Aff.
The number one goal of the Federal Assult Weapons Ban is to decrease the amount of assult weapons used to perform crimes. Guns prohibited by the enactment are not, under any circumstance, intended for civiallian use, therefore reducing the amount of citizens with access to assult weapons is also a goal. The goal, however, was never to completely prevent criminals from having such weapons. Though many people argue otherwise, legaliziang assult weapons because criminals will always find ways to get them anyway, is a completely unaffective argument. The main goal of the Federal Assult Weapons Ban is to simply minimize the amount of assult weapons in general, but in this case, without increasing the amount used by criminals.
Contention 1: Assult weapons in the hands of crimianls obtain a much higher risk than other firearms. “The few available studies suggest that attacks with semiautomatics – including AWs and other semiautomatics equipped with LCMs – result in more shots fired, more persons hit, and more wounds inflicted per victim than do attacks of other firearms.” (Christopher S. Koper, Principal Investigator) Even without an automatic ban, citizens are highly unlikely to be able to fight back against such criminals. Thus, the government has an undeniable intrest in minimizing the amount of assult weapons available to potential criminals. What makes a semiautomatic weapon special is not the ability to be capable of killing one person in a faster way, but rather, its ability to kill more people. Therefore, criminals have a greater advantage by using these guns than citizens themselves.
Contention 2: Ordinary civilians don’t need assault weapons Take the recent shooting in Aurora, Colorado for example, Aurora police chief Dan Oates himeself said, “All the clips that he possessed, he possessed legally, and all the ammunition he possessed, he possessed legally.” (news.yahoo.com, July 21st 2012) This makes one wonder why anyone would need an assault weapon if the intent is not to take someones life. An ordinary pistol should suffice if one needed it for self defence. The assault weapons banned were desinged specifically with the intent of killing, and doing it fast and efficiently. The previous weapon ban fulfilled its goal and has
