Sunday, June 19, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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I am sick of the “ban assault rifles because no one needs one” argument. There are a lot of things in America that no one needs — motorcycles with more horsepower than their riders have IQ points; cars and trucks with 400 or more horsepower; trucks jacked up so that their bumpers are about the same height as most cars’ windshields; houses the size of a small country. America is not and has never been about whether anyone needs something.
I suspect the fact that “need” is the first sound out of gun control advocates’ mouths is a big reason a lot of good ideas never become law. The inescapable consequence of not “needing” assault rifles is confiscation of ones already in the hands of law-abiding citizens. This is something else that no one “needs.”
If gun control advocates drop the “need” screed, maybe there’s a chance for other ideas that make a difference — things like universal background checks (for all transfers of all firearms); or raising the age to purchase any firearm to 21 (the argument about 18-year-olds defending their country is canard; the military’s rules and regulations regarding weapons control are orders of magnitude more stringent than anything a gun control advocate could ever dream of).
The “need” argument is dead in the water, as it ought to be. So how about moving past this poison pill and see if we can find some proposals that enough people can support to actually get something enacted?
