Gixerman1000
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Police chiefs, doctors push ban on assault weapons (E-mail her)
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/ind...id=8882&ntpid=4
Police chiefs, doctors push ban on assault weapons
Without federal action, it'll expire Sept. 13
By Anita Weier = E-mail: [email protected]
August 24, 2004
Fifty-five Wisconsin police chiefs joined the groups Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort today to call for reauthorizing and strengthening the federal assault weapons ban.
Jeri Bonavia, executive director of WAVE, accused President Bush and congressional leaders of "passing the buck" instead of renewing the legislation, which was passed in 1994 and will expire Sept. 13 unless it is reauthorized.
The police and doctors represented at a news conference at the Inn on the Park this morning asked Bush and U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, to work to extend the ban.
"A high number of police officers are killed and wounded by these weapons," said Onalaska Police Chief Randy Williams, president of the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association. Last October, a Green Lake County sheriff's deputy was gunned down with an AK-47 when he responded to a domestic dispute, Williams said.
One-fifth of law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty from 1998 through 2001 were killed by assault weapons, according to a report by the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
"The key point is that this policy of extending the ban is key to ensuring the health and well-being of patients affected by gun violence," said Amy Shulz, a registered nurse who is president of the Madison chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. "These weapons cause huge internal damage by attacking many organs at once."
The ban prohibits the manufacture, sale or possession of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns or pistols designed to maim and kill with a spray of bullets. But Physicians for Social Responsibility says the law has several loopholes and should be amended by:
• Changing the definition of assault weapon to include pistols, rifles and shotguns with a detachable magazine and thumbhole stocks or pistol grips.
• Regulating assault weapon frames and receivers to reduce the availability of gun parts that are easily assembled into deadlier weapons.
• Outlawing the importation, sale and use of high-capacity ammunition magazines, especially those that hold more than 10 rounds.
A poll by Lake Snell Perry & Associates of likely voters in 10 states this year found that most of those polled want the ban expanded. In Wisconsin, 73 percent favored renewing the ban, with 52 percent strongly favoring renewal. One in five opposed renewal and 7 percent refused to answer.
In addition, 69 percent of likely Wisconsin voters supported strengthening the ban to prevent the gun industry from manufacturing commercial models of military-style assault weapons. Among gun owners surveyed, 66 percent supported renewing the ban and 60 percent supported strengthening it.
Wisconsin police chiefs supporting the reauthorization of the weapons ban include top cops from DeForest, Evansville, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Oregon, Portage, Watertown, West Bend and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/ind...id=8882&ntpid=4
Police chiefs, doctors push ban on assault weapons
Without federal action, it'll expire Sept. 13
By Anita Weier = E-mail: [email protected]
August 24, 2004
Fifty-five Wisconsin police chiefs joined the groups Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort today to call for reauthorizing and strengthening the federal assault weapons ban.
Jeri Bonavia, executive director of WAVE, accused President Bush and congressional leaders of "passing the buck" instead of renewing the legislation, which was passed in 1994 and will expire Sept. 13 unless it is reauthorized.
The police and doctors represented at a news conference at the Inn on the Park this morning asked Bush and U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, to work to extend the ban.
"A high number of police officers are killed and wounded by these weapons," said Onalaska Police Chief Randy Williams, president of the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association. Last October, a Green Lake County sheriff's deputy was gunned down with an AK-47 when he responded to a domestic dispute, Williams said.
One-fifth of law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty from 1998 through 2001 were killed by assault weapons, according to a report by the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
"The key point is that this policy of extending the ban is key to ensuring the health and well-being of patients affected by gun violence," said Amy Shulz, a registered nurse who is president of the Madison chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. "These weapons cause huge internal damage by attacking many organs at once."
The ban prohibits the manufacture, sale or possession of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns or pistols designed to maim and kill with a spray of bullets. But Physicians for Social Responsibility says the law has several loopholes and should be amended by:
• Changing the definition of assault weapon to include pistols, rifles and shotguns with a detachable magazine and thumbhole stocks or pistol grips.
• Regulating assault weapon frames and receivers to reduce the availability of gun parts that are easily assembled into deadlier weapons.
• Outlawing the importation, sale and use of high-capacity ammunition magazines, especially those that hold more than 10 rounds.
A poll by Lake Snell Perry & Associates of likely voters in 10 states this year found that most of those polled want the ban expanded. In Wisconsin, 73 percent favored renewing the ban, with 52 percent strongly favoring renewal. One in five opposed renewal and 7 percent refused to answer.
In addition, 69 percent of likely Wisconsin voters supported strengthening the ban to prevent the gun industry from manufacturing commercial models of military-style assault weapons. Among gun owners surveyed, 66 percent supported renewing the ban and 60 percent supported strengthening it.
Wisconsin police chiefs supporting the reauthorization of the weapons ban include top cops from DeForest, Evansville, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Oregon, Portage, Watertown, West Bend and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
E-mail: [email protected]
These clowns need to clean up their own act before they begin dictating "responsibility" to others. Too many of their trusting patients are dying from misdiagnosis, negligence and malpractice.
