(January 18, 2005) Last year the public saw through Ceasefire's poorly disguised attempt to ban semi-auto firearms by comparing them with "assault weapons." Once legislators learned that new registration of real assault weapons is federally banned (as it has been since 1986) gun banners were left with the impossible task of arguing how cosmetics somehow make a public safety difference. They don't.

Having failed to blur the term "assault weapon", gun grabbers made up a new term and today begin their push to define "copycat weapons" into law. This word game is a desperate political attempt to keep public safety discussion one step ahead of what the public understands.

Judge the credibility of this 'copycat weapon' proposal by what you see in today's headlines. News services report that another gun control law, ballistic fingerprinting, is a total failure, having spent millions of tax dollars for no crimes solved. The advocacy groups pushing a copycat weapon law today are the same ones who in 2000 brought you ballistic fingerprinting, claiming it is proven technology and promising immediate results. They were wrong on then, and they are wrong now.