The Patriot Post® · CSI: Lying About 'Assault Weapons'

While public perception of America being a high-crime nation has prevailed, the reality is that FBI crime statistics in 2013 resumed a long-term decline. Of course, many will chalk this up to better policing techniques, but those who do so ignore the elephant in the room: Background checks for gun purchasers continue at a record-setting pace, meaning more weapons are in the hands of would-be victims of crime.

We like to say they’re protected by Second Amendment Security.

A horrific event like a Sandy Hook or Columbine always presents a grotesque opportunity for the Left to promote an anti-Second Amendment agenda, as they seize upon such evil acts to blame the tool instead of the perpetrator. Yet, for example, banning “assault weapons” between 1994 and 2004 had little positive effect on the murder rate because, simply put, those guns are rarely used to commit murders. So by the Left’s “logic,” we would be better off banning knives and sharp objects, as the FBI says they kill five times more people than do rifles of any type. Such a knife ban would be highly unrealistic, though, because you can’t cut your steak with a spork.

The phrase popularized by writer and researcher John Lott was simple: “More guns, less crime.” Each year new FBI statistics come out and generally prove the adage correct. It’s why the Left, every time a rifle is used in a shooting, tries to conflate the standard AR-15 semiautomatic rifle with the military grade M4A1 carbine that is a fully automatic weapon and has been very difficult for the general public to obtain for decades.

(To understand the differences between the two, check out this great resource.)

Fortunately, the American people don’t seem to be buying what the snake oil salesmen of the Left are selling. In fact, polling data shows Americans are more likely to believe having a gun makes a home safer. Seeking another “assault weapons” ban is approaching the political “third rail” status of Social Security – touch it and you’re dead.

It would be more fatal than 99.99% of the AR-15 rifles out there.

A recent episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” provides a perfect illustration of the Left’s lies about guns. After a mass shooting at a hotel, the coroner pulls a bullet from the body of a dead young mom, observing that it’s the “size of a .223, consistent with an AR-15” – the weapon they already know was used in the fictitious killing spree.

Most coroners (real ones – not the kind on TV) would also probably tell you that intact .223s usually don’t get pulled out of bodies. The round has a well-documented tendency to fragment.

After this prompt from the coroner, Ted Danson’s character, the lead CSI, adds, “America’s favorite assault rifle, capable of firing 700 rounds a minute.”

No, actually, it’s not. Again, an AR-15 is a semiautomatic rifle, capable only of firing as frequently as the operator can pull the trigger. And a standard magazine is 30 rounds, so unless a person could pull the trigger nearly 12 times per second not counting switching out mags more than 23 times in a minute, 700 rounds per minute is not, in fact, possible. If viewers don’t already know the truth, they may assume this TV show – ostensibly about science – is giving it to them.

Finally, the CSI coroner laments, “That kind of firepower belongs in a war zone, not on our streets.”

How many of the show’s hundreds of victims were killed by handguns, knives, swords, axes, clubs, bats, cars, poison, rope, viruses, meat grinders, animals, statues, swimming pools, and on and on and on? Yet after 15 seasons – more than 300 episodes with at least one murder victim per show – depicting every conceivable way to kill a human being, no matter how horrific or depraved, CBS producers have finally found a method that turns their stomachs.

CBS delayed the episode for two weeks, allegedly because NFL games ran long, but we suspect the real reason it didn’t run until after the election was that the network didn’t want any trouble from the FCC for its in-kind campaign contribution to the DNC.

While CBS believes “assault weapons” are a plague upon America, the FBI stats tell a different story.