{"id":302357,"date":"2021-03-24T17:45:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T21:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=302357"},"modified":"2021-03-24T17:46:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T21:46:04","slug":"why-the-1994-assault-weapons-ban-didnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-the-1994-assault-weapons-ban-didnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Didn\u2019t Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-the-1994-assault-weapons-ban-didnt-work%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=302357&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-3289.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>In the aftermath of the mass shooting events in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado, the Biden administration has urged Congress to implement a ban on so-called \u201cassault weapons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/psaki-biden-considering-executive-action-on-guns\"><span>told<\/span><\/a><span> reporters on Tuesday that President Biden is \u201cconsidering a range of levers, including working through legislation, including executive action\u201d for new gun control measures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Also on Tuesday, Biden delivered remarks on the need to ban \u201cassault weapons\u201d and \u201chigh capacity magazines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI got that done as a Senator. It brought down mass shootings, we can do it again,\u201d Biden remarked. \u201cWe can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>President Biden was referring to his role in passing the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act \u2014 a portion of the <\/span><span>Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 \u2014 which halted the manufacture of many semi-automatic firearms for civilian purposes. The Bush administration permitted the bill to expire in 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Biden touted his role in passing the 1994 legislation throughout the 2020 election season, and the Biden-Harris campaign <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/joebiden.com\/gunsafety\/\"><span>platform<\/span><\/a><span> applauded his \u201cpassage of 10-year bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Far preceding the recent presidential race, Biden has consistently invoked the assault weapons ban as a resounding success and a key legislative accomplishment of his four-decade career in Congress. For instance, after President Obama tapped then-Vice President Biden to lead the administration\u2019s gun violence task force following the 2012 Newtown shooting, Biden <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnsnews.com\/news\/article\/biden-1994-assault-weapons-ban-worked-too-well\"><span>told<\/span><\/a><span> the<\/span><span> public that \u201cthe crime bill worked too well because what happened was violent crime diminished significantly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Later analyses <\/span><span>\u2014<\/span><span> which note that assault weapons have an inconsequential role in gun crimes broadly and mass shootings specifically <\/span><span>\u2014<\/span><span> beg to differ.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cAssault weapons\u201d apply to small percentage of crimes<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>The 1994 assault weapons ban was ineffective in curbing firearm deaths fundamentally because it applied to a very small number of crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In July 2004, Christopher Koper <\/span><span>\u2014<\/span><span> a former University of Pennsylvania researcher and current George Mason University criminology professor <\/span><span>\u2014<\/span><span> carried out a federally-funded <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ojp.gov\/pdffiles1\/nij\/grants\/204431.pdf\"><span>assessment<\/span><\/a><span> of the assault weapons ban for the Department of Justice. To this day, the report is among the most often cited analyses of the 1994 legislation.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Koper acknowledged that assault weapons \u201cwere used in only a small fraction of gun crimes prior to the ban: about 2% according to most studies and no more than 8%.\u201d Most of these weapons were \u201cassault pistols rather than assault rifles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Accordingly, he was skeptical of the continued success of the regulations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cShould it be renewed, the ban\u2019s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement,\u201d Koper said, again emphasizing that assault weapons \u201cwere rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Fifteen years after the 1994 legislation expired, Amy Swearer <\/span><span>\u2014<\/span><span> a Senior Legal Policy Analyst for the Heritage Foundation <\/span><span>\u2014<\/span><span> emphasized similar findings during <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/testimony\/protecting-america-assault-weapons\"><span>testimony<\/span><\/a><span> to the House Judiciary Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cBanning the civilian possession of certain commonly owned semi-automatic rifles is an unnecessary and ineffective means of combating gun-related violence, in large part because these rifles are simply not used in the overwhelming majority of firearm-related deaths in the United States,\u201d she stated. \u201cThey play such a minimal role in gun-related violence that, even if prohibition were 100% successful and no substitution for other firearms occurred, such a law would fail to have a meaningful impact on overall rates of gun violence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Swearer also cited a 2017 FBI <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ucr.fbi.gov\/crime-in-the-u.s\/2017\/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017\/tables\/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls\"><span>report<\/span><\/a><span> showing that \u201c<\/span><span>far from being the weapon of choice for would-be criminals, semi-automatic rifles are statistically the type of firearm least likely to be used for unlawful purposes, particularly compared to handguns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cAssault weapons\u201d aren\u2019t always a \u201cmajor factor\u201d for mass shootings<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>Though proponents of banning assault weapons claim that such policies would limit deaths from mass shootings, the data point to different conclusions.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In his assessment, Koper wrote that mass shootings are \u201cvery rare.\u201d He concluded that any drops in violent crime involving assault weapons were \u201c<\/span><span>likely to have been outweighed by steady or rising use of non- banned semiautomatics\u201d with large capacity magazines, \u201cwhich are used in crime much more frequently\u201d than assault weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Swearer similarly testified that assault weapons aren\u2019t the central necessary component for those hoping to inflict massive casualties. She observed that \u201cgun control advocates, politicians, and the media routinely characterize semi-automatic rifles, specifically the AR-15, as the \u2018weapon of choice\u2019 for mass public shooters,\u201d although such conclusions are \u201cobjectively incorrect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe reality is that, even if all would-be mass public shooters were successfully diverted to the use of \u2018non-assault weapons,\u2019 it would likely have no meaningful impact on their ability to kill large numbers of unarmed civilians,\u201d she added in reference to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2012\/12\/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data\/\"><span>data<\/span><\/a><span> from Mother Jones\u2019 mass shooting database. \u201cWith only a few notable exceptions, such as the Las Vegas shooting in 2018, the type of firearm was simply not a major factor in the ability of mass shooters to cause significant casualties, particularly compared to other important factors such as the time the shooter remained unconfronted by an armed response.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the aftermath of the mass shooting events in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado, the Biden administration has urged Congress to implement a ban on so-called \u201cassault weapons.\u201dWhite House Press &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311096,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-3289.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Why The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Didn\u2019t Work","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-3289.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Why The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Didn\u2019t Work","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}