Assault weapons ban ends. Why?

Bush didn't raise a finger to stop the assault weapons ban from expiring. Frist, Delay and Hastert agreed any extension of the ban would be killed in conference.

You've just got to wonder who's benefiting from an end to the assault weapons ban. Gun manufacturers and dealers, sure. What about the Private prison industry? the Republican leadership is mighty chummy with them. Remember; Bush sent a private prisons industry executive over to Iraq to run the prisons. The logic is there, private prisons would benefit from an increase in violent crime... wouldn't they.

But maybe others would benefit too. What about Drug Cartels? They've already reaped big benefits from the way the Bush Administration handled the invasion of Afghanistan. You know, record poppy harvests ever since the U.S. dislodged the Taliban and then stopped short.
Defunding the 1994 crime bills '100K cops on the street' provision and freely available assault weapons would make it much easier to get a drug dealer back on every urban street corner. After all with bumper poppy crops, there's a lot of "merchandise" to move.

We already know that Bill Frist and his family have lots of Drug connections and there's nothing like plenty of gun shot wounds to keep an emergency-room bustling. But what about DeLay and Hastert? Where does there money come from? Who backs their campaigns?