Still, no answer to the question...

Via Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell, we have this, from Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell:

"Get these weapons off the street. Get those large-capacity magazines off the street. As the mayor said, the only people who should have weapons like this is the police and the military. We should outgun the criminals, not vice versa."

I believe the society the esteemed (sic) Governor is describing is known as a police state. And I am thinking that he wouldn't mind that, and everything it entails, which of course includes door-to-door confiscations of the weapons he thinks his subjects shouldn't be allowed to own. After all, once again, The Question -- how else will they get rid of all the so-called "assault weapons" in the hands of civilians now? And lest you think such bans and confiscations would stop at semiautomatic rifles such as the SKS, read on...

Police commissioner Charles Ramsey became incensed at the news conference when a reporter asked if, in fact, the weapon that killed Sgt. Liczbinski might not be covered by an assault weapon ban:

"Let me just say this -- if it's not an assault weapon by definition, then add it to the frickin' list. Add it to the frickin' list! We don't need it."

It deserves to be asked what kinds of weapons police officers are most often killed with. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing it'd be your ordinary garden-variety handgun. Hell, just yesterday in Houston an illegal immigrant was convicted of capital murder for killing a cop with one. So the logic would say that what the Commish is advocating would be a ban on handguns. And we see how well THAT worked in the city Ramsey worked in before he came to Philadelphia. As for the demonization of the high-capacity magazine, I think it's probably safe to say that's more or less political posturing because many if not most armed confrontations involve less than ten rounds per party being squeezed off anyway. (Personally, if I couldn't get what I needed done with 15 rounds of .45ACP -- 7 rounds, 1 in the chamber and a spare mag -- then I'd think I had bigger problems, but that's just my personal choice.) Or maybe they're just too chickenshit to come out and say what they really want, which is a ban on anything that can fire more than one round before reloading. As for the police commissioner and those who share his oh-so-professional outlook, the only thing I can say is...
"From my cold, dead hands, you totalitarian fiends. From my cold, dead hands."