from Sydney Morning Herald

A 10-year federal ban on assault weapons expires today in the United States, allowing Americans to buy AK-47s and Uzis at their local gun stores.

“George Bush gave police officers his word that he would keep the ban,” Kerry said, “but when it came time to extend it, Bush’s powerful friends in the gun lobby asked him to look the other way. He just couldn’t resist, and he said ‘Sure’. He chose to make the job of terrorists easier and make the job of America’s police officers harder.”

The law prohibited the manufacture and distribution of 19 kinds of semiautomatic firearms that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition while allowing such guns already in circulation to remain there.

Several states have bans on assault weapons. However, the powerful National Rifle Association, which fights for gun-ownership rights, has said the ban did nothing to curb violent crime on America’s streets.

The US Department of Justice said over the weekend that last year’s violent and property crimes stabilised at their lowest levels since the government began the survey in 1973.

Last year, 24 per cent of all violent crimes were committed by an offender with some type of weapon, 7 per cent with a firearm.

Critics of assault weapons also have argued that the ban needs to remain in place to make it more difficult to obtain the guns that are capable of causing mass deaths and were used in such crimes as the 1999 killings at a school in Columbine, Colorado, and the sniper attacks on Washington-area residents two years ago.

You know, it’s funny. Just the other day I was thinking “The US is living in such an uncertain and paranoid climate at the moment. Highly emotive, controversial issues are increasingly prevalent, political parties are increasingly divisive, many average citizens are finding themselves at each others’ throats, and there’s a constant and carefully-controlled ambience of fear in levels not seen since the Red Scare of the 1950’s. Let’s throw some semi-automatic assault rifles into the mix!” Goddamn! Where’s my passport?

Now it’s time for this week’s edition of Lies or Incompetence? You decide. Enjoy.