Ban Assault Weapons NOW!!! NO COMPROMISE!!!

Posted on by under guns, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Yesterday, Jim Jordan canceled a hearing to de-regulate “pistol straps,” devices that enhance the killing efficiency of pistols.  His reason for cancelling wasn’t respect or compassion for the six people, three of them children, who died in the Nashville school shooting earlier in the day, but rather fear that the shooting would trigger negativity by people with a conscience (Democrats).  Jordan did not want Democrats to use the hearing to highlight that Republicans care more about blood money from lobbyists than they care about the lives of schoolchildren.

Most mass shootings, including the one yesterday at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, are committed using assault weapons such as the AR-15.  And so once again it is time to have serious discussion about reinstating the assault weapons ban that was allowed by Congress to expire in 2004, but next time it needs to be made permanent – assault weapons were made for the military, not for civilians and they need to be made completely inaccessible to the public!!!  No compromise!!!

Let’s hear what Robert Reich has to say on this topic …

The lives of our children or the greed of gun manufacturers?

By Robert Reich

28 March 2023

Friends,

Yesterday morning, a woman armed with assault rifles entered a Christian school in Nashville and fatally shot three nine-year-old children and three staff members before she was shot and killed by the police.

It makes me weep. It’s happening again and again and again. Our children.

President Biden renewed his call for Congress to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, but with Republicans in control of the House there’s little to no chance.

So far this year, there have been 129 mass shootings in the United States.

Ten of the 17 deadliest U.S. mass shootings since 2012 have involved AR-15s. In a review of the history of the AR-15, the Washington Post reports that it was originally designed in the 1950s as a soldiers’ rifle. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” according to an internal Pentagon report. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in Vietnam (where the weapon was called the M16).

Few gunmakers envisioned that ordinary people would buy the semiautomatic version, which didn’t seem suited for hunting and appeared overkill for home defense. The National Rifle Association and other industry allies focused on promoting traditional rifles and handguns.

Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, owned by about 1 in 20 U.S. adults, or roughly 16 million people. It dominates the walls and websites of gun dealers. (Republican Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama has even introduced a bill to declare the AR-15 the “National Gun of America.”)

What accounts for this dramatic change? Follow the money. The early 2000s were a tough time for the firearms industry. Gun sales had been flat for several years. But after the Assault Weapons Ban ended in 2004, gun manufacturers saw a chance to ride a post-9/11 surge in military glorification. As America soldiers were seen in Afghanistan and Iraq wearing tactical gear and holding M16 and M4 carbine rifles, gunmakers used the conflict-zone images to market AR-15s.

“We made it look cool,” said Randy Luth, the founder of gunmaker DPMS, one of the earliest companies to promote AR-15s. “The same reason you buy a Corvette.”

One Smith & Wesson AR-15 ended up in the hands of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who fatally shot two people and wounded a third during 2020’s racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As Rittenhouse explained during his trial, he chose an AR-15 because “I thought it looked cool.”

Another AR-15 was alluring to the gunman who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo in May 2022. “The AR-15 and its variants are very deadly when used properly,” he wrote in a manifesto filled with racial vitriol. “Which is the reason I picked one.” Ten days later, 19 schoolchildren and two adults were shot to death in Uvalde, Tex., with another AR-15.

The string of attacks prompted President Biden, who as a senator had strongly supported the 1994 assault weapons ban, to promise a renewed effort to stop the sale of military-style weapons. Last year, the Democratic-led House passed a new assault weapons ban on a tight party-line vote of 217-213 — the first time the measure had been voted on in nearly three decades. But the Senate, also run by Democrats, never took action.

***

When Bill Clinton signed the original Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, he was widely condemned by Republicans and gun owners. The Democrats’ subsequent losses of the House and Senate in the 1996 midterm elections were partly blamed on the ban. But it saved lives.

The 10-year length of the ban has allowed researchers to compare mass shooting deaths before, during, and after the ban.

Before: From 1981 (the earliest year analyzed) until the ban went into effect in 1994, the proportion of deaths in mass shootings in which an assault rifle was used was lower than it is today, and the average number of yearly deaths attributed to mass shootings was 7.2.

During: In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the average number of yearly deaths from mass shootings fell to 5.3. Even including 1999’s Columbine High School massacre (the deadliest mass shooting during the period of the ban), the 1994 to 2004 period saw lower average annual rates of both mass shootings and deaths resulting from such incidents than before the ban’s inception.

After: In the years after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004, the data shows an almost immediate – and steep – rise in mass shooting deaths to an average of 25.

Researchers have calculated that the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70 percent lower when assault weapons ban was in place than it is today.

Facts, data, logic, analysis — do they play any role in what our government decides? The Republican Party in particular no longer listens, or thinks. It is owned — lock, stock, and barrel — by the gun industry.

You might think that preventing young children from being murdered in random mass killings by assailants with assault weapons would be a goal shared by all lawmakers. But you’d be wrong.

The Assault Weapons Ban must be reinstated — the greed of gun manufacturers be damned.

23 thoughts on “Ban Assault Weapons NOW!!! NO COMPROMISE!!!”

    • Nah, Barry Moore is a coward like all the rest. In my book, only a coward needs a gun unless he’s in the military or law enforcement. Barry Moore is a coward, as are the fidiots in Congress who actually carry their guns and thus had the metal detectors removed so they wouldn’t have to go through them any more. That’s a new expression … yeah, maternalophile … it fits!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I wonder if it would help if the publicity stopped. So many of the killers want to see their names and faces on TV, front pages, magazine covers.. Can we ban the reporters from the scene? Of course not. Freedom of the press at stake, yet I wonder if it would continue if the reporters stayed away.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. We’re not even a quarter into the year and 129 mass shoutings already. How absolutely devastating and infuriating. I was reading the stories about the event yesterday and just the part about 9-year-old children. This should not happen at all.

    Liked by 1 person

    • It is devastating and infuriating. I was truly enraged this afternoon when I read a congressman’s statement that gun control isn’t the answer, but prayer is. And then later I read another statement from a different congressman who said, “We can’t fix it” … while sort of shrugging his shoulders. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …

      Liked by 2 people

  6. I have to add the comment made by someone on the Substack copy Robert’s article:

    What ever happened to ‘Thou salt not kill”? But again, it would appear that tiny bundles of cells that may or may not become an actual person are considered far more important than an actual child or adult.

    I cannot agree more!!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yep, that tiny bunch of cells must be defended at all costs, even the cost of a woman’s life, but once born, children are expendable. Oh, and let’s not forget how states are working to “protect” children from drag shows! Don’t let them see a male dressed as a woman, but let them look down the barrel of a gun in school, the one place they should be safe! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

      Liked by 1 person

  7. One can’t help but wonder if U.S. House of Representatives Andy Ogles, whose district includes the Tennessee school where six people were fatally shot, has ANY regrets related to the Christmas photo of him and his family posing with guns …

    My opinion? None at all. In his mind (and others like him), I’m sure he believes all the school staff AND children should be trained on how to shoot a gun so they can “protect” themselves against those “other guys” who are mean and want to shoot people.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’ve seen Andy and his Christmas card mentioned more than a few times in the news today! From his statement earlier, I’m guessing that no, he has no remorse, not so much as a twinge of conscience. I know it’s cruel of me, but I want to say to him and others, “Perhaps next it’ll be your child’s school, your child, and perhaps then you’ll change your viewpoint.” Sigh.

      The only thing worse I can think of would be arming teachers and school staff, for that puts guns INSIDE the school where sooner or later, somebody will make a mistake and leave one in reach of a classroom of young people and …. BANG BANG BANG. More lives shattered.

      Liked by 1 person

    • That’s so fucking idiotic. Anyone can be shot by anyone at anytime. I used to hunt & I was shot at numerous times, even when I was wearing orange! (I was never hit but I know other hunters who were hit by buck shot & bird shot). To tell your children that carrying a gun & being trained how to use it will “protect” them against other people is idiotic & not very good parenting. & that gun can ALWAYS be taken away from you & used against you, especially if you’re a woman or just a smaller, weaker person than the other person (which children are … smaller & weaker).

      These people want to play at war, at cowboys & indians, at “good guys & bad guys” (you don’t know how much I hate hearing those terms), they don’t want to have a toy gun or even use a stick like we did when we were kids back in the 60s, they want the real deal. They are assholes & they are raising assholes. They don’t care if there’s a shooting every single day, in a school or anywhere else. I have no confidence in our country at all.

      Liked by 2 people

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