sheer potentiality

This morning, investigators in Maryland captured a man who they believe is the “sniper” responsible for a number of deaths in the DC area.

The media will devote a lot of attention to the fact that he used a Bushmaster AR-15 variant and that that pundits and politicians will demand we should ban AR’s. First, it won’t work. What’s the point of banning a scary-looking centerfire .22 when you can buy illegal, fully automatic AK-47s in South Central Los Angeles? AR-15 variants are used in a very specialized type of riflery competition as well. To ban them would be a travesty.

This case also proves that there’s no need for “ballistic fingerprinting”. They got the rifle from the suspect and did ballistics tests. That’s all that’s needed. Ballistic fingerprinting and gun registration will not solve one single crime. Quality detective work and a right to armed self-defense will.

Tags: guns, sniper

This entry was posted on Friday, October 25th, 2002 at 5:22 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.