This page was last updated on January 15, 2012.
Take the plate; Larry Mason; Beaver County Times; January 13, 2012.
Among previous letters from Mr. Mason were “Western Pennsylvanians getting what they voted for,” “Collective bargaining a right,” “Many Americans squander an asset,” “Letting the voters have their way,” “When will troops leave Iraq?”, “Build another nuke plant,” “America must disarm Iraq,” “Win the war militarily,” “Defeat on several fronts,” and “Health care haves disdain have nots.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“If only one of the 536 who could introduce a bill to the U.S. Congress would have stepped up to the plate and said, ‘Let’s take a vote on reinstalling the Brady Bill.’
“Not one of them did because it’s still political suicide. Everything starts with one, nothing ever starts with nothing.”
[RWC] I don’t know where Mr. Mason gets his news, but the Brady Bill (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act) was signed into law in 1993 and it remains in effect.
It’s possible Mr. Mason is confusing the Brady Bill with the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act (aka the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.) This act provided for its repeal 10 years after its 1994 effective date. The act expired in 2004 and was not extended. As a reminder, the mass shooting at Columbine High School (13 murdered, 24 wounded) took place in 1999, five years into the “assault” weapons ban. The killer in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre (32 murdered, 17 wounded) used two semi-automatic pistols (one 9mm, one .22 caliber), neither considered to be “assault” weapons. The vast majority of handguns (semi-automatics and revolvers) sold in the U.S. fire a single shot per trigger-pull.
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