New York Times Columnist Gail Collins Proposes a ‘Simple Battle’ To ‘Get Rid of the Guns’

If we are “sick of massacres,” says the headline over Gail Collins’ latest New York Times column, we should “get rid of the guns.” Which guns? Collins herself is not sure. Sometimes she seems to be talking about the rifles that politicians call “assault weapons.” She refers a few times to “assault rifles” and mentions “the infamous semiautomatic AR-15.” But she also talks about banning “semiautomatic rifles” and “semiautomatics” in general, which are much broader categories that include many other commonly used guns.

As long as they do not have military-style features such as a folding stock, a pistol grip, or a threaded barrel, semi-automatic rifles are not covered by state “assault weapon” laws. The bill aimed at reviving the federal ban that expired in 2004 explicitly exempts dozens of semi-automatic rifles by name, and it applies to handguns only if they have specified characteristics such as a threaded barrel, a second pistol grip, or a barrel shroud.

Collins does not seem to understand any of this, which is both surprising and typical. It is surprising because Collins has worked at the Times since 1995, oversaw the paper’s editorial page for six years, and has frequently written about gun control. It is typical because Collins has repeatedly demonstrated that she is unfamiliar with the firearms she wants to ban and unwilling to think through the practical consequences of the policies she favors, both of which are common failings among gun control enthusiasts.

After the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, Collins expressed amazement at the idea that Americans have “a right to bear Glocks.” She drew a distinction between the Glock 19 used by the Tucson shooter and “a regular pistol, the kind most Americans think of when they think of the right to bear arms.” Unlike a “regular pistol,” she explained, a Glock 19 “is extremely easy to fire over and over, and it can carry a 30-bullet clip.”

Although Collins claims a Glock 19 is not “a regular pistol,” it is one of the most popular handguns in the United States. And contrary to what she seems to think, all semi-automatic pistols fire at the same rate, and they typically accept magazines of various sizes.

In 2012, Collins described “assault weapons” as “guns that allow you to shoot off 100 bullets in a couple of minutes”—i.e., about one round per second. That description would cover any semi-automatic firearm with a detachable magazine, including “regular” pistols as well as many of the rifles specifically exempted from the proposed federal ban on “assault weapons.”

Three years later, Collins averred that “assault weapons…seem to be t