Police chiefs: Restore assault weapons ban
The Miami Herald ^ | 9-19-07 | SUSANNAH A. NESMITH
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 11:49:54 AM by nin_kasi
Miami-Dade Officer Jose Somohano was shot and killed with a Mak-90 assault rifle three years to the day after the federal law prohibiting the sale of such weapons expired.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report at noon Wednesday calling for, among other things, a renewal of the ban, arguing that it helps keep police officers safe by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.''
The report hits home for South Florida law enforcement officers, who have been facing an increasing number of these guns on the street since the ban expired. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director, can't hide his anger when he talks about the fact that lawmakers let the ban expire.
''While I feel very strongly about the Second Amendment, I don't think that our founding fathers had AK-47s in mind,'' he said. ``There's absolutely no reason I can see having these weapons out on the street.''
His voice rising, he brings up Shawn LaBeet, the man who killed Somohano: ``This guy just went to a gun store with a fake ID and bought one.''
LaBeet bought nine guns in the past year, including the semiautomatic Mak-90, which is similar to an AK-47. The gun was covered under the assault weapons ban and was illegal to sell for 10 years until September 2004.
''It's one thing to talk philosophically about the right to bear arms and it's another to see what these assault rifles can do,'' Alvarez said.
Local police say the numbers of murders committed with assault weapons has been steadily rising since the ban expired on Sept. 13, 2004.
In the city of Miami, 20 percent of murders this year were committed with assault weapons, up from 4 percent in 2004.
Police chiefs: Restore assault weapons ban