Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban

via ABC News

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

“I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.” Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.

Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.

D.C. Residents Scrambling to Arm Themselves After Supreme Court Lift Ban

I cram to understand why the Supreme Court would overturn a ban on guns for the District of Columbia when just last month the police militarized a section of D.C. and regulated traffic in and out of a zone that was plagued by gun violence.  Why say you are trying to get firearms off the streets but you turn around and allow citizens to arm themselves?  The article below illustrates how citizens are scrambling to arm themselves, but in response to what?  What is the rush for armaments about?

via AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dale Metta, who manages a gun shop just outside the District of Columbia limits in Maryland, has had to turn away dozens of city residents wanting to buy handguns in recent days. Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court just struck down Washington’s 32-year-old ban on possessing handguns.

“I’d like to sell anything I have,” said Metta. But he won’t just yet – not until the city draws up new regulations.

The Supreme Court’s decision June 26 rebuffed the strictest gun law in the nation.

The National Rifle Association called it “a great moment in American history.” But prospective gun buyers and sellers said they remain on hold, awaiting the response of D.C. officials who are scrambling to draft new handgun regulations that comply with the court ruling.