Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Hannan / Media / Politics Obama's Assault Weapons Paradox
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 5:21 AM
Technically, this picture is enough to convict the First Lady of a Class C felony.
One thing most people seem to be sure of regarding our new President-elect is that he doesn't like guns. Not only that, he wishes to take them from our warm, live hands. Last week provided anecdotal evidence that these fears helped to spur a local run on peashooters. Now this week there's proof that the trend has gone national.
According to Slate's Jack Shafer, Obama's victory had a measurable impact on gun sales:
To be fair to the press horde, some sort of "Obama effect" does exist. During the week of Nov. 3-9, the FBI received 374,000 background requests, "a nearly 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007," CNN.com reports. Anecdotes collected in some of the news stories indicate that some buyers are keen on buying so-called "assault weapons," which were banned from 1994 until 2004.It seems the prevailing wisdom here is to get 'em while the gettin's good (and still legal). All of which leads Shafer to an interesting conclusion:
If a genuine run on guns exists, whose fault is it? Blame Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, a well-known "assault weapon" foe. Paradoxically, if Obama wanted to end the purported run on guns, he could do so by opposing any new regulations.Not mentioned? Option C: Champion a toothless piece of legislation that satisfies the lazier members of your party while maintaining the status quo, thus ending the gun run. Problem solved. Right?
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