(UnitedVoice.com) – When President Joe Biden ran for the White House, he made gun control one of the cornerstones of his platform. One of the measures he wanted to implement was a ban on so-called assault weapons. Those are semi-automatic rifles like AR-15s. Apparently, he’s running on the same platform again.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently shared a promise that landed her in some hot water with the largest gun rights organization in America.
A History Lesson
On August 22, Harris posted a quote from Biden on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The POTUS said he was “determined to ban assault weapons” and told the American people that he had done it before and he intended to do it again.
Harris boldly declared that Biden “has taken on the NRA and won.”
.@JoeBiden has taken on the @NRA and won.
He can do it again. pic.twitter.com/gix1vXVtRw
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 22, 2023
The vice president and president were referring to his vote in 1994 to ban semi-automatic firearms as part of the crime bill. President Bill Clinton went on to sign the bill into law.
The NRA responded to Harris in a statement to Fox News Digital. Spokesman Billy McLaughlin said the VP “should learn her history before going on social media.” He explained that the NRA is why the bill expired in 2004 after a 10-year prohibition on the weapons. Once it expired, “AR-15 ownership surged from 850,000 then to 25 million today.”
Pointless Policy
There are many arguments about whether or not the ban on assault weapons was successful. Many studies show that mass shootings decreased while it was in place and increased dramatically when it went back into effect. However, in 1999, the Department of Justice found it wasn’t effective at all.
As the NRA pointed out, the world is a much different place now than it was in the 1990s. In March, a Washington Post and Ipsos poll found that 31% of adults own firearms. Twenty percent (20%) of adults admitted that they own a semi-automatic rifle. That’s approximately 16 million Americans with an AR-15 in their arsenal.
It would be nearly impossible to eradicate the gun in America. Further, handguns actually kill more people per year than rifles do, but the president isn’t talking about banning them. Instead, he’s targeting the ones his party always complains about.
The chances of the president pushing an assault weapons ban through Congress are almost zero because the Democratic Party does not have a majority in the House and only has a slim majority in the Senate. He would need a filibuster-proof majority in Congress.
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