Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(October 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Putting assault weapons back on the streets:
A ten-year old ban on assault weapons
expired on Monday the 13th of September 2004. Just
what America needs to boost the 30,000 yearly homicides,
which mostly involve guns.
Americans have always had
a morbid fascination with guns - but surely the only
people who would have a desire to get their hands on
high powered semi-automatic weapons would be potential
terrorists and of course gang members, surely not the
deer hunters of this nation.
The 1994 law banned the sale to civilians of 19 types
of semi-automatic weapons including semi-automatic
Tec-9 pistols and Uzi submachine guns. I’m sure
that during the ten-year ban that the gun manufacturers have come up with more
sophisticated automatic weapons and more deadly ammunition.
It has been reported that the powerful National Rifle Association has urged
its members to lobby the people in Washington to vote against any extension
of the current bill, which outlaws the sale of assault weapons.
 Comment: I have researched the American Constitutional
document to find out what it really says about the rights
of the American people to bear arms and have found the
following interpretation.
Article Two - (the Second Amendment to the Constitution), states: "A
well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed".
By the way this amendment has not been incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment,
which would suggest that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is
not a fundamental personal right.
It has been said that this amendment is rarely discussed in Constitutional
Law textbooks, (as I found out during my research), apparently because of
its extremely controversial content when taking into account the date that
it was written and the objective the writers of the amendment had in mind
at that time, which was to preserve, "A well regulated Militia".
I would suggest that the Second Amendment was aimed
at protecting the interests of the American people based
upon the conditions that existed at the time, and not
the arming of every Tom, Dick and Harry, (and their female
equivalents), with the firepower of today’s assault
weapons.
Given that the population of the United States
is say around 250 million people and if we estimate that
there are up to 250 million guns out there in civilian hands, that comes
out at one gun for every person in the United States.
But if we bear in mind that many people in America have
more than one gun, indeed there are people who have
a collection of many guns, perhaps a conservative
estimate of how many people in the United States are
heavily armed would suggest a figure of at least 20%
of the population, say 50 million gun owners - the question
of course is, "for what purpose"?
Obviously
these estimates do not take into account all the millions
of guns stashed away in gun stores, gun clubs, etc, just
waiting for the expiration of the 10 year-old Federal
ban on assault weapons.
 The gun collectors, gun enthusiasts,
and others - (some with criminal intent) - will have
a field day.
Oh goody, goody, now every gun owner can look forward
to exchanging his or her AK47, or aging M16/M4, for an
XM8 series weapon, (the Army’s potential
new combat assault rifle system), as I’m sure that if they go into
production in early 2005 as anticipated, that it won’t be long before
some of these weapons come on to the civilian market, one way or another.
The XM8 has automatic firing rates of 700 to 825 rounds of NATO M855, (5.56mm
bullets), with muzzle velocities of between 2400fps to 3000 fps depending
upon the length of the barrel.
Can one say that these sophisticated weapons
are just what the man on the street should not
get their hands on?
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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