President Biden uses tragedies like the latest two incidents the Walmart shooting and the Q club shooting to push his anti-gun agenda even though his “assault weapons ban” would not have stopped either of these shootings from happening. The Walmart shooting that took place in Chesapeake, Virginia was carried out by a manager in the store using a 9mm pistol that would not be outlawed under the ban. The Club Q shooting that took place in Colorado Springs, Colorado was carried out by a very disturbed member of the LGBTQ community using a long gun that after his 2021 arrest for bomb threats he never should have been allowed to keep. Again, this weapon ban would not have stopped this for two reasons. One, he owned the guns before his arrest and two, the justice system allowed him to get away with his crimes by not prosecuting him.

The truth about the assault weapons ban would not even stop a quarter of the current mass shootings if anything it would lead to more death. In the past 40 years there has been 184 mass shootings in the United States, 55 of the 184 using rifles of any kind (Guns used in mass shootings U.S. 2022 | Statista). That means less than one third of all mass shootings used a rifle. Thirty five percent of all mass shooters already owned there weapons well before the attacks (FBI Releases Study on Active Shooter Incidents — FBI) meaning roughly 65 of the 184 would have still happened even with the AWB leaving 119 possible stops by the bill. Depending on the study you choose to look at there is another 23-35 percent of shooters that obtain the guns via illegal means so we will stick it in the middle and call it 30 percent that’s another 55 that this ban would not affect leaving only 65 and if you break that down to just rifles knowing that less than a third of all mass shootings use rifles that puts us at less than 20 possible stops. Given this we can extrapolate that this bill has the ability to stop roughly 20 mass shootings in 40 years… that’s .5 per year. That sounds amazing right that’s a minimum of 2 lives saved per year the question is how though many it would take.

Find more statistics at Statista

The truth about the death count that follows this bill start with the simplest … “Citizens stopped six active shooters” according to the FBI in 2021 alone armed citizens stopped six active shooters that would have turned into mass shooters that takes the 2 person per year save and turns it into a minimum death toll of 10 per year as most of these shooters are stopped with semi-automatic handguns and under section 2 of the AWB it also bans any semiautomatic handgun that is ““(D) A semiautomatic pistol that—

“(i) has the capacity to utilize a magazine that is not a fixed magazine; and

“(ii) does have any 1 of the following:

“(I) A threaded barrel.

“(II) A second pistol grip.

“(III) A barrel shroud.

“(IV) The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip.

“(V) A semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm.

“(VI) A manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when unloaded.

“(VII) A stabilizing brace or similar component.

“(E) A semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.”

Given that most semi automatic handguns have a fully automatic version as well or fit one of these other arbitrary definitions this AWB would effectively stop the transfer and sale of most handguns. (Text – S.736 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Assault Weapons Ban of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress) According to a study done in 2016 guns are used to stop more than 2.5 million crimes per year (Study : Guns Stop Crime 2.5 Million Times Each Year – Think About Now) So the big question here is how many of those 2.5 million would have led to death. Honestly, I shudder to think but given the fact that we have over 1.2 million violent crimes per year I would give it a conservative number of 1,200 minimum deaths per year that would be attributed to a disarmed population under the AWB.

Ronnie Abbott