By Katy Grimes

Politicians are nothing if not predictable. With every tragedy, lawmakers seize the opportunity to come up with a solution,  a rule, or another law. But often the new rules don’t quite fit the crime. Facts become fuzzy and manipulations take place.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what has happened with the recent killings at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school, the Aurora, Colo. movie theater, the Oregon shopping mall and the attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

With guns on the chopping block in the United States and the specific challenge to owners of “assault rifles,” there is more smoke and mirrors than fact coming from the media and elected officials. Some are just ignorant of the facts, but others are deliberately disingenuous.

The very term “assault weapons” is dubious, as I explained in “Regulation is the enemy of freedom.” The term was first used by Josh Sugarmann, head of the anti-gun group, the Violence Policy Center, “a national educational foundation working to enhance gun control in America.”

“The semi-automatic weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons — anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun — can only increase that chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons,” Sugarmann said in 1988.

Ironically, Sugarmann is from Newtown, Conn., where the recent school shooting took place.

Presidental assassinations — a little history

In the history of the U.S. presidency, four presidents have actually died from assassination. Another six survived assassination attempts.

Of the four assassinations,  three were done with simple, legal and small guns. All three, with the exception of John F. Kennedy, was with a small hand gun. Not one of the guns was a large capacity weapon.

Assassinations

Abraham Lincoln – Lincoln was shot in the head while watching a play on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, who escaped and was later shot and killed. According to the FBI, the recovered gun was a single-shot pistol — a one-bullet, tiny gun.

James Garfield – Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a mentally disturbed government office seeker, and Garfield stalker, on July 2, 1881 with a British Bulldog revolver. This gun is a solid-frame pocket revolver.

William McKinley – McKinley was shot two times by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901. Czolgosz shot McKinley with a .32 Iver Johnson revolver concealed in a handkerchief in his right hand.

John F. Kennedy –  Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.  Oswald used a  6.5 mm Carcano rifle.

Today’s attempted gun ban would do nothing to stop any of these killings, nor any of the six attempted Presidential assassinations.

Six presidents survived assassination attempts

“In June 2002, 7 states and the District of Columbia prohibited the concealed carry of handguns,” the GAO reported. “As of March 2012, individuals can carry concealed handguns in all but 1 state (Illinois) and the District of Columbia.”

It is a travesty that members of Congress are not listening to the states, with this dramatic increase of states’ allowing concealed carry permit.

While many believe that Feinstein’s legislation will not make it through the Republican controlled Congress, President Obama has said that he supports this sweeping weapons ban, apparently more than the rights of all Americans under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

By Katy Grimes

An interesting tidbit came out of Thursday’s big announcement by Sen. Dianne Feinstein about her newest gun ban legislation. The bill would exempt “weapons used by government officials.”

Feinstein officially proposed banning 157 different makes and models of “military-style” assault rifles, pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, and also proposes to outlaw firearms with fixed ammunition clips that hold more than 10 rounds. And she wants “military-style” looking guns banned. Those are scary.

“Mrs. Feinstein’s measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel,” the Washington Times reports.

The Weekly Standard has this story.

Notably, Feinstein’s bill is an expanded version of her 1994 gun ban, because many anti-gun activists believed that the 1994 bill was full of holes.

Feinstein’s new gun ban would cover many more firearm models than the 1994 ban – 157 guns, to be exact.

The Daily Caller captured the list in a screen shot showing the specific firearm models that would be prohibited under the new ban:

“Feinstein staged a dramatic press conference Thursday on Capitol Hill with 10 weapons at her side and unveiled legislation instituting a government ban on more than 150 types of firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns,” Alex Papas with the Daily Caller reported.

The bill is co-sponsored by California Sen. Barbara Boxer and 13 other Democrats.