I don’t care about crime,  I just want to get the guns.  No, we’re not looking at how to control criminals  . . .  we’re talking about banning the AK-47 and semi-automatic guns. Until we can ban all of the firearms,  then we might as well ban none.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum
[Just so you know what most in the gun-rights movement have discovered after only a modest amount of research. It’s not crime control that drives the people that want to ban guns.–Joe]

Update: Due to interest in an accurate citation of this quote I went looking some more. I looked yesterday but wasn’t able to find anything satisfactory. Here are some hints:

• From HK Weapons Systems: it is suggested it was in 1993 or maybe 1994.
• From a personal profile on Free Republic: it is suggested it was during a debate on the Brady Bill in 1993.
• It is not on the list of Second Amendment Foundation or the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms bogus quotes.
• It is not on the list of bogus quotes at GunCite.
• Searches for “I don’t care about crime” and Metzenbaum (Google, Live Search, Yahoo) get a lots of hits.

If I were to spend more time on this I would look for transcripts of the debate on the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban. But I don’t really have the time.