AWB Sunset in 7 hours!

Glad, but not excited. This would have been tough to renew in an election year, as the average political animal wants to at least put on a pretense of expressing the will of their voters. Next year, we find out who the hypocrites are - again.

yeah i dont know, the american public would have to be really stupid to re-elect bush and that's probably the only way to keep a new awb from being written...but 60% of american's don't even know what an engineer is so i wouldn't be surprised...anyway, thank god for renewing the grandfather clause

In all parts of the nation, one can find a very small percentage of the population drooling in anticipation of the potential carnage they may soon wreak.

Many of them staunchly avow themselves as passionate believers in the Man who said "If thine enemy smite thee, thou shalt turn the other cheek".

Many of them believe that their "faith" will gain them entrance into Paradise... that lifetimes spent forging chains of violent hatred will be rendered noble by a last-minute profession of "Faith".

I contend that "Faith" and Delusion aren't QUITE the same.

It is unfortunate that your uneducated one-sided view is the majority.

Please, do yourself a favor and read the law before making a comment...because you obviously don't have the slightest idea what it is about...

I'll give you a hint: the AWB does not ban any guns at all.

Gee, we're SO lucky, you deign to sprinkle your thread with lots of acronyms and "hints"... how magnanimous of you!

Your use of jargon must be calculated to impress someone... much like the kids who tote firearms to school to gain instant status!

The real question: WHY does the prospect of a Semi-Automatic Assault Weapon (with bayonet mount and grenade launcher) in your little private arsenal "excite" you so?
What is it about the capacity to kill and maim on a grand scale that you find so stimulating?

We can only speculate...

In your first post, Magnus, you say "very small percentage". With that caveat, I'll agree with the whole shebang. It comes to a matter of balance, and on balance, I'm glad to see that particular law sliding into the sunset. I sense you disagree, but such is life.

Enjoy your killing machines while you can... after the public outcry following the first mass killings by nutcases, restrictions will be TRULY stringent.

The public might even be manipulated into adopting the sort of gun-ownership restrictions emplaced in Britain.

You'll long for the old days, when "unlawful" (read: damned near ANY)possession of a firearm wasn't a Felony with mandatory LENGTHY terms of incarceration for offenders.

Nah, you never know what you've got 'til you've LOST it...

Magus, if this law had anything to do with restricting what firearms could be owned, then perhaps your comments would be justified. Unfortunately, just because the name sounds that way, it does not...and you just come off sounding ignorant.

Semi automatic weapons are legal already for those old enough to own a gun...they have always been. Fully automatic weapons are not legal without a class 3 license.

The AWB does not prevent people from owning guns, it merely limits the kinds of accessories people can have. NONE of the accessories that it limits could increase the deadliness of a gun.

The accessories it bans are..

bayoney lug mounts -- bayonets are for show guns, anyone can own a kitchen knife why not be able to attach to to your rifle? makes no sense. if you have a gun and a bayonet, don't you think the bullet is a little more dangerous

threaded barrel -- you need these to put on flash hiders and flash suppressors. these are merely a small cylindrical attachment with holes in the top that vent the expanding gasses upwards to reduce the recoil of the gun, and make the muzzle flash a little bit less bright, and make the sound a little bit less loud...but still extremely loud

adjustable length stock -- you can own a short stock, or a long stock, but they didn't want you to have an adjustable one. why? I don't know, I guess they want everyone to buy 2 rifles, a long and short one?

grenade launcher mount -- they put this in (along with the title) to make the law sound like it did something good. but it doesn't. you can't own a grenade launcher without a class 3 license anything, with a class 3 license you can own anything at all. so really preventing you from having the mounts does absolutely nothing.

if you want to purchase a gun that has any of these features, the features can be removed so that you could still purchase it. so it really doesnt make any difference on the kinds of guns that will be on "the street"

I apologize for losing my temper. This law was named and created to be misleading, and I shouldn't be surprised when people who have no stake in it are predictably mislead by it.

The temper didn't come through in the post, so far as I could tell. More factual than emotional, by a long shot - so to speak.