As if we needed any reminder that state and local elections are just as important as those for federal office, the anti-gun lawyers’ group, Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV), has released a lengthy paper premised on the view, “In the absence of comprehensive federal [gun control] regulation . . . the future of the gun violence prevention [sic] movement depends on building grassroots strength to achieve reform at the state and local levels so that, ultimately, nationwide solutions will be more easily achievable.” Toward that end, LCAV urges passage of a variety of state and local laws, and coaches activists on how to write the necessary legislation.
In 2004, LCAV published a similar paper proposing state and local “assault weapon” bans more restrictive than the federal ban that expired in September of that year.
LCAV’s new state and local agenda includes bans on “assault weapons,” “large capacity ammunition magazines,” handguns, and .50 caliber rifles; increased restrictions on “non-powder guns,” such as BB and pellet guns; new and more restrictive minimum age requirements for purchasing and possessing guns and ammunition; strict requirements for gun dealer licensing and operation; background checks on private gun sales; gun owner licensing; gun registration; requiring “personalized” or so-called “smart” features on guns; imposing (presumably unachievable) gun manufacturing standards; requiring ballistic imaging of ammunition shot through privately purchased guns; waiting periods; restrictions on “multiple” gun purchases; and restricting the carrying of guns.
The Joyce Foundation, which provided funding for LCAV’s paper, got its money’s worth, because foolish and false anti-gun verbiage abounds throughout the screed. As an example, it refers to “assault weapons” as, oxymoronically, facilitating “accurate spray firing.” And despite a federally-funded study finding otherwise, it claims that semi-automatics that use detachable magazines possess more “lethality” than revolvers. LCAV notes approvingly that many kinds of guns use detachable magazines with more than 10 rounds capacity, and suggests that a restriction not exempt magazines already owned.
No anti-gun paper would be complete without a wild statistical exaggeration, and LCAV’s is no exception. It claims that, according to the CDC, there are “nearly 100,000 victims each year [of] gun violence,” when in fact there are only about 14,000 firearm-related murders, non-negligent manslaughters, and self-defense fatal shootings by private citizens and the police. According to the CDC, however, “gun violence” includes fatal and non-fatal injuries due to criminal assaults, suicides and self-woundings, acts of self-defense by private citizens and law enforcement officers, with firearms, BB guns, pellet guns and various non-lethal guns. There are fewer than 80,000 such injuries annually, and LCAV simply rounded the number up to “nearly 100,000".
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