Yup. And it always was, near as I can tell. For a long time it’s been about the PR and how it ‘feels’ when selling the law though, not about actually solving a real problem.
The reason why Law Enforcement is never going to do that is because they regularly run across criminals that are already better armed than they are. LAPD started carrying AR-15s (and for many units full auto M4s) because of the North Hollywood bank shootout [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout] for instance. And there have been many instances since then.
This isn’t a theoretical concern for normal folks either, even in the Bay Area. Just a few years ago, there was an attempted home invasion robbery in Sunnyvale by someone armed with what clearly would be classified as an assault rifle in CAlifornia, with what looked like a drum magazine.
Both are major felonies to possess in California. Which, of course, isn’t likely to stop someone who was clearly intent on committing several felonies already. They never caught them, so it wasn’t clear if it was fully automatic or not. Thankfully the owner was suspicious enough it didn’t turn into an actual home invasion, and Sunnyvale has enough bored cops the perps bugged out before they could force the issue.
But this isn’t that unusual or isolated of an incident. And very few places are as well run as Sunnyvale.
The laws definitely stop anyone law abiding from having something similar.
So why should someone law abiding be willfully handicapped against something like that? Cop or civilian?
We can argue training or licensing, burden of proof to show you’re law abiding, or whatever - but that’s not the state of the situation in CAlifornia as I’m sure you’re aware. Or most of the other states where possession of those things is illegal. It’s just flat out illegal - unless you work for the police, anyway.
Well, finally, I would say that a blanket ban on the sale and manufacture of new semiautos with switchable mags would very likely make them disappear over time the way automatics would, for criminals as well. Then you aren't criminalizing their possession, but the supply will naturally go down.
I get your point about how bad guys have good weapons sometimes and so people and cops need to be armed, too.
> Well, finally, I would say that a blanket ban on the sale and manufacture of new semiautos with switchable mags would very likely make them disappear over time the way automatics would, for criminals as well. Then you aren't criminalizing their possession, but the supply will naturally go down.*
I don't support the most extremist takes on it, but with comments like this, you aren't a "tepid 2A supporter." You flat out oppose it, so let's at least clear the air and be honest.
Yup. It would reduce supply significantly, and frequency they show up for sure. But as I noted in another reply, Europe is about as restrictive as it comes and you still end up with things like [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66059738.amp].
The reason why Law Enforcement is never going to do that is because they regularly run across criminals that are already better armed than they are. LAPD started carrying AR-15s (and for many units full auto M4s) because of the North Hollywood bank shootout [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout] for instance. And there have been many instances since then.
This isn’t a theoretical concern for normal folks either, even in the Bay Area. Just a few years ago, there was an attempted home invasion robbery in Sunnyvale by someone armed with what clearly would be classified as an assault rifle in CAlifornia, with what looked like a drum magazine.
[https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sanfrancisco/news/police-2-armed...]
Both are major felonies to possess in California. Which, of course, isn’t likely to stop someone who was clearly intent on committing several felonies already. They never caught them, so it wasn’t clear if it was fully automatic or not. Thankfully the owner was suspicious enough it didn’t turn into an actual home invasion, and Sunnyvale has enough bored cops the perps bugged out before they could force the issue.
But this isn’t that unusual or isolated of an incident. And very few places are as well run as Sunnyvale.
The laws definitely stop anyone law abiding from having something similar.
So why should someone law abiding be willfully handicapped against something like that? Cop or civilian?
We can argue training or licensing, burden of proof to show you’re law abiding, or whatever - but that’s not the state of the situation in CAlifornia as I’m sure you’re aware. Or most of the other states where possession of those things is illegal. It’s just flat out illegal - unless you work for the police, anyway.