From: [c--am--r] at [optilink.COM] (Clayton Cramer) Newsgroups: ca.politics,talk.politics.misc Subject: Re: SB 1128: Another Liberal Victimless Crime Law Date: 2 Aug 93 16:59:52 GMT In article <[1993 Jul 30 175129 15433] at [pasteur.Berkeley.EDU]>, [b--ck--l] at [scorpio.Berkeley.EDU] (Robert J. Bickel) writes: > In article <[1--7--3] at [optilink.COM]> [c--am--r] at [optilink.COM] (Clayton Cramer) writes: > >But your argument for banning high capacity magazines (the goal of > >SB 1128) is based on mass murder -- where high capacity magazines > >are a minor issue. > > > That is one of my arguments. Another is the problem of gang warfare. How often are high capacity magazines used in gang warfare? I read about it, but very seldom. > Another is the problem of a police officer defending himself against > such weapon. And there are more. > > Rob Of course, police officers seldom have problems with such weapons. Police Officers Killed With Assault Rifles Introduction One of the arguments repeatedly used both by Handgun Control and various police organizations to justify bans or restrictions on assault weapons is that these weapons are increasingly being used to murder police officers. A review of the existing literature on the subject shows that, if there is a problem with so-called "assault weapons", the problem is greatly overstated, and is principally a problem of concealable firearms -- not rifles. Definitions "Semiautomatic" means that a gun, when fired, will reload itself and recock the hammer. One bullet is fired for each pull of the trigger; it is not possible to fire multiple shots without multiple pulls of the trigger. When semiautomatic handguns were developed at the turn of the century, hand-held automatic weapons were not yet in existence, and the term "automatic pistol" was commonly used to refer to such handguns. This erroneous terminology is still in common use today. A more accurate description is either "semiautomatic" or "autoloading". These sort of firearms have been in civilian use since before World War I. "Automatic" means that a gun, when fired, will fire bullets until the trigger is released, or the magazine is empty. These sort of firearms have been in civilian use since shortly after World War I, though severe restrictions on ownership by both state and federal governments have been in effect since 1933, with passage of the Federal Firearms Act, and the National Firearms Act. "Assault rifle" has acquired several different meanings. The traditional meaning of this term refers to a rifle intended for battlefield use, capable of both semiautomatic and automatic fire. Because of carelessness by gun magazine writers, the term "assault rifle" has also come to be applied to semiautomatic-only rifles which are derived from, and which have substantial parts interchangeability with true assault rifles. Functionally, these weapons are indistinguishable from semiautomatic hunting weapons like the Remington 7400 or Ruger Mini-14. The only rule that seems to clearly distinguish between "assault rifles" and "semiautomatic detachable magazine hunting rifles" is that hunting rifles have wood stocks, and "assault rifles" have either black plastic or folding stocks. "Machine pistol" refers to a class of weapons which are legally considered pistols (short barrels, no buttstock, intended to be fired one handed). Originally designed as full automatic weapons, many have been redesigned as semiautomatic weapons. The term "machine pistol" is used rather carelessly to refer to both semiautomatic and automatic weapons. Unlike conventional handguns, "machine pistols" are larger, bulkier, and usually come with very large magazines, capable of holding 20-40 rounds. They are only marginally concealable on the person. "Assault weapon" is a term used in a number of laws passed in the United States in the last two years. This term includes many of the semiautomatic "assault rifles" mentioned above, semiautomatic "machine pistols", and a small number of semiautomatic shotguns. From place to place, the definition varies. The Ruger Mini-14, for no apparent reason, is not usually considered an "assault weapon", even though it has a removable magazine, functions reliably with 30 round magazines in it, and shoots the same cartridge as the Colt AR-15 and the H&K 93, which are considered "assault weapons". Weird. "Assault pistol" is a term used by Handgun Control, Inc. to both refer to semiautomatic machine pistols, and to the conventional high capacity 9mm pistols which have become increasingly popular with police departments, criminals, and law-abiding citizens. It is a term that appears intended to confuse by its vagueness, much like "Saturday night special". "Removable magazine", "detachable magazine", "clip": these are all different terms for a box or drum which is designed to be easily removed and replaced with another such magazine in the midst of a gunfight. Detachable magazines have been common in handguns since the turn of the century, and have been in common use in hunting rifles since at least the 1950s. The Sources Used For This Report As part of the Uniform Crime Reports program, the FBI provides an annual report concerning police officers assaulted or murdered during the course of the preceeding calendar year, throughout the United States. This includes local, state, territorial, and federal police officers, including DEA & FBI agents. In addition to the statistical information, a capsule description is included of each incident in which a police officer was feloniously killed. At the time this was written, the 1989 report had not been distributed. Ambiguities Regarding Assault Weapons Regrettably, police murder firearms are not described in the FBI reports in adequate detail to always determine if a weapon would be an "assault weapon" by the rather flexible definitions in common use. Especially in the case of those weapons classified as "machine pistols", it would appear that either the distinction is not consistently maintained in the FBI reports, or the number of "machine pistols" used against police officers during 1986-88 is one -- an incident on September 22, 1986, in which a New York City Transit Authority police officer was murdered. In the case of rifles, the definitional problem is less severe. The "assault rifles" which have been banned in California, and which proposed Federal legislation would ban, are in the following calibers: .223, .308, 9mm, and 7.62x39mm. There are hunting rifles in .223 and .308, but it is usually impossible, based on the FBI reports, to determine whether the rifle used was a hunting rifle, or an "assault rifle". We will assume for the purposes of discussion that any rifle described as "semiautomatic" in these calibers is an "assault rifle" -- and recognize that this will tend to overstate the use of the assault rifles to be banned. Assault Weapons Use In Police Officer Murders The attached table is derived from Table 3, p. 12 of the 1988 FBI report on police officers murdered. The column labelled "Assault Rifles" is derived from the summaries contained within the reports 1986-88, and includes the assumptions mentioned above, which will tend to overstate the use of assault rifles. The column ".22 Rifles" is derived from Table 4 ("Law Enforcement Officers Feloniously Killed, Type and Size of Firearm") of each year's report. The column "Own Gun" includes police officers killed with their own guns (again from Table 4 of each report) -- frequently by criminals who weren't even armed until they disarmed the police officer. Notes & Exclusions On "Assault Rifle" Category 1986 On p. 26, a police officer murdered in Torrance, CA on April 17th, with an "M-1 carbine rifle" is excluded from this category because the M-1 carbine, while banned under California law (at least if made by Plainfield Mfg. Co.), is not subject to ban under the proposed Federal laws. On p. 27, the two FBI agents murdered on April 11th in Miami, FL are excluded because the ".223-caliber semiautomatic rifle" used is known to be a Ruger Mini-14 -- not an "assault weapon" under either California law, or the proposed Federal legislation. 1987 These six murders involve a total of five incidents. On p. 25 of the 1987 report is the nationally reported Palm Bay, FL, shopping plaza killings, in which two police officers were killed. On p. 28 is an incident in which three Inkster, MI police officers were killed, though it appears that only one of the officers was shot with a ".223-caliber rifle". According to the summary, "the two patrolmen were overpowered and disarmed", and were subsequently found, "handcuffed and shot to death". This suggests that the two patrolmen were killed with the handguns possessed by the criminals. On p. 29 is a murder committed with a ".223-caliber fully automatic rifle". This is the only automatic weapon murder listed in these three years of reports -- which suggests that if it is actually that easy to convert an "assault rifle" to a full automatic, not many criminals are using such illegally converted weapons against police officers. 1988 On p. 31 is a murder committed on Februrary 12th in Lansing Park, MI. The weapon is described as a ".44-magnum semiautomatic rifle". None of the proposed bans include such weapons. .22 Rimfire Rifles The reason for the column listed above is very simple. The California Assault Weapons Ban, and all the proposed Federal bans, specifically exclude .22 rimfire rifles from the bans. As can be seen, .22 rimfire rifles were used nearly as often to murder police officers in the period 1986-88 as "assault rifles". Summary The weapons used to murder police officers are depressingly ordinary, not exotic guns only seen in movies. Contrary to some of the recent propaganda that claims that police officers are being outgunned by criminals with high capacity handguns, p. 4 of the 1988 report asserts: The most common types of handguns used against officers in 1988 were the .38 caliber and the .357 magnum. These two weapons jointly accounted for more than half of the handgun deaths. With a few rare exceptions, handguns in .38 and .357 magnum calibers are revolvers -- quite similar to the handguns still issued by most police departments in the United States. As can be seen from the table above, "assault rifles" were used in no more than 5% of the police officer murders in the years 1986-88; they were not even a majority of the murders committed with rifles. Indeed, a police officer is almost four times more likely to be murdered with his own gun than to be murdered with an "assault rifle". The question might be asked whether the costs of enforcing the proposed bans would be better spent on improving weapons retention training for police officers. -------- Clayton Cramer is a software engineer with a Northern California telecommunications manufacturer. Year,Total,Handgun,Rifle,Shotgun,Total Firearms,Knife,Bomb,Personal Weapons,Other,Assault Rifles,.22 Rifles,Own Gun 1986, 66, 51, 8, 3, 62,0,0,0, 4, 0,4,15 1987, 74, 49, 9, 9, 67,3,0,0, 4, 6,3,13 1988, 78, 62,12, 2, 76,0,0,0, 2, 5,2,12 Total,218,162,29,14,205,3,0,0,10,11,9,40 -- Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer My opinions, all mine! The California Bar Association wants lawyers added to the list of groups given special protection by "hate crime" laws. Did I miss something? Since when have $75/hour lawyers become oppressed minorities?