GUNBAN2.CBS 09/13/04 8:09 AM-DLR   1:26
Ding Dong the ban is dead!  This is Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.
The assault weapons ban is over - and I had somebody tell me he couldn't believe that machines guns are going to be legal.
No!
This was never about machine guns.
The end of the ban does NOT mean that machine guns are legal.   It applied to semi-automatic weapons, which fire one shot at a time.  Machine guns can fire as many as 17 rounds a second, and under the National Firearms Act of 1934, it remains illegal to own one unless is it registered and you have special federal permission.
By the way - thanks to the strict rules on machine guns, they are almost NEVER used in crimes.  But nobody talks about that much.
In any case, the end of this ban simply means you can buy SEMI-automatic military-style weapons again, with magazines of more than ten rounds.  And if such a weapon should fall into the wrong hands?    Well, it's not a perfect world.  The NRA assures us that, if anything, America is safer now that law-abiding people can buy these weapons again.
I would like to think that ban or no ban, most weapons dealers are reputable merchants who would never sell a powerful weapon to the wrong people.
I'm sure they know about the al Qaeda training manual, which encourages jihadists to dress like Americans and buy weapons legally, and that they will remain vigilant.
Because we've been told that we're in a war - right here.  A war that's building right under our noses.   When you're at war, the last thing you do is give aid and comfort to the enemy.
And I have confidence gun merchants understand that powerful weapons, legally acquired by bad people trying to avoid attention... could give a whole lot of aid and comfort.   
Now this.
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