AWB dead in the water for now

After the Sandy Hook shooting, lawmakers began proposing a flurry of gun control measures to try to restrict these types of shootings.  One of the most notorious would be Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D - California) proposed "Assault Weapons" Ban.  It would ban AR-15 rifles such as the one used in the shooting, as well as AKMs, FALs, and other rifles of military appearance (bizarrely including the 8-round American classic, the M1 Garand).  The legislation would also ban magazines holding over 10 rounds of ammunition - for context, the average 9mm or .40 caliber handgun magazine holds between 15 and 17 rounds, and these firearms are extremely popular amongst civilians.

Obviously, the latter fact would have caused it to be extremely difficult, if not outright impossible, to pass the bill, and today it was dropped from the Democrats' gun control package.  Harry Reid (D - Nevada) apparently felt that it would cost too many votes.  While Feinstein will be able to offer it as an amendment, the fact is, because it not only targets the extremely popular AR-15, but also ubiquitous pistols, it will almost certainly never pass.

Of much greater concern to gun-rights advocates, however, is the fact that without the Feinstein Ban, the gun control package is significantly more likely to pass, which only contains the ban on standard capacity magazines.

Now that the overall assessment is done, I want to mention a few pet peeves regarding the subject.

One issue that has consistently appeared in articles, including this one, is referring to 30 round AR-15 magazines and 17 round handgun magazines as "high capacity."  These are, in fact, standard capacity magazines, as they are what come factory standard with the firearms in question.  A Surefire 60 (a 60 round AR magazine) would be considered high capacity, and a 10-round magazine would be low capacity.  The use of this terminology is either using somewhat dishonest language or being understandably confused; regardless, it only serves to perpetuate misconceptions of firearms by those who are not familiar with them.

The article also refers to "assault-type weapons."  Once again, this is either from intentional use of charged language or simple ignorance of firearms.  First of all, there is no official definition of "assault weapon," though the general use seems to refer to rifles that have an outward military appearance.  The term "assault rifle" on the other hand, does have a definition; specifically, it is a select-fire (both semi and fully automatic) rifle of intermediate caliber.  The AR-15 is semi-automatic only, in contrast to the fully automatic military M4 of similar appearance.