With the recent tragedies there has been a lot of talk of gun control laws and in particular reviving the Assault Weapon ban from 1990s. I am going to assume the best motives for those people who favor a ban on assault weapons, but in doing so at best I can say is that they are misguided.

Before I get started let me state that I’m working from a couple of premises.

One – That a desire to ban any class of firearms is advanced with an objective of a reduction in firearms deaths.

Two – The whenever anyone proposes a restriction of rights, the burden of proof is on those advocating the restriction.  When in doubt I err on the side of granting rights rather than restricting them. Continue reading →