Gun ban 'logic'

We've all heard about the sick degenerate who walked into an International House of Pancakes in Nevada, and started machine gunning patrons with an AK-47 variant illegally modified for fully-automatic capability.

What to do about it? Well, the Las Vegas Sun tells us that according to some, what Nevada ought to do is ban semi-automatic, detachable magazine-fed rifles.

A deadly shooting rampage at a Carson City IHOP restaurant last month has prompted a call for a review of Nevada's gun laws.

Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman William Horne said it would be appropriate for lawmakers to consider changes to the state's gun laws after a man with a history of mental illness shot 11 people with an assault weapon at the restaurant, leaving three Nevada National Guard members and two others dead.

Horne, D-Las Vegas, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that while he's a gun owner who supports gun rights, he questions why citizens need to own an assault weapon.

"I think it's a good question to ask: Why does a typical citizen need to have an assault weapon?" he said.

I bet Horne would just love California's "assault weapon" ban. California not only bans so-called "assault weapons," but has perhaps the most exhaustive list in the country defining these oh-so-scary firearms. California's model is indeed the one favored by groups like the Brady Campaign:

Congress should enact a comprehensive federal assault weapons ban modeled after the California assault weapons ban. The California law banned assault weapons based on a “one-feature test” that requires a firearm to have only one military-style feature in order to be banned. The Brady Campaign was instrumental in helping to enact and implement the California law in 2000.

The Violence Policy Center also strongly approves (pdf file):

Legislation to address the industry’s subversion of the 1994 ban has been introduced in the 108th Congress by Representatives Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and John Conyers (D-MI) in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 2038) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) in the U.S. Senate (S. 1431). The legislation is based on California’s 1999 state assault weapons ban, which, unlike federal law, addresses the “copycat” issue.

Sounds like a California-style "assault weapon" ban is just the ticket, doesn't it?

But wait a second--what's this at the end of the Las Vegas Sun article?

Despite being diagnosed as schizophrenic, Sencion [the IHOP killer] legally purchased the weapon from a private seller in California.

So, to prevent violence committed with "assault weapons," Nevada's laws should become more like those in the state where the weapon in question was bought? That sounds like the forcible citizen disarmament advocates' "logic," alright.