President Obama Calls For Reinstatement Of Assault Weapons Ban

It was only a matter of time.

On Saturday, President Obama called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.

“Being tough on terrorism — particularly the sorts of homegrown terrorism that we’ve seen now in Orlando and San Bernardino — means making it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on assault weapons that are capable of killing dozens of innocents as quickly as possible,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “That’s something I’ll continue to talk about in the weeks ahead.”

Yeaaaaaaah….about that whole “assault weapons” ban.

The1994 assault weapons law banned semi-automatic rifles only if they had any two of the following five features in addition to a detachable magazine: a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor, or a grenade launcher.

None of those features changes the way the gun operates or makes the gun more “deadly.”

The liberals who support the so-called “assault weapons ban” don’t realize that. Heck, they’re unable to even able to identify what they banned the first time around and why. Case in point:

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A barrel shroud? It’s a “shoulder thing,” apparently.

Needless to say, the assault weapons ban was virtually useless.

The law expired in September of 2004, making 2003 the last full calendar year in which the law was in effect. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime statistics, 390 people were murdered with rifles in 2003, making rifles the weapon of choice in 2.7 percent of murders that year. But in 2014, more than a decade after these vile weapons of war flooded American streets, the number of rifle murders surely skyrocketed, right?

 

Not so much. Quite the opposite. In 2014, the most recent year for which detailed FBI data are available, rifles were used in 248 murders. And not only are rifles used in far fewer murders over a decade following the expiration of the 1994 gun ban, they’re also used in a smaller percentage of homicides. In 2003, when the gun ban was in full effect, rifles were used in nearly 3 percent of murders. In 2014, they were used in barely 2 percent.

 

That’s the exact opposite of what gun banners said should happen. After the assault weapons ban, guns were supposed to flood the streets and just start killing people. Crime was supposed to skyrocket. But that’s not what happened. Yes, Americans bought a ton of rifles after the law expired, but rather than going up, the number of homicides in which rifles were used drastically fell. There were way more guns, but way less crime.

The assault weapons ban was nothing more than the left’s attempt to appease liberal sensibilities.

But don’t worry guys. Obama has a great plan. Banning guns with scary looking cosmetic features will totally stop the bad guys. For sure.