The SKS weapon that killed Sgt. Liczbinski was a semiautomatic "military-style" rifle (virtually all rifles patterns have been used by some military somewhere) but it WAS NOT banned by the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. So called "Semiautomatic Assault Rifles" are indeed designed to do one thing: Expel a single moderate powered rifle round per pull of a trigger, like most any other modern firearm. There is nothing specially unique about them that makes them more lethal than other rifles, indeed, most common hunting rifles are far more powerful. Certainly we don't want any firearms in the hands of gangs, drug traffickers, the mentally ill, and other prohibited posessors, but that is no justification to forbid all law abiding and responsible citizens from owning any particular style of firearm. My family shotgun has a multiposition stock, which allows shorter members of the family to use it as easily as the tall. It would be banned under the Assault Weapons Ban currently in congress. Why? The Assault Weapons Ban goes beyond reasonable and meaningful measures to protect against firearms abuse, instead posing a blanket infringement of mostly cosmetic features of modern firearms with essentially no benefit to public safety, and serve as an unreasonable burden or inconvenience to responsible firearms owners. What next? Will the law require my rifle to have a 50 lbs weight anchored to it at all times, spikes on the trigger to make it uncomfortable, sights that wiggle? Banning components and features on rifles will not significantly influence crime, just as in england, criminals will switch to different methods to inflict their will unlawfuly on others. Perhaps we could try to focus on keeping criminals off the streets for breaking laws we already on the books? (It is illegal to shoot people without justification after all)

It seems to be the Blacks that are doing the shooting. This is a Black Culture Problem, not a gun problem.

The true nature of conservatism shows itself again. [QUOTE id="1473529d-6fc3-4a5f-9f5b-7dbe76101509"]It seems to be the Blacks that are doing the shooting. This is a Black Culture Problem, not a gun problem.[/QUOTE]

As previous poster noen noted, the SKS rifle used is virtually no different than the semi-auto hunting rifles used every year to thin the deer population in your state. Your politicians are using the usual fear tactics to push their gun control agenda. If Sgt. Liczbinksi had been killed with a baseball bat this would never have made such a splash in the press. Just imagine, these guys had the temerity to kill a cop. I'd be more concerned about that than the instrument that was used. Our drug laws have perpetuated low income ghettoes where such animals rise to the top of the food chain. End the war on drugs.

What the mayor is trying to do is clearly unconstitutional. Cities do not have the authority to pass their own gun laws in PA. Does anybody actually think that somebody who would murder a cop would care that the gun he used to do it is banned?

[QUOTE id="1473529d-6fc3-4a5f-9f5b-7dbe76101509"]It seems to be the Blacks that are doing the shooting. This is a Black Culture Problem, not a gun problem.[/QUOTE] This has NOTHING to do with race, and everything to do with Character. And for the respondant who said: "The true nature of conservatism shows itself", your comment is as off base as saying that Rev. Wright's racist commentaries is the "true nature" of american liberalism. Nonsense! Let me remind you that it was post civil war southern racists that kept the black population oppressed with GUN CONTROL laws, and only after the 14th amemdment were their rights to keep and bear arms secure and suddenly klansmen had something other to do that get shot at by people defending themselves with firearms.

You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time... It is insignificant that the SKS was not included in the 1994 Weapons ban (which, by the way, was not a ban on the sale of so called assault weapons; another stretch of the political imagination here). Neither is it significant that law-abiding citizens are not the ones committing these crimes yet they are the only ones impacted by gun control legislation. Self-defense is not significant to these politicians. We, the people, are not significant if it interfers with their ability of getting re-elected. When was the last time you actually read a "common sense" discussion on gun control whereby the control measures being proposed were directly related to the perceived gun problem?

[QUOTE id="1473529d-6fc3-4a5f-9f5b-7dbe76101509"]It seems to be the Blacks that are doing the shooting. This is a Black Culture Problem, not a gun problem.[/QUOTE] Is Neon saying that black people lack character? Is that somehow better than saying its a Black Culture problem? Racism is so imbedded into the conservative movement, they actually think this isn't a racist comment. Or do they even care? And recasting the civil rights movement into a triumph of gun rights is pure NRA fantasy. Have you ever heard of the civil rights movement and the non-violent protests that made it a success?