Romano Mazzoli: “I speak today about the assault weapon ban measure which will come up shortly. I voted for it in subcommittee, again at…”

“I speak today about the assault weapon ban measure which will come up shortly. I voted for it in subcommittee, again at the full committee level, and I intend to support it today. Many of the arguments are valid on both sides of the issue, but one that I have heard so much is that these kinds of guns fire the same, they have the same action and use the same bullets. Then the argument goes on that they are used for the same purpose. Well, the first three of those assertions I can agree with; the last one, 'used for the same purpose,' I disagree with. The guns, the weapons that we would ban today if this bill passes, are not used normally by hunters or normally by target shooters, but they are used normally by people on the streets to wreak havoc and to create acts of mayhem. Another argument I have heard is the shrouds and the flash suppressors and the pistol grips and folding stocks, that they are really only cosmetic additions to the weapons. At the full committee I asked that very question of the chairman of the committee, 'Are these in fact cosmetic changes, or do they have some substantive facility for the people who would use them for wrong purposes?' In fact, they do have a use for wrong purposes: You can fire more quickly, you can do more damage with these features than without.”