PSH from Omaha

Lynn Safranek, writing for the Omaha World Herald fills us in on How Things Are

You don't need a permit in Nebraska to buy the military-style rifle that was used to kill eight people last month at Von Maur

You don't need a permit to buy any standard firearm in Nebraska, as far as I know. Of course, the rifle used in Nebraska was stolen, so your point is moot.

With the 2004 expiration of a federal ban on assault weapons, and little appetite in Congress to enact gun restrictions, the states must decided individually whether to ban — or restrict access to — certain firearms.

Wonder why? Maybe "We the People" voted them all out of office?

The injured Bellevue girl's father — himself a hunter — questions the need for average citizens to own such weapons, as does a veteran trauma surgeon who has treated thousands of people with gunshot wounds — and who operated on Fred Wilson, a survivor of the Dec. 5 Von Maur shootings.

Two moves here - dancing in the blood of the wounded, and saying "See, hunters don't like them, why should you?" As for the trauma surgeon, I expect that. They're supposed to be against Things That Hurt Us. Many of them still call motorcycles "murder-cycles" too.

The term "assault weapon" can refer to specific models of weapons and their duplicates, or to pistols, shotguns or rifles that have more than one feature common to military-style weapons.

In other words, it can refer to just about anything you want it to. Mostly, things that have nothing to do with how a weapon functions.

Rifle ammunition explodes body tissue, giving shooting victims a low chance of survival if they are hit in the head, neck, chest or abdomen, Stothert said. People shot by handguns tend to suffer less damage, he said.

Ho-lee sheepshit. I have no other words for this.

The ammunition used in AK-style firearms also is used in some hunting rifles.

Almost. The ammunition is similar to what I assume you refer to as a hunting rifle, but not the same. Of course, I'd use an SKS to hunt, if I had one, and if I hunted.

Not being satisfied with dancing in the blood of the wounded, Lynn moves on to the dead:

Families of the Von Maur victims will be watching what the Legislature does. Jeff Schaffart, who was wounded in the Von Maur shooting, and the family of Janet Jorgensen, who died, attended a committee hearing Friday for Ashford's proposal.

But, one (state) is not enough!

Such support, however, has meant little in another state that has endured a traumatic mass murder.

In Virginia, a proposal to require background checks on all buyers of firearms at gun shows is expected to fail, despite strong vocal support from families of last year's Virginia Tech shooting victims.

What total crap. As reprehensible as it is to recall a local tragedy, Lynn goes halfway across the country to invoke the VT shootings, just to make a point.

UPDATE: Sebastian has more. Same title, too. Great minds....

Wonder what else this person has written?.