Submitted by Bruce Moffitt
Senate Bill 279 to outlaw some firearms should be a non-starter.
The civilian semi-automatic rifle is not an assault rifle. It is the modern rifle. From the Blunderbuss on, all major advances in firearm technology have been done by the military.
When an assault rifle is adopted by the armed forces, the technology then filters down to the civilian market and becomes the modern rifle of its time.
The gas-operated semi-automatic rifle is the modern rifle of our time. It is a very versatile firearm. It is very accurate and an excellent choice for target shooting, both formal and informal. It is highly effective on varmints and feral hogs. With the right choice of caliber, it is a fine deer rifle. It is fun to shoot and an exemplary self-defense weapon. Virtually every law enforcement officer in the state owns at least one of these modern rifles, and many own several. Tens of thousands are owned by law-abiding citizens. Unknown thousands have also filtered down to into the criminal underground.
If you ban those owned by law enforcement and honest citizens (and registration is often the precursor to confiscation), you leave the law and the honest citizen at the mercy of
the common criminal.
Technological advancements of all kinds have often been resisted throughout history. Witness for example, the Church against Galileo, the Luddites against the power loom and John Henry against the steam drill. Resistance to technological advances has often been fierce but today we are aware we live in a heliocentric solar system, our cloth is woven on mechanical looms and drilling in mines is done by advanced machinery. Resistance to
technological advancement seldom succeeds.
Bill 279 is an example of this kind of resistance and should be dismissed as a waste of valuable legislative time.