Jimmy Carter Wants to Ban Just the Guns That Kill People

[Fletch]

Original here

In a New York Times op-ed piece, former President Jimmy Carter presents revival of the federal "assault weapon" ban, which President Obama supports, as a no-brainer, since the guns that were covered by the expired 1994 law are "designed only to kill police officers and the people they defend." Evidently, if you aim one of these firearms at a home intruder, a prairie dog, or a paper target, instead of firing a bullet it harmlessly unfurls a little flag that says "Bang!" Having polled himself and his hunting buddies, Carter reports that "none of us wants to own an assault weapon, because we have no desire to kill policemen or go to a school or workplace to see how many victims we can accumulate before we are finally shot or take our own lives." According to Carter, then, everyone who owns one of these guns is an aspiring cop killer, homicidal maniac, or both.

Carter never explains what makes these weapons uniquely suited to murdering policemen and random passers-by yet completely inappropriate for any other purpose. On the face of it, the criteria that distinguish "assault weapons" from legitimate, non-cop-killing, non-student-slaughtering guns—which include "military-style" features such as bayonet mounts, folding stocks, and flash suppressors—do not have much to do with criminal functionality. But they must, because Carter says "the results of this profligate ownership and use of guns designed to kill people" (i.e., "assault weapons") include the deaths of "more than 30,000 people" in 2006. In other words, "assault weapons" account for every gun-related death, with none left over for models that don't fall into this arbitrary category. No wonder Carter is so eager to ban them.

Studies of "assault weapon" use prior to the 1994 ban paint a different picture. In these studies, according to a 2004 Justice Department report (PDF), "AWs typically accounted for up to 8% of guns used in crime, depending on the specific AW definition and data source used." Even the shooting rampages for which Carter claims "assault weapons" are especially designed typically involve guns that were not covered by the federal ban. Here is a catalog (PDF), compiled by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, of "Mass Gun Violence in the United States Since 1997." Given that the group is an unrelenting booster of bans on "assault weapons," it presumably would not have missed an opportunity to associate them with mass murder. Yet firearms covered by the federal ban are mentioned in connection with only a small minority of the crimes on the list—nine out of 138, or less than 7 percent, on the first 10 pages. And as I mentioned in a column last month, both the deadliest and the second deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history were accomplished with ordinary handguns.

Remember, if you oppose Jimmy, you're anti-cop.

 

[Hoosier8]

Ha ha ha ha! Carter. Ha ha ha ha! Consider the source.

Don't get me wrong, I think he is a good, well meaning man, just out there.

 

[CarmelHP]

This is just another example of the foolishness currently in vogue in this country. I can't believe I am again seeing the day when an unreconstructed jackass like Jimmy Carter would be given a serious podium to expound on any matter of public policy. What a pathetic old fool.

 

[jeremy]

I see Jimmy is just as ignorant today as he was 30 years ago!

 

[Dogman]

I see Jimmy is just as ignorant today as he was 30 years ago!

JC lives in his "We all lived happly ever after" land.

 

[jeremy]

Apparently he forgets how hard he screwed the country while he was in office.

 

[Biggdogg]

I hope that Jimmy's ideaology will expand to cover those deadly air nailers that have caused so many deaths. No, wait a minute...they don't go "Bang" when you pull the trigger...they make more of a "FFffffffftttt" kinda sound, so they don't count.

 

[indykid]

I wonder how many of his peanuts have killed people? I would bet that the number is more than he will admit to considering how allergic some people are to peanuts!

 

[INRanger]

Welcome back Carter! WELCOME BACK!

 

[JcJ]

 

[SavageEagle]

JC lives in his "We all lived happly ever after" land.

You mean... "We all live in a Yellow Submarine. A Yellow Submarine. A Yellow Submarine." Land?

I thought this guy kicked the bucket already. Oh well. We don't listen to dementia paitents do we?

 

[Biggdogg]

You mean... "We all live in a Yellow Submarine. A Yellow Submarine. A Yellow Submarine." Land?

I thought this guy kicked the bucket already. Oh well. We don't listen to dementia paitents do we?

You mean like the one currently living at 1600 Pennsylvanina Ave. NW in Wash. D.C. ?

 

[SavageEagle]

Purty much. Yea.

 

[Uralguy]

I always thought he would have made a great next door neighbor. Very sincere and just as clueless as I remember him. Billy was the brains of that family.

 

[Armed-N-Ready]

Jimmy says....

It is OK to buy an AR if you wait in line wearing a sweater drinking Billy Beer while eating peanuts from a store built by a charity organization with the thermostat set at 62 degrees.

PS interest on your purchase will be about 21% with inflation.

 

[WinChoke]

444 days says it all as far as I'm concerned regarding the peanut prez.

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

This thread brings back some memories....

My first "vote" for President was back in the first grade. The teacher passed around a paper that had the pics of Ford and Carter side by side. One look at the Peanut was all it took for me to know that he was a poor choice to be da' Pwesadent. Even way back then, us evil little Perry Township elementary school conservatives had a song we made about him:

(sung to the Oscar Meyer wiener jingle on TV at the time)

My peanut has a first name,
It's J-i-m-m-y.
My peanut has a second name,
It's C-a-r-t-e-r.
Oh, he loves to eat them everyday, and if you ask us why we'll say,
" Cause Jimmy Carter has a way of messing up the USA!"

 

[BloodEclipse]

I saw this on the news tonight.
I just wish years ago someone would have donated a brain to Jimmy. It must suck to go through life mindless.

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

I'v had a change of heart on this issue. The peaNUT can have the roughly 10,000 or so that are actually involved in murders, as long as we remain free to keep the 250+ *million* that are used for self-defense, target shooting, tyranny prevention, hunting, shooting sports, collecting, and TV repair!