Tax money well spent

Update: New information has come to light, which makes it clear that I was wrong and irresponsible in making the following post. I am leaving it up, because I think I would just be compounding my unfortunate behavior if I simply tried to pretend it never happened. More details can be found here. I apologize to the people I maligned in the following post.

I'll try to come up with something more substantial sometime today, but in the meantime, I'd like point out a bit of silliness.

Monday, an investigator for the Oklahoma County district attorney's office described how assault weapons operate. Investigator Gary Eastridge also showed jurors how to fire one at an Oklahoma City Police Department gun range near Interstate 240 and S Air Depot Boulevard.

Thirteen jurors were bused to the site for the 90-second demonstration. They were joined by District Judge Twyla Mason Gray and her staff, the attorneys and investigators on the case and Simpson, who wore a stun device under the right sleeve of his shirt.

Eastridge showed them how to load the semiautomatic rifle before firing a single shot, then 12 in rapid succession.

The rifle blasts were muffled by heavy ear protectors handed out to everyone watching the demonstration.

Echoes from the last shot had barely faded when jurors returned to the bus for the 20-minute ride back to the courthouse.

Gray told jurors the demonstration was intended to illustrate some of the evidence presented to them during the trial.

This was all part of the trial of a man charged with two counts of murder (and of wounding a third victim). The crime was allegedly committed with an "assault rifle" (the type is unspecified in the article, but since the demonstration was conducted using a semi-automatic weapon, I assume that what was really meant was the civilian disarmament lobby's made-up term, "assault weapon"). So they spent forty minutes on a bus for a minute and a half demonstration of an "assault weapon."

What the hell for? What could such a demonstration possibly tell jurors about the defendant's guilt or innocence (and if there were some value in the demonstration, would a video presentation of it not be much easier, quicker, and cheaper)?

Snowflakes in Hell and Traction Control have pointed out what is starting to look like a campaign to demonize "assault weapons." My guess is that this little demonstration has more to do with that than with justice.