Our Opinion: Defining an ‘assault’ on the Constitution

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

What is an “assault weapon?” What’s the maximum number of bullets in a “large-capacity magazine?”

Defining terms is a critical component of understanding, which is necessary to arriving at an informed opinion.

Our opinion is proposed legislation by state Rep. Rory Ellinger, D-University City, to prohibit assault weapons and large-capacity magazines is unconstitutional.

Ellinger’s bill is one of more than 15 firearms-related proposals filed in the House this session.

A massacre of students and adults at a school in Newtown, Conn., has intensified discussion and legislation not only at the state level, but at the national level.

The right to bear arms is included in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, and both Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, and state Rep. Jay Barnes, a Jefferson City Republican, believe the issue is a federal matter.

So do we. In this forum Monday, we highlighted the economic development benefits of Missouri’s high ranking as a hunting and fishing destination. Inconsistencies among state laws could lead to chaos for hunters who visit other states.

For example, Ellinger’s legislation would prohibit “assault weapons” in five separate categories — some with as many as five subcategories.

The common phrase among the five categories is “semi-automatic,” with references to rifles, pistols and shotguns.

A call to Ellinger’s Capitol office to ask if the intent was to ban all semi-automatic weapons was not returned.

To determine the potential scope of the prohibition, we turned to Chris Bogg, owner of Jefferson Armory at House of Bargains in Apache Flats.

“Semi-automatic pretty much includes every rifle or handgun,” Bogg explained. “The exceptions would be bolt-action rifles, pump shotguns or revolvers.”

Semi-automatic means the weapon automatically loads a bullet into the chamber, but the trigger must be pulled each time to fire the weapon.

Bogg said the term, “assault rifle,” generally refers to what commonly are called “black guns,” which also is a non-specific term. According to the website www.shootersforum.com, a “black gun” typically refers to the black finish on AR (assault rifle) styles, including the AR-15.

Ellinger’s proposal defines large-capacity magazine as “any ammunition feeding device with a capacity to accept more than ten rounds.”

Large-capacity magazines are a convenience at a firing range, Bogg said, but Missouri hunting laws limit firing capacities. Deer hunters, for example, are limited to five-round magazines for rifles and three-round magazines for shotguns.

With regard to Ellinger’s bill, Barnes believes it was filed “to make a statement.” He added: “Confiscation of legally obtained firearms is wrong, and the bill is going nowhere.”

Ellinger’s statement has generated much discussion, but lawmakers who have sworn to uphold the Constitution must prohibit action on this bill.

More like this story

Sequoia 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Why do we allow companies to manufacture and sell, more or less indiscriminately, products designed soley for mass killing? There is no other use for these weapons besides mass killing, and we've let the manufacturer's association, the NRA, define the terms of the debate about how those weapons are bought and sold. It's a crime of negligence.

Meanwhile, guns will be the leading cause of death in America by 2014. Just think about that for a while.

A handgun, I get it. But an AR-15? No way. Oh, you might have to reload at the range? Give me a break. The NRA spends big money drafting legislation and rhetoric.

Does the NRA own our legislators, or do we?

JCLifer 2 months, 4 weeks ago

liberals are so nutty that it is almost funny how they are so focused on taking away gun rights while our country and its citizens have much bigger problems.

Why do you want to attack firearms deaths, which are a very small proportion to other preventabe deaths in this country?

Tobacco 430,700
Alcohol 110,640
Suicide 30,575
Homicide 18,272

Gun control has nothing to do with guns, but is all about CONTROL.

Sequoia 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Thanks for making my point. We regulate the heck out of tobacco and alcohol, way more than guns.

Of course, "suicide" and "homicide" don't capture accidental gun deaths, which are neither suicide nor homicide.

By 2015, annual gun deaths are expected to exceed 32,000, eclipsing car accidents (cars... another thing we regulate more than firearms... have been increasingly safer thanks to REGULATION).

Wake up people. Take this debate back from the NRA.

kentheco 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Here are some interesting facts. The FBI Uniformed Crime Reports for 2011 show the following about deaths. California had 45 by rifle and 50 by shotgun; Illinois, who has a ban on concealed weapons and requires residents to register even to buy ammunition, had one death committed with a rifle and 5 by shotgun. Missouri had 13 by rifle and 9 by shotgun; Iowa had no rifle caused deaths but did have two by shotgun; Kansas had three by rifle and five by shotgun; Nebraska had two by rifle and one by shotgun; Arkansas had four by rifle and six by shotgun.

As I looked at these numbers, what I found even more interesting is that in all of these states, except for Arkansas, more people were killed by fists/feet than by a rifle (Illinois had 17; California had 101, Missouri had 18; Iowa 5, Kansas 10, Nebraska 7 and Arkansas tied it’s rifle deaths with 4 by fists/feet.

Now is the time for the politicians to take action to get treatment for those with mental conditions. The facts are that in the Connecticut incident, the perpetrator apparently had an untreated mental condition and a mother who knowingly allowed him to access weapons. This led to her death and the unnecessary deaths at the school. Would this incident happen, if he had received the proper treatment for his mental condition? Simply passing laws to outlaw a type of weapon will not prevent deaths; you have to fix the person that uses a weapon, of any type, to solve this problem.

JCLifer 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Thanks for making my point. We regulate the heck out of tobacco and alcohol, way more than guns.

Thanks for making my point. Regulating tobacco and alcohol has proven to be quite ineffective.
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.

Sequoia 2 months, 4 weeks ago

No it hasn't. The smoking rate has gone way, way, down. Alcohol abuse is still bad, but not nearly the problem that it used to be. Regulation of alchol and tobacco aren't ineffective at all.

JCLifer 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you will believe it someday.

connor 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Except that regulating and taxing tobacco has now cost many areas more money in the regulation than it brings in with taxation also causing those "programs" specifically funded by that tax and regulation money to need more Federal subsidies and funding to continue operations.

And while the smoking rate has gone down, due to cost the healthcare costs of obesity now dwarf all the others.

Sequoia 2 months, 4 weeks ago

I don't have to "believe" it Lifer, I've got the stats.

gallup.com/poll/109048/us-smoking-rate-still-coming-down.aspx

Where are your stats? All you have is your "government is the problem" slogan, which, if you're a gun or a cigarette manufacturer, is a pretty handy little slogan to spread around, isn't it? And you repeat it for them. Hope you're getting a cut, or else you're just a sucker.

I don't need slogans. I've got the numbers.

Still like shootin' fish in a barrel over here...

JCLifer 2 months, 4 weeks ago

I posted my stats above. They clearly show that smoking is nearly 24 times a bigger problem than firearms. You can try to deflect, distract, twist and squirm like the liberals do, but the truth is plain to see for most of us.

Next, you will want to ban chainsaws...

connor 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Commissioned by NYACS, the economic study by John Dunham & Associates determined that in 2011, one of every two packs of cigarettes consumed in New York State escapes collection of New York State taxes. “This is further proof that New York, which has the highest cigarette excise tax in the nation, continues to suffer the corrosive economic and fiscal effects of the worst cigarette tax evasion in the nation,” said NYACS President James Calvin in a press release.

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