The Associated Press
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Tulsa police are joining officers nationwide in an effort to encourage lawmakers to renew a ban on assault weapons set to expire Monday.
Police say the ban on 19 military-style assault weapons and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines helps stem the flow of dangerous weapons to the streets.
“They’re not used for sport, they’re not even good for target practice,” Tulsa Police Chief Dave Been said. “They’re just there to hurt people.”
The law, which also bans accessories including silencers and bayonets, was passed in 1994 as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
The local and national lodges of the Fraternal Order of Police support the passages of two federal bills that would extend the ban another 10 years.
Both bills are still pending and no member of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation is listed as a sponsor of either bill.
Tom Coburn, a former Oklahoma congressman and a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said he welcomes the expiration of the ban and is opposed to attempts to reinstate it.
“I always have staunchly supported our constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Coburn said in a statement. “If we take firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, the only people with guns would be criminals.”
But Been said police chiefs in “almost every major city” in the nation oppose the ban’s expiration.
“It’s just clearly a danger to all officers on the street,” Been said.
In addition to the federal ban, some states have laws against assault weapons, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Other states including Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Colorado and Missouri, do not.
Although no Tulsa police officer has been killed by a banned assault weapon, local officers come face to face with them in the line of duty.
Officer Keith Fallis, the president of Tulsa’s FOP lodge, said he arrested a man who had access to a weapon similar to an AR-15.
But Fallis said not all Tulsa police officers oppose the weapons ban.
He said some officers think the ban is excessive, considering how often the weapons are actually used in crimes.
He said the ban also raises the prices of the weapons, which makes it more difficult for departments and officers to purchase them.
However, Fallis said the FOP’s position is that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
“The possibility is there and if we can limit that possibility, it makes it safer for the police officers on the street,” he said.