During the first week of September, the latest mass shooting tragedy occurred at a high school in Winder, Georgia. This has thrust the issue of gun safety reform squarely into the 2024 presidential campaign.
Thus far, there have been more mass shootings than days in the year (385 according to the Gun Violence Archive). Here are a few other shocking statistics to consider:
- There are more firearms among the American civilian population than people — over 400 million according to a global ranking by the Small Arms Survey.
- “No other country has more than 46 million guns or 18 mass shooters — the U.S. is way worse than the Philippines, Russia, China or India.”
- Americans alone own 40% of all guns in the world, more than all civilians combined in 25 other countries.
- A survey by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva found the gun ownership rate for Americans is 120 firearms per every 100 people.
- For comparison, the rate of firearms ownership for Japan and Indonesia is about one gun per every 100 people.
Obviously, there are countless issues to address in the gun debate. The one I’m examining today is a national ban on assault weapons.
The legality and mass availability of assault weapons — from gun stores to the neighborhood Walmart — is one notable factor fueling this crisis.
The AR-15 assault-style rifle has become the weapon of choice for mass shooters, as evidenced from data in these cases.
The AR-15 is the firearm used at yesterday’s school shooting. It’s also the same firearm used in the assassination attempt against former president Trump.
Harris and Trump Speak Out
Vice President Harris has long supported banning the national sale of assault weapons, whereas former president Trump has generally been against any major restrictions on gun rights.
Harris said the following yesterday at a campaign event in New Hampshire:
- “This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that every day in our country parents have to send their children to school, worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It’s senseless.”
- “We’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Meanwhile, Trump issued the following statement via his social media site:
- “Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA.”
- “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
Below are four typical myths about banning assault weapons….
Myth #1: Banning assault weapons will lead to a national ban on all gun sales.
As everyone knows by now, military-style assault weapons are meant to kill as many people as possible, and as quickly as possible.
That’s why many major law enforcement organizations and police officers support a prohibition on the sale of assault weapons. Fighting crime is difficult and dangerous enough without having to apprehend criminals using military-style weapons of war.
FACT: Banning semi-automatic assault weapons will NOT result in a so-called “slippery slope” leading to the abolition of all guns.
It’s not a binary decision. This is particularly true considering how many handguns and rifles are already on the streets of America, and how easily they are obtained.
It would be impossible to eradicate the huge number of guns already circulating nationwide, not to mention prohibiting all sales of any new guns.
Therefore, claiming the opposite is a simple scare tactic.
FACT: banning assault weapons can be accomplished while also upholding broad Second Amendment gun rights.
Myth #2: Congress and the President could never pass a bipartisan bill.
Of course, this would not happen today with all the toxicity and tribalism within the current Congress. But who knows how the political landscape will shake out regarding the presidency and Congress after the 2024 elections?
Democrats might retain the White House and further solidify their majority in the Senate, while regaining the majority in the House.
FACT: Congressional sentiment on guns could shift, with a bipartisan compromise possible in the near future.
Although Congress is strongly influenced by public opinion on a macro and micro level, gun reform has been a stubborn exception — even though poll after poll clearly shows the overwhelming majority of Americans favoring smart and sensible gun reforms (about 80% generally, on average).
President Bill Clinton proved successful in supporting and signing the last bipartisan national assault weapons ban in 1994.
But the NRA and congressional Republicans made sure there were loopholes to weaken the legislative intent of this reasonable restriction. Provisions inserted by conservative Republicans at the behest of the gun lobby let the law lapse after a decade.
Fast forward to 2004: President George W. Bush failed to advocate for a renewal of the assault weapons ban when it expired, leaving these weapons of war to once again proliferate unchecked in the public domain. What was the predictable result?
America today is a nation incessantly on edge, a country which has lost its moral compass due to a seemingly never-ending epidemic of mass gun violence.
Myth #3: The framers of the Constitution wanted the Second Amendment to be absolute
That means no restrictions or limitations on gun ownership whatsoever at any future time.
It’s worth pointing out that when the Founding Fathers penned the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the weapons of choice were muskets — which fired one shot at a time and needed constant reloading.
Did the framers of the Constitution really anticipate citizens of the future arming themselves with the deadliest high-tech military-style firearms which can kill and maim dozens of people in a minute or less?
It should be noted that there’s a significant difference between the “right to keep and bear arms” and arming oneself with the most lethal types of firearms. This should be a simple question of common sense to any rational-minded person.
Are citizens able to purchase tanks at the local car dealership or shoulder-fired missiles at the neighborhood Walmart?
It’s instructive that a leading fixture of the conservative movement (now deceased) had expressed doubts about keeping assault weapons in the hands of the general public.
FACT: The late Supreme Court Justice, conservative icon Antonin Scalia, inferred that the Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms” is NOT necessarily ironclad and could include limitations.
Scalia made this assertion during an interview in 2012 on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace:
- “They had some limitations on the nature of arms that could be borne,” Scalia said regarding the context of the Founding Fathers’ original intent during the 18th century.
- When asked about how the modern-day Supreme Court might rule in a case involving the legality of assault weapons in the public sphere, Scalia offered a tepid reply: “We’ll see…It will have to be decided.”
- He emphasized the “bear arms” point to say that while owning a gun is perfectly legal, owning a cannon is a different story.
- He said that if and when such a case comes before the Supreme Court, he would have to make a legal call based on what were understood limitations.
FACT: The Supreme Court has stated that — in certain circumstances — reasonable restrictions on firearms are consistent with the Constitution, per the 2009 ruling in United States v. Hayes.
Myth #4: Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.
The often-cited NRA mantra is a misnomer.
The gun lobby and its accomplices in Congress continue saying things like, “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun.” Of course, there is a mental health crisis in America, but allowing the use of assault weapons only makes a bad problem much worse.
FACT: While guns technically don’t kill on their own, assault weapons are a deadly means to that end on a mass scale.
FACT: There’s a major distinction between pulling the trigger of a handgun or hunting rifle versus that of an AR-15 or similar type of assault weapon.
The Takeaway
You can support reasonable gun reforms without supporting the abolition of all guns. Don’t let the NRA and Republicans brainwash you into equating one with the other. This is not a mutually exclusive matter.
Having control over weapons of mass murder is a good thing, whereas total loss of control to mass murders is not.
Every legitimate national public opinion survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly support reasonable restrictions on firearms, usually by upwards of 80%.
Again, the only purpose of military-style assault weapons is to kill as many people as possible, and as quickly as possible.
Facts are facts no matter how Trump and Republicans try to spin it.
CALL TO ACTION: Phone your members of Congress to voice support for a national assault weapons ban to help curb the mass shooting epidemic. You can reach your representatives in the House and Senate via the Capitol Hill switch board at 202–224–3121.
photo by Associated Press
- Debunking 4 Major Myths of Assault Weapons Ban – by David Grinberg - September 17, 2024
- One 9/11 Victim’s Positive Impact Posthumously – by David B. Grinberg - September 17, 2024
- HONORING MLK DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH – by David Grinberg - February 14, 2024