The Federal Assault Weapons Ban Bill Wouldn’t Have Prevented Recent Shootings

What happened: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other Democrats reintroduced a federal assault weapons ban bill on Monday, in the name of putting a stop to mass shootings, that has garnered major support from President Joe Biden. The push for this legislation came after two mass shootings occurred in California over the weekend and a third occurred on Tuesday, totaling 18 deaths.

Establishing age restrictions: The legislation seeks to lift the age to purchase an assault weapon to 21. But the suspects that committed the two California mass shootings were 72 and 66, well above the proposed minimum purchasing age. And while these suspects are unusually older in comparison to other shooters, who are typically in their 20s or 30s, few perpetrators are under 21.

Just as deadly: Under the bill, a semi-automatic rifle would be considered an “assault weapon” if it has a pistol grip, threaded barrel, a barrel shroud, or other specific qualities. But Biden says that even if these features were removed, the firearm would still be “just as deadly.” Thus, the regulations are arbitrary, even to the politicians proposing them.

Big picture: While pushing gun control laws to prevent mass shootings, politicians ignore the fact that the vast majority of gun violence is due to rampant crime. Soft-on-crime policies supported by progressives, not the absence of certain gun laws, enable this violent crime throughout the nation, as we have covered.