. In clarification: Machine guns, including actual assault weapons capable of fully automatic fire, have been illegal for nearly 90 years.
Title XI -- Firearms, Subtitle Assault Weapons, of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban or Semi-automatic weapons ban formally known as the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, barred the manufacture of 19 specific semi-automatic firearms, classified as "assault weapons", as well as any semi-automatic rifle, pistol, or shotgun capable of accepting a detachable magazine that has two or more features considered characteristic of such weapons. The list of such features included telescoping or folding stocks, pistol grips, flash suppressors, grenade launchers, and bayonet lugs.
None of these stated criteria for the banned weapons accurately describes assault weapons. The law and many others, both national, state, and community only manage to improperly label what are perceived as “scary” semi-automatic weapons for the nefarious purpose of prohibiting citizens from owning such weapons for predominantly defensive and law-abiding purposes.
Banning “assault weapons” was done 88 years ago. Banning semi-automatic weapons, such as the most ubiquitous rifle in America the AR-15 in all its variants, is constitutionally illegal, unnecessary based on the facts of mass shooting incidents, and deprives our citizens of the intent of the Second Amendment to protect us from overreaching government.
What we have endured for years is constant, strident, inaccurate, unneeded–as well as unconstitutional–pleas by uninformed or intentionally ignorant politicians to ban “assault” weapons. What is needed is constructive legislation, facilitated by adequate focused funding, to address sadly neglected mental health care, funding of police, and honest efforts by district attorneys and state attorneys to enforce our existing laws against criminals and to not promote restricting legislation against law-abiding citizens who have never and will never commit a crime.
It is essential for those of us who legally own firearms to protect our families and our Republic from the unreasonable zealousness of governmental officials who would purposefully use ignorant and manipulative language to deprive us of our constitutional freedoms. In this case, the use of “assault weapon” or “assault rifle” to modify the 2nd Amendment, and in doing so, lay the groundwork for further infringement upon citizens’ rights, freedoms and self-protection.
Bill Wenger is a retired commercial real estate executive, college professor, and U.S. Army Infantry Airborne Ranger Colonel. He voluntarily served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan after initial military retirement. He served 42 years commissioned service. He earned five Master’s Degrees and has taught National Strategic Planning, the Operational Level of Warfare, business and U.S. History. His latest book is on Amazon: “The Key to American Independence: Quantifying Foreign Assistance to the American Revolution.”