Most Criminals Don't Carry Assault Weapons To Commit Crimes

Since the Dark Knight Movie Massacre,  there have been increased cries from extremists to ban all guns in the U.S. The more moderate of the gun control advocates are only calling for a ban on assault weapons;  citing that the only reason for these kinds of weapons is to inflict mass murders and casualties.

However, most crimes and murders in this country are not committed using assault weapons.  That's because, in general, assault weapons are a little too big and a little too hard to conceal.  Only on fictional TV dramas and in the movies do you really see "big action" crimes being committed with a lot of automatic weapons.  When assault weapons are used in real life, those crimes are "generally" gang-on-gang shootings or shoot outs like the famous Valentine's Day Massacre.  That's not to say that assault weapons are never used against non-criminals and police;  In 1997, in Van Nuys, California, there was a nationally reported, commando-style bank robbery by two men using assault weapons that resulted in a 40 minute standoff with the police where more than 1,700 rounds of ammo were expended.

The use of assault weapons in extreme, violent killings such as Columbine or The Dark Knight Movie Massacre are rare and are committed by the mentally unbalanced of our society.    I guarantee you that banning these weapons will only force these people to use other means to kill.  Most people are either too young to remember that one of the worst mass killings in this country occurred due to the actions of Andrew Kehoe who, in three separate bombings, murdered  38 children and 6 adults; all over his anger about property taxes.  As, noted before in this blog, countries that have some of the strictest gun laws have almost all experienced the kind of events that occurred in Aurora, Colorado.  Just last year, in Norway, Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people; mostly teenagers.  This in a country that bans all civilian use and ownership of assault weapons or automatic weapon of any kind.