US 2nd Amendment Under Assault, Freedom Firearms Guns Defense

[grarpamp]

https://mises.org/wire/bans-assault-weapons-do-not-reduce-crime

Bans On "Assault" Weapons Do Not Reduce Crime

Joe Biden is a liar on stats, seeks to grab guns for one reason only,
to remove the ability of Americans to handily revolt against
such dictators as obviously intended per the 2ndA, and to
incite crime against unarmed in order to roll out more Govt.
Doesn't spend one penny on mental health, education,
responsibility... only wants to grab guns which no one will give
up and criminals will still abuse. Idiot, asshole. When seconds
count, all you have is yourself and an appropriate weapon.

https://reason.com/2022/05/16/why-new-yorks-assault-weapon-ban-didnt-stop-the-buffalo-massacre/
https://reason.com/2014/10/28/the-truth-about-mass-public-shootings/
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/04/mass-shootings-more-deadly-frequent-research-215678
https://crimeresearch.org/2022/05/biden-on-assault-weapons
https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2010/06/16/a-crime-puzzle-violent-crime-declines-in-america/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/07/20/record-28-million-ar-15-and-ak-style-rifles-entered-us-circulation-in-2020-gun-group-says/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/07/20/record-28-million-ar-15-and-ak-style-rifles-entered-us-circulation-in-2020-gun-group-says/
https://www.nssf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NSSF-factsheet-High-Capacity-Magazines.pdf

Prominent Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly
expressed interest in reinstating a federal assault weapons ban.

Biden himself included an assault weapon ban in his 1994 crime bill,
which lasted ten years until its expiration in 2004.

Biden has claimed that the ban did its job and reduced mass shootings:

    “When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down.
When the law expired, mass shootings tripled.”

But a detailed review of the data demonstrates that the ban had no
real benefits whatsoever, and neither did it lessen the frequency of
major shootings.
What Is an Assault Weapon?

Contrary to popular belief, an assault weapons ban does not ban AR- or
AK-style rifles. Assault weapons bans focus primarily on the specific
functions of these rifles. The 1994 ban described assault weapons as
semiautomatic rifles that

    had the ability to accept a detachable magazine and possessed two
of the following five features: (1) a folding or telescopic stock; (2)
a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the
weapon; (3) a bayonet mount; (4) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel
designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; or (5) a grenade launcher.

This definition permits some adjustments to be made to rifles, such as
an AR-15, that would make them completely legal (or “compliant”).
Rifles that comply must have a fixed stock. Stocks cannot be
telescopic or folding. A pistol grip is incompatible with a compliant
rifle. Compliant rifles typically have a stock that has additional
material added to it, so the pistol grip is attached to the stock or
is extended far enough to prevent the shooter from wrapping around it
with their thumb. The maximum number of rounds the rifle’s magazine
can hold is 10. Any more than that is regarded as a high-capacity
magazine. The rifle may not have a flash suppressor.

Many creative minds have discovered countless ways to transform basic
AR-style rifles into completely compliant weapons. Today, several
states have their own assault weapons bans with similar or identical
provisions as the 1994 federal ban. In these states, the ownership of
AR-15s and such is not at all uncommon. The same went for gun owners
during the federal ban from 1994–2004.

The reality of compliant assault weapons is a strong indicator that
the assault weapons ban did not work, outside of some inconveniences
for gun owners. Any owner could easily convert a compliant rifle into
a fully functional (and illegal) one using minimal tools and labor.
And many, including mass shooters, take advantage of this. The 1994
ban led to a sharp increase in the demand for assault weapons, which
initially increased prices. But after an increase in production,
prices began to fall to their previous state. A 2002 study showed:

    In the short-term, the federal AW ban reduced the availability of
AWs to criminal users by increasing the cost of these weapons in
primary and, presumably, secondary markets. However, the ban also
stimulated production increases for AWs and legal substitute models,
resulting in a post-ban decline in prices.

Proponents of a renewed ban completely overlook the rise in the
ownership of assault weapons both before and after the 1994 ban. Any
positive benefits cited by Biden and other politicians and talking
heads are seriously called into question in light of this fact.
Did the Ban Decrease Mass Shootings?

When we closely examine the facts, Biden’s assertion that the ban will
reduce the number of mass shootings is shown to be, to put it mildly,
an excessive exaggeration. It is safe to assume that Biden derived
this claim from a 2019 study that references the Mother Jones mass
shootings database, or possibly he obtained it directly from Mother
Jones. Either way, there are numerous flaws in citing this data as
evidence. The methodology Mother Jones utilized to create their
dataset on mass shootings and the conclusions that were made using
this data have garnered criticism from criminologists such as Grant
Duwe, who points to underreporting problems and says that “the Mother
Jones list relied exclusively on news reports as a source of data, and
news coverage tends to be less accessible for the older cases.”

He anchored the hunt for more in-depth news reporting on mass
homicides in his own study of homicide using the FBI’s Supplementary
Homicide Reports (SHR) data. The SHR data has several shortcomings,
but it is the most complete homicide dataset currently accessible that
sheds light on, among other things, when and where the majority of
mass shootings have occurred in the United States. Duwe’s research
revealed that mass shootings are “roughly as common now as they were
in the 1980s and ’90s.”

But what about the frequency of assault weapons used in mass
shootings? Did that change? Economist John R. Lott says: “There was no
drop in the number of attacks with assault weapons during the 1994 to
2004 ban. There was an increase after the ban sunset, but the change
is not statistically significant.”
Did the Ban Decrease Gun Homicides?

Assault rifles (and rifles in general) are very rarely used in gun
crimes, so we would not expect to see any significant decrease in gun
homicides or gun crimes due to the 1994 ban. Multiple studies have
been done examining the effects of the ban on gun homicides and the
results are generally inconclusive. A 2016 review published in JAMA
found that four different studies, “do not provide evidence that the
ban was associated with a significant decrease in firearm homicides.”

Between 1991, when violent crime reached an all-time high, and 2017,
the country’s overall violent crime rate decreased by 47 percent, with
a murder rate decline of 34 percent. Meanwhile, it appears foolish to
attempt to count the almost two hundred million new firearms purchased
by Americans, including the more than twenty million AR-15s and the
hundreds of millions of “large” pistol and rifle magazines.
Conclusion

The assumption that the 1994 assault weapons prohibition was
successful in lowering gun homicides, mass shootings, or even the
possession of assault weapons is not backed by strong evidence. Most
likely, those who advocate for the ban’s reintroduction are unaware of
the compelling evidence against the prohibition, whether on purpose or
accidentally. When the police and ATF start enforcing a new ban, there
may even be an uptick in violence.