Joe Biden: Banning Assault Weapons Works

[peggysue2]

The New York Times published a piece by Joe Biden on his gun reform plans centered on an assault weapons, one that he and Diane Feinstein initiated and helped enact into the 1994 law, a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines for 10 years.

Republicans allowed the 1994 law to expire, insisting that the ban was ineffective. The data shows the contrary. Police reported a marked uptick in criminals using assault weapons in 2004. From Biden's essay:

And multiple analyses of the data around mass shootings provide evidence that, from 1994 to 2004, the years when assault weapons and high-capacity magazines were banned, there were fewer mass shootings — fewer deaths, fewer families needlessly destroyed.

There’s overwhelming data that shootings committed with assault weapons kill more people than shootings with other types of guns. And that’s the point.

Biden, however, doesn't stop there:

And if I am elected president, we’re going to pass them again — and this time, we’ll make them even stronger. We’re going to stop gun manufacturers from circumventing the law by making minor modifications to their products — modifications that leave them just as deadly. And this time, we’re going to pair it with a buyback program to get as many assault weapons off our streets as possible as quickly as possible.

I won’t stop there. I’ll get universal background checks passed, building on the Brady Bill, which establishing the background check system and which I helped push through Congress in 1993. I’ll accelerate the development and deployment of smart-gun technology — something gun manufacturers have opposed — so that guns are keyed to the individual biometrics of authorized owners.


The moment for gun control has finally reached a tipping point. The NRA is on its heels and the Republican refrain of 'thoughts and prayers' sounds evermore hollow. I honestly thought the Sandy Hook massacre would tip the scales. But the NRA was able to push back the outcry, the horror of babies being gunned down. That was then, this is now. We win in 2020, we're going to finally start doing what we should have done all along: take battlefield weapons off the streets of America.

Good one on Joe and all our candidates for pushing this issue. The time has come.

Full essay can be read here (although it may be behind a paywall):


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/opinion/joe-biden-ban-assault-weapons.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

[emmaverybo]

1. Thanks for posting. Will read rest at NYT. "Take battlefield weapons off the streets of America"

makes a great fighting slogan for the cause.

Biden has been the involved in the issue since at least the time he wrote strong gun control legislation—though not as strong as wanted—in 1994, and again, when Obama entrusted gun control and regulation to him in 2013.

Of course, we know, despite best efforts, Republicans wouldn’t let the Obama admin’s great and sensible legislation get anywhere.

Under Obama, The Jobs Act and The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act could provide sound
blue-prints for policy in a new Dem presidency.

[peggysue2]

3. Biden is well-positioned to lead this charge because . . .

he's handled the issue and pushed back against the NRA in the past. All our candidates, however, will benefit from the moment being right and the public majority being on the same page. The numbers have been growing with every senseless rampage.

I particularly like Biden's buy-back inclusion. As Swallwell pointed out the buy-back is a necessary element in any gun control program if we're really looking to reduce the number of weapons. This is in direct contrast to the recent argument I heard from Rick Santorum--any law would fail to reduce numbers because there are too many assault weapons out there. This is like saying: stop all cancer research and therapy because there's too much cancer out there.

The GOP & NRA's excuses are becoming lame and lamer. Time to seize the moment.

[IronLionZion]

2. I remember the annual Obama's coming to get your guns sales

I hope this time there is enough popular support that our Dems can actually pass these laws. Suburban swing voters would mostly support sensible gun laws. Urban and young voters definitely do. We have a whole generation of voters who grew up with regular school shootings.

[peggysue2]

4. The whole scare tactic that . . .

any and all Democrats are 'coming to take your guns' is playing to a smaller and smaller audience. Something like 70% of Americans believe that assault weapons should be banned and after Sandy Hook, 90+% of the public said they supported reasonable gun control and reform. The NRA and GOP turned deaf ears to the public then but the intensity of the public's demands has grown since.

And you're so right, we now have an entire generation that has grownup with the senseless carnage, lived with the anxiety and are quite unwilling to swallow the same old, same old excuses. They want change in the now and frankly, they deserve that.

[corbettkroehler]

11. Wayne LaPierre's Political Demise Will Help, Too

For once, you and I are in agreement. President Clinton's recent statement on restoring the assault weapons ban was most welcome as well.

[peggysue2]

13. Wayne LaPierre's Political Demise Will Help, Too

Most definitely and on this issue we're in total agreement.

[Gothmog]

5. I agree with Joe Biden on this

Link to tweet

[Cha]

6. Yes it did and it can work again!

Link to tweet

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287236094
Thank you, Peggysue!

[Cha]

7. KICK!

[Cha]

8. Kick!

[peggysue2]

9. Back at you, Cha!

[Cha]

10. Keepin it Kicked!

[aikoaiko]

12. Politifact says not so much.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/aug/07/bill-clinton/did-mass-shooting-deaths-fall-under-1994-assault-w/

[NYMinute]

14. K&R nt

[Joe941]

15. We should consider banning all guns except for hunting.

[oasis]

16. K and R