SassyLady
08-05-2019, 08:45 PM
New York post begging Trump to ban assault rifles and yet their basis is nonsensical.
One suspects that the editors of the Post know none of this, and, indeed, that they have bought fully into the erroneous notion that the AR15 and its cousins represent egregious super-weapons that exist in a discrete class of their own. Clearly attempting to forestall any constitutional objections to their plans, they write:
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment protects the right to own “guns in common use.” That doesn’t cover the semiautomatic weapons regularly used only in mass shootings.
But this isn’t true. Not only is the AR-15 a standard sporting rifle, it is also the most popular rifle in America; at a conservative estimate, there are between 8 and 15 million of them in private hands. The idea that they are used “only in mass shootings” is so preposterous as to defy belief — akin in silliness to suggesting that the Ford F-150 is used “only in hit and runs.” The Supreme Court has never directly addressed the question of the Second Amendment’s scope. But if it were to do so on the grounds of the “in common use” standard that was laid out in Heller, the AR-15 would undoubtedly be protected because it is . . . wait for it, “in common use.” That the platform has been used by some bad people in recent years does not change that fact.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-new-york-posts-assault-weapons-editorial-is-nonsensical/
One suspects that the editors of the Post know none of this, and, indeed, that they have bought fully into the erroneous notion that the AR15 and its cousins represent egregious super-weapons that exist in a discrete class of their own. Clearly attempting to forestall any constitutional objections to their plans, they write:
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment protects the right to own “guns in common use.” That doesn’t cover the semiautomatic weapons regularly used only in mass shootings.
But this isn’t true. Not only is the AR-15 a standard sporting rifle, it is also the most popular rifle in America; at a conservative estimate, there are between 8 and 15 million of them in private hands. The idea that they are used “only in mass shootings” is so preposterous as to defy belief — akin in silliness to suggesting that the Ford F-150 is used “only in hit and runs.” The Supreme Court has never directly addressed the question of the Second Amendment’s scope. But if it were to do so on the grounds of the “in common use” standard that was laid out in Heller, the AR-15 would undoubtedly be protected because it is . . . wait for it, “in common use.” That the platform has been used by some bad people in recent years does not change that fact.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-new-york-posts-assault-weapons-editorial-is-nonsensical/