Editorial in a Florida rag

Make no mistake, the proposed new penalties in Florida involving buying, selling and using assault weapons are not the ultimate answer to a growing problem.

What would be best for everyone is to restore the federal ban on assault rifles that expired in 2004. That’s a federal issue, but state legislators should certainly be pushing for that.

I’d be shocked if 50% of the legislators could actually tell you what an assault weapon is. Actually 50% isn’t anywhere near fair. I’d say, as 10 legislators, and you’ll receive at least 9 different answers.

What’s really important in the proposal aren’t the increased penalties that call for a minimum mandatory 25-year-prison term for using a semiautomatic or automatic weapon in a crime. There is already a 15-year penalty in place for that, so its questionable whether the added years would really be a deterrent.

There’s already a law! Make it more illegaler I say!

This is also not an attempt to hinder anybody who buys and sells hunting weapons, unless you like to hunt pheasant with an illegally procured AK-47.

Somehow, I doubt if you’d have no problem whatsoever if I was hunting pheasant with a “legally procured” AK-47. You’d probably shit yer pants just as violently.

Again, getting assault weapons off the street is something that needs to be addressed, on a federal level. But that won’t happen immediately.

Describe it. Then we’ll see what you know and what you’re paying attention to. Until then, this is just high-school grade spouting.

And the grand finale …

And right now, many police organizations — the cops have to look at the angry end of these weapons all too often — around the state are supporting the assault weapons bill in the Legislature.

1) Data to back up that claim? There is none. Cops are not getting shot at by inconceivable assault weapons “all too often.”

2) What’s with the assault weapon personification? Guns don’t have “angry ends.” They aren’t angry. They aren’t evil. They aren’t any more deadly than a toaster (which, by the way, can be way deadly if you plug it in and drop it in your bathtub). Carelessness is dangerous. Criminals are angry. The guns themselves do not have beady little eyes and a mean streak. It’s a metal object.

So pretty please. With a cherry on top. Leave the bullshit emotional bleeding-heart baggage behind. If you want to run to a closet and piss yourself because of an AK-47, enjoy. Otherwise, stop with the fucking psychological projection and stick to facts.