What Does DOJ Really Think About Gun Control?
By Melancton Smith • Wednesday February 27, 2013 5:10 AM PDT • 9 Comments
According to a DOJ memo obtained by the NRA, Washington really knows that assault weapons are infrequently used in crimes and that banning high capacity magazines really will not change anything. These are just drums beat by the administration to get the public in a frenzy over the “epidemic” of gun violence. So what do they really want to do? You guessed it, a national firearms ban. What follows is a summary of the memo found in an article up at Town Hall.
The memo, under the name of one of the Justice Department’s leading crime researchers, critiques the effectiveness of gun control proposals, including some of President Barack Obama’s. A Justice Department official called the memo an unfinished review of gun violence research and said it does not represent administration policy.
The memo says requiring background checks for more gun purchases could help, but also could lead to more illicit weapons sales. It says banning assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines produced in the future but exempting those already owned by the public, as Obama has proposed, would have limited impact because people now own so many of those items.
It also says that even total elimination of assault weapons would have little overall effect on gun killings because assault weapons account for a limited proportion of those crimes.
The nine-page document says the success of universal background checks would depend in part on “requiring gun registration,” and says gun buybacks would not be effective “unless massive and coupled with a ban.”
Tags: Bill of Rights, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice, Gun Control 
We have the 2nd amendment and that’s enough for me. The gubment can stay out of our business. Our Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they wrote the Constitution. They had wisdom and foresight. Hands off our guns.
Barb E. | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
Any actions by the federal government that would limit gun rights or infringe upon those rights to “law abiding” citizens should be considered an act of tyranny to the Constitution and the people of the United States. Our present laws concerning gun ownership are quite clear, but government agencies have shirked their duty to enforce existing laws. A perfect example is statistics from Chicago, Ill. Here we have some of the strictest gun laws in the country but still have very high rates of murder by guns. If our leadership were not so misinformed maybe they could focus their attention on domestic terrorism (gangs and criminal organizations) instead of law-abiding citizens. “We the People” (law-abiding Americans) DO have the right to protect ourselves.. ANYONE trying to take away those rights is a tyrant.
Tony Cheatham | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
If the NRA has procured a copy of a memo, why is it we only get to read a “summary”....more censorship.....
Eric | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
Cleaning up the streets of gangs and crooks and mentally challenged is the only thing that’s going to stop the killings. What should be addressed is the violence in video games and movies....that are the influence on young people who don’t yet understand that they are not invincible.
Jan | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
Of course he wants a full ban. He’s trying to destroy the U.S.A. He’ll also attack the other rights as well. This is just the first. He’s Al-Quaeda through and through.
Timothy Mann | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
All this “sound and fury, signifying nothing” from “the gang who couldn’t shoot straight!”?
Susan Winters | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
The position of the Obama administration, including the DOJ, on guns was apparent a few years ago when Obama spoke favorably about an anti-gun UN proposal. Obama said almost nothing else about his opposition to guns during his first term because he wanted to be re-elected. After winning, he used the Sandy Hook incident as an excuse for his unconstitutional anti-gun executive orders. (And, why not? He’s already gotten away with many unconstitutional acts.)
MingoV | Feb 27, 2013 | Reply
Here is something very interesting you will not hear or see in the main stream! John Brennan, CIA nominee, may have converted to Islam: report Tuesday, 12 February 2013.
George | Mar 2, 2013 | Reply
Invariably, violent video games meme turns up — “look over here”, a distraction — and how many people just have a gut reaction and have never done any research about that meme? As a public service:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/studying-the-effects-of-playing-violent-video-games.html?_r=0
Just the first article I turned up with a search just now. Thirty years of research and the results are ambiguous. Could it be researchers have some “confirmation bias”?
Probably some of the first playgoers who saw “Medea” wondered if such violence was necessary; others may have reckoned catharsis was a social good.
Let’s forget this VVG distraction and concentrate on the real topic.
Joseph L. Elkhorne | Mar 5, 2013 | Reply