From the pulpit of the White House press box, more assault weapons lies are being spewed. The latest comes from the likely source of press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who will literally read whatever she is told to, whether or not it is true or even believable.
Following another mass shooting, this one taking place at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, the political left and so the Biden Administration is once again trying to push for an all-out ban on what they call assault weapons.
Why?
Well, because in their minds, “assault weapons” are the most dangerous, and the previous ban on such weapons worked.
Or at least that’s what KJP told the press on Monday when she tried to explain why Biden has “called on Republicans in Congress to work together with Democrats to take action to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
KJP: "If you think about Assault Weapons Ban…We saw gun violence go down. When it sunset 10 years laters, it went back up!" pic.twitter.com/4TUTkUSNNP
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 10, 2023
There’s just one problem… well, several, actually.
The first is that “assault weapons” don’t actually exist. When you hear this phrasing, it’s meant to mean
“weapons of war” such as the AR-15 or similar semi and fully-automatic rifles, which the political left perceives as scary and dangerous.
The second problem is that while there was an “assault weapons” ban in 1994, it did little to nothing to stop either mass shootings or homicide rates in the US. And there’s plenty of data to back that up.
This literally never happened.
Here's the DOJ saying it didn't happen https://t.co/H4IPoUBHVF
Here's JAMA saying it didn't happenhttps://t.co/L8RsI35nq9
Here's RAND saying it didn't happenhttps://t.co/eRff2Pwmh0
Here's NYT saying it didn't happen https://t.co/Q6Db7XhuQA https://t.co/pQn778L7YN
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) April 10, 2023
The most damning bit of evidence comes from a New York Times 2014 piece describing what actually happened during the ten years the ban was in place, as well as the ten years following the gun ban. “The law that barred the sale of assault weapons from 1994 to 2004 make little difference.”
Lois Beckett wrote, “It turns out that big, scary military rifles don’t kill the vast majority of the 11,000 Americans murdered with guns each year. Little handguns do.”
And yet, we don’t see bans on handguns being pushed by the White House.
Furthermore, as the Department of Justice even admitted after a study of the ban was conducted, only two percent of gun crimes involved “assault weapons.” On the other hand, handguns were used for a whopping 80 percent. In fact, one main reason the ban was not continued past 2004 was that these studies admitted that little to no difference could be seen, meaning it was hardly worth the government’s time or money to keep it in place.
Fast forward 20 years, and those rates haven’t changed much. That means another ban won’t be any more worth the effort.
