Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Newspaper editorials that don't know what they're talking about:
[1]The Spoons Experience points to the opening paragraph of this
[2]this Chicago Sun-Times editorial:
How ridiculous is the notion that private citizens should be able
to tote machine guns? It takes someone with extreme positions like
Alan Keyes to righteously argue that cause. Most Americans --
Democrats and Republicans -- are against claiming Second Amendment
protections for these guns and support the federal assault weapons
ban. . . .
Except that the assault weapons ban does not ban machine guns. Machine
guns have been largely banned for civilian possession (except for
about 100,000 that were grandfathered in, and that are almost never
used in crimes) since the mid-1980s. By its own terms the assault
weapon ban applies to some semiautomatic guns -- guns that shoot one
round per trigger pull, and that are not materially more lethal than
most other guns out there. In fact, here's a link to [3]the statute,
and a quote from the start of the key provision:
SEC. 110102. RESTRICTION ON MANUFACTURE, TRANSFER, AND POSSESSION
OF CERTAIN SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPONS. (a) RESTRICTION- Section
922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the
end the following new subsection: '(v)(1) It shall be unlawful for
a person to manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic
assault weapon.'
If you'd like, go to the site and count the number of times the Act
uses the word semiautomatic. There are of course other problems with
the editorial -- but once there's such a doozy in the first sentence,
it's kind of pointless to discuss them. What does it say when an
editorial in a major newspaper has such a glaring factual error (and
one that's highly material to the editorial's thesis)? Small wonder
that many people, especially many people who care about gun rights,
have lost confidence in the media's competence and fairness (for more
on the latter, see also [4]here).
References
1. http://www.thespoonsexperience.com/archives/002869.php#002869
2. http://www.suntimes.com/output/commentary/cst-edt-edits07.html
3. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/laws/majorlaw/h3355_en.htm
4. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/volokh/posts/<a%20href=
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