Credit: Photo by Gage Skidmore courtesy of Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden claimed in a recent tweet that bans on semi-automatic firearms, mislabeled as “assault weapons,” save lives, despite the fact that research has proven the contrary.
“26 years ago today, the Senate passed 10-year bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines—it was an effort I was proud to champion. These bans saved lives, and Congress should have never let them expire. As president, I’ll take on the [National Rifle Association] and we’ll ban them once again,” read Biden’s tweet.
Biden’s comments reference the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which banned the manufacture of semi-automatic rifles, handguns, and shotguns for civilian use, and sunset in 2004. His remarks, however, are contrary to data released during his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration.
A 2013 study from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that “[d]efensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence.” The study also stated that “[a]lmost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as a common as offensive uses by criminals.”
This is not a lone piece of research, either. An independent study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice in 2004, just after the “assault weapons” ban sunset, determined that “we cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence.” It should be said that the politically loaded phrase “gun violence” is actually a reference to the criminal misuse of firearms.
Firearms, in and of themselves, are not violent. They are tools; ones that Americans have the right to wield in defense of themselves, their loved ones and their property. When used responsibly, they can help to save lives, as these studies indicate.
There is another clearly mislabeled term here: “assault weapons.” This politically invented term is designed to mislabel commonly owned semi-automatic rifles, handguns and shotguns for purely political reasons. This cosmetic label completely disregards the fact that millions of Americans lawfully own and shoot such semi-automatic firearms, and their design utilizes technology that predates the automobile and airplane.
The truth doesn’t matter to Biden and Kamala Harris, his running mate. They have made it clear that they want to outright ban these tools of freedom; in fact, Biden said he wants Beto O’Rourke to “take care of the gun problem with [him].” O’Rourke, you’ll remember, made headlines last fall when he said, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” at a Democratic presidential primary debate.
Perhaps what’s most worrying about a Biden presidency is that this is only the beginning of his proposed crusade against your rights. Biden’s campaign website states that he intends repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, to implement “universal” background checks, to enact “red-flag” laws that ignore the basic legal principle of due process, to require all guns sold to be “smart guns,” and much more.
President Trump, meanwhile, has told us what a Biden administration would mean for the Second Amendment. “If Joe Biden gets in, your Second Amendment is gone. It’s gone—either obliterated to a point of being gone or gone itself,” said Trump at a recent event in Florida.
This November, it’s clear which side of the Second Amendment the candidates are on. Joe Biden has made it clear that he stands against your freedom, whereas Trump will continue to protect our freedom.
