In Miami, authorities say the proliferation of assault weapons led to an increase in killings, from 56 in 2005 to 79 in 2006 and 86 so far in 2007.
"You just pull a trigger and 20 or 30 rounds come in a second and in those 20 rounds you're sure to hit your intended target and some innocent bystanders, totally unlike a firearm that is just one bullet every time you pull the trigger," Miami Police spokesman Willie Moreno said.
from this news story
Now, I suppose it is POSSIBLE that the associated press, credited with this story, is collectively dumb enough to believe officer Moreno's obviously false statement, but I doubt it. Most likely, they are passing on a lie that is obvious to anyone who knows a bit about firearms, or a RESPONSIBLE member of the media - who would do some fact checking before accepting the police department's story about the cause of a rising crime rate in their city - because it fits in with their pre-judged ideas and their political agenda.
For those who don't already know, the officer's statement is obviously a lie, because any weapon that fires more than one round per pull of the trigger is classified by federal law as a machine gun, and machine guns are almost never used in crimes. When I say almost never, I mean that I am only aware of two specific cases where a criminal used an actual machine gun to commit a violent crime in the United States during the last twenty years. I have heard anecdotal evidence of drug runners on the Mexican border using machine guns, and other military weapons, against anyone who tries to intervene, but I have not heard of any specific person who was wounded or killed in such an engagement, nor any arrests of a criminal in possession of such a gun north of the border.
There may be one or more cases nationwide that I am not aware of, but my point is that if Miami had experienced a number of incidents of criminals using machine guns, or likely even one such case, I would have heard about it. Machine guns are effectively illegal for civilians to own in the US, and are therefore extremely rare, which is why they are almost never used in crimes. I seriously doubt that any crimes were committed in Miami last year by criminals armed with machine guns. Besides, the officer didn't say "machine guns", he said "assault weapons".
Here is the heart of the matter:
...authorities say the proliferation of assault weapons led to an increase in killings..."...totally unlike a firearm that is just one bullet every time you pull the trigger," Miami Police spokesman Willie Moreno said
The TRUTH: Under the legal definition of "assault weapon" under the former federal law, as well as every one of the state laws on the subject, an "assault weapon" IS a firearm that fires JUST ONE bullet every time you pull the trigger.
There are two probably reasons why this dude is lying:
1. The leadership of this police department has decided that they consider it in their interests for the citizenry to be unarmed and helpless, so as to be more dependent on the police, and allow the police greater power and authority, and are spreading lies designed to promote public support for gun control to further this political objective.
2. The leadership of this police department is not interested in having to account for their failure to deliver results, like a reduction, or at least a maintenance, in the level of violent crime in their jurisdiction, and is telling an obvious lie to the public with the hope that most people will be fooled into believing that the police department cannot be held responsible for failing to do their jobs well, because of some scary looking guns that supposedly turn every criminal into superman.
"Assault weapon" is a propaganda term - it is a label without any sort of clear, easily understandable, accepted definition, applied by wannabe despots with the goal of fooling ignorant people, to make one firearm seem more dangerous or lethal than another. The best short definition I can come up with as to what is considered an "assault weapon" is any sort of gun that LOOKS similar to a gun that is used by military forces. But looking similar to a military gun doesn't make a civilian gun more effective in the hands of a criminal.
In fact, even if everyone who could pass the background check required of civilian gun owners in the US were allowed to buy a real AK-47 or M-16, and such were readily available and commonly used by criminals, officer Moreno's claim that use of a machine gun guarantees a hit on the target or an innocent bystander is false, and unless he is even more ignorant than the average cop, also a lie. Automatic fire from hand held weapons is much less accurate than single aimed shots; due to the physics involved, the first round will hit near where the weapon is aimed, but each additional bullet will be farther away from the point of initial aim - while firing repeatedly, the gun will move and the bullets generally go over the target's head.
Of course, extensive training with the specific weapon can help offset this problem to an extent, but the US military gave up, and decided over twenty years ago to have their M-16s modified so that no more than three rounds can be fired per trigger pull (still a machine gun according to federal law), because field experience in Vietnam proved that as a practical matter, our soldiers and marines, despite boot camp and advanced infantry training, were doing nothing but wasting ammunition when firing in automatic mode. If I were to be targeted by a crazed criminal bent on killing me, I would rather he have a machine gun than a single shot rifle or pistol - precisely because the actual facts of the matter are not commonly understood, and apparently most people assume that just because a machine gun shoots a lot of rounds with only one pull of the trigger, the chances of hitting the target must be greater.
Now, the other lie here is that "assault weapons" are responsible for the increase in crime in Miami, apart from the definition of the term. And while machine guns are used in a crime about once every decade or so, some of the guns that fall into the accepted definition (of course, there is no such thing as a legal definition in Florida, it not having any state laws that define, nor even include the term assault weapon) are occasionally used in crimes. There are a number of reasons why I feel no need to research the actual numbers in this case to brand the idea that "assault weapons" are being used by every criminal in Miami. First, every time anyone comes up with numbers on a national scale, "assault weapons" are involved in a single digit percentage of crimes and resulting deaths. Second, they are generally too large to conceal easily, and are less handy and harder to sneak in than the usual ghetto blaster "Saturday night special" - another propaganda term for another day... third, they are expensive. The idea that every gangster has a machine gun, or even an AK-47 look-a-like (which is really no more effective than commonly available guns from a hundred years ago), is a myth.
Apparently there are a large number of people who are ignorant about firearms, and believe this myth, and the related myth that these guns, or any other guns, impart some type of spiritual power to do evil, or kill more people faster than some other method, and our government and media, which is supposed to serve us, or serve some concept of truth and justice, are spreading lies so that they can convince people to give them more money and/or power, while making us more dependent and less secure in reality.
BTW, I heard about this from the NRA-ILA, who's regular email newsletter called Moreno's statement the "Outrage of the Week!" I am not sure how many other outrageous things occurred in the last week, but the fact that a public official is telling lies to the people, who he supposedly works for, and the media reports such filth as fact, is certainly outrageous.
