- UID
- 1023
- UCC
-
- 声望
-
- 好评
-
- 贡献
-
- 最后登录
- 1970-1-1
|
发表于 2008-7-22 13:06:22
|
显示全部楼层
Political Scientist Earl Kruschke has described how, in the gun control debate, firearms have been viewed in only three general classes by gun control advocates: 1) long guns 2) hand guns and 3) automatic and semi-automatic weapons. The first category has generally been associated with sporting and hunting uses; the second category, handguns, describe weapons which can be held with one hand such as pistols and revolvers; and the third general category has been most commonly associated in public political perception with military uses. Notably the AR-15 and AK-47 style firearms have contributed to this perception.
If sometimes confused in public debate, the two firearm types in the third general category are functionally and legally distinct. Fully-automatic firearms of any kind (including military assault rifles) have been subject to registration and licensing requirements since the passage of the National Firearms Act in 1934. Further import restrictions were part of the Gun Control Act of 1968, and the transfer of newly manufactured machine-guns to private citizens was banned with passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986. New machine-guns in the US are still legal for purchase by the military and by governmental agencies, including civilian law enforcement; pre-1986 registered machine-guns are available to federally licensed private citizens (where permitted by state law), and have reached high market prices, eagerly sought by collectors because of their relative scarcity. An expansion has occurred in the number of states where such automatic weapons may legally be owned; for example, automatic-weapons were recently legalized in Kansas.[59]
Many semi-automatic versions of military assault rifles--and the larger 20- or 30-round magazines they typically use--are again available for purchase by private citizens in the US (except where prohibited by state or municipal bans) since the "sunsetting" of the the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban on September 14, 2004. Some continue to be banned due to a 1989 amending of the Gun Control Act, which made some foreign-made firearms illegal for importation. However, firearms similar to those affected by the imporation ban can now be manufactured domestically.[60][61] |
|