Appeals Court Upholds Maryland's Assault Weapons Ban

Following the mass killing at Sandy Hook, the Maryland legislature passed into law, a 2013 ban on assault weapons.  As expected, that law has been challenged in court by gun rights advocates.

Just last February, a U.S. Court of Appeals, upheld the lower court's ruling that the law was constitutional.  The court agreed with the argument that "weapons of war" don't belong on our streets.  But, the "weapons of war" argument is specious.  Every assault weapons ban has only one thing that defines it: Cosmetics.  Here's a perfect example:

That graphic was done when Senator Dianne Feinstein was trying to push a national assault ban through the Senate, by offering an example of how useless assault weapons bans are.  Maryland's law is no different.  Gun manufacturers know they can simply make subtle changes in order to make the weapons legal.  A perfect example is the Sig Sauer R716:

For whatever reason, the "Firearm Search" website of the Maryland State Police says this rifle is legal in the state to buy or sell.  On the other hand, the Sig Sauer MCX -- which was used in the Orlando massacre -- is not.  And, it actually looks less menacing than the R716:

Both weapons accept magazines with more than 10 rounds.  Both are semi-automatic, and both can kill.  I think that anti-gun legislatures are passing laws without the slightest understanding of the gun industry.  They are trying to fool people into believing that they have solved a problem when they haven't.  Guns like those above kill very few people in this country.

I just wish that the State of Maryland was more interested in solving the murder rate in Baltimore which has been at record levels since the death of Freddie Gray.

References:

US appeals court upholds Maryland assault weapons ban: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/21/us-appeals-court-upholds-maryland-assault-weapons-ban.html

Source of the First Graphic: http://imgur.com/gallery/Q9OIM

Maryland State Police: Firearm Search:  http://mdsp.maryland.gov/Organization/Pages/CriminalInvestigationBureau/LicensingDivision/Firearms/FirearmSearch.aspx

Thousands Of Americans Are Gunned Down Each Year, But Few Die By Assault-Style Rifle: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/assault-weapons-deaths_us_5763109de4b015db1bc8c123

In 2016, Baltimore's second-deadliest year on record, bullets claimed targets and bystanders alike: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-homicides-2016-20170102-story.html

Handcuffing Our Police Is Killing More Americans Than Terrorism

According to the latest State Department accounting, out of 17,891 terrorist murders around the world in 2013, 19 were Americans.

In Baltimore, May was the first full month since the Freddie Gray riots. 38 homicides were committed; an increase of 20 from the previous four months that averaged a total of 18 murders a month.  More than all the Americans killed by terrorists in all of 2013.

And, Baltimore is not alone.  This year, after seeing two decades of decline in gun violence, many cities like New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and St. Louis, are experiencing double-digit increases in murders in just the first 5 months of the year.   In Milwaukee, homicides are up 180% over last year. 

This is what happens when you have a President and his current and past Attorney's General, Mayors like De Blasio in New York City, and activists like Al Sharpton all condemning the police over the deaths of 3 unarmed black men: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray.  The police are now in a position where they believe that no one has their backs.  Especially, their President and the Department of Justice. As a result, arrests and traffic stops are down. There is fear that a single stop could result in their own deaths, because they are now more likely to hesitate to protect themselves. A split-second hesitation that could be deadly. Any altercation with a suspect could end in their own arrests or even a charge of murder. Without the preventive policing of stopping suspicious  people, countless illegal guns are not being confiscated that ultimately end up killing someone.

Hundreds more black lives are being lost every month, and innocent black women and children are being killed in the process.  If black lives really do matter, the new policies towards (really, against) policing are not working.

The media is always talking about President Obama's legacies such as Cuba and the possibility of a nuke deal with Iran.  Well, here's one that he now owns.  Killing more people through restrictive policing than terrorists like ISIS could ever hope to accomplish since 9/11. Americans now have more to fear from this President's handcuffing of police than any terrorist group.  The facts prove it.

One last thing.  Obama is readying a number of gun control laws aimed at keeping them out of the hands of dangerous people.  Really? His policing restrictions have actually managed to allow dangerous people to keep guns and increasingly use them.  Violent offenders will always find ways to buy weapons outside the law.  Just as drug addicts can always find drugs,  Please, for the sake of all too many lives, let the cops do their jobs.

Update: The final tally of homicides in Baltimore for May is 43; meaning a 25 murder increase from the first four months of the year: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/31/baltimore-homicides-worst-in-40-years/28284839/

References:

The New Nationwide Crime Rate: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+New+Nationwide+Crime+Wave&oq=The+New+Nationwide+Crime+Wave&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.96j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=The+New+Nationwide+Crime+Wave&tbm=nws

Of the 17,891 Deaths from Terrorism Last Year, 19 Were American. Let Iraqis Fight ISIS: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/of-the-17891-deaths-from_b_5818082.html

The double murder Thursday of a young mother and her 7-year-old boy brought Baltimore's bloody monthly homicide tally to 38, a figure that dwarfs that of similar-sized cities and even exceeds the total for the same period in New York: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/30/murder-capital-baltimores-homicide-explosion-in-wake-freddie-gray-case-dwarfs/

Baltimore boy, 8, murdered [shot in the head] as city's bloody May continues: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/baltimore-boy-8-murdered-city-bloody-continues-article-1.2238941

You’re [now] 45% more likely to be murdered in de Blasio’s Manhattan: http://nypost.com/2015/05/26/youre-45-more-likely-to-be-murdered-in-de-blasios-manhattan/

Summer 2015 Starts Off With Staggering Gun Violence in Chicago, NY, Baltimore: http://americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/summer-2015-starts-staggering-gun-violence-chicago-ny-baltimore

Administration preps new gun regulations: http://thehill.com/regulation/243520-administration-preps-new-gun-regulations


pb

The Stupidity of Leadership and the Rioting In Baltimore

For more than two weeks, the media had been incessantly replaying a single video showing 3 white police officers dragging Freddie Gray to police transport; all the time Freddie was screaming in pain.  Once again, like Ferguson and Staten Island, we are led to believe that another black man has died at the hands of white police.

But, when the charges leveled, we find out that 3 black officers were also involved; with the black transport officer actually charged with "second-degree depraved heart murder".

This leaves one to wonder if the rioting could have been avoided or, at least minimized, if the Mayor or the State's Attorney General had simply told the world that 3 black and 3 white police officers were being investigated over the death of Freddie Gray.  Didn't any of those people stop to think that much of the tensions were being fed by the belief that this is just another case of a racially motivated killing by white police?

Reference:

Arrest to death: What happened to Freddie Gray: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arrest-to-death-what-happened-to-freddie-gray/

Freddie Gray Arrest Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2TBdA_xjp8