The NY Post’s call for a new ‘assault weapons’ ban is so WRONG for all the right reasons

(NationalSentinel) Well, it’s happening. Following a week in which three mass shootings have occurred in the U.S., now even right-leaning publications are calling for draconian “bans” of an entire class of firearm.

Specifically, theÂ New York Post, which we respect, is calling for POTUS Donald Trump to push for a reimposition of an “assault weapons ban” like the one Democrats pushed through during Bill Clinton’s first term in office.

The Post notes:

Two mass shootings within 24 hours inÂ El PasoÂ andÂ Dayton, days after theÂ Garlic Festival killings. Three months afterÂ Virginia Beach, six months afterÂ Aurora, nine months afterÂ Thousand Oaks, 10 months afterÂ Tree of Life, 15 months afterÂ Santa Fe HS, 18 months afterÂ ParklandÂ and in the wake of larger horrors like the Vegas concert and Pulse nightclub massacres.

â€œGod bless the people of El Paso, Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio,â€ President Trump tweeted Sunday.

God save us all, sir. People all across the nation are scared; many feel like the country is spinning out of control. Theyâ€™re looking to their leaders for more than prayers.

America is terrified.

President Trump, you are positioned to assuage that fear. On gun control, you are a pragmatic centrist, someone who knows there is a vast majority of Americans who are not to the extreme left or right on this issue. They just want the killings to stop.

Got it. It’s hard to argue that the Post’s editorial board isn’t passionate about this. We’d be hard-pressed to believe, in fact, that most Americans aren’t passionate about this. Fed up, even.

But is banning so-called “assault weapons” the answer? Let’s look at it.

From 1994-2004, guns of a certain ‘look’ could not be sold in the United States. Gunmakers found ways around the ban, of course — thumbhole stocks, removing bayonet lugs, etc. — and sales of such weapons continued.

We didn’t have as many mass shootings then as now, of course, but after a 10-year ban, here’s what the federal government discovered: It didn’t have any impact on the murder or violence rate in the United States.

Even now, the FBI says such weapons are used in less than 1 percent of crimes.

“Concerns about â€œassault-style firearmsâ€ are overblown. In the United States,Â less than 1 percent of deaths by firearmsÂ are part of mass murders, representingÂ 20 to 35 victimsÂ perÂ 12,000Â murder victims annually,” writes Canadian researcher Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor emeritus and a criminology expert.

But these are stats. The Post and others aren’t going to be moved by stats, obviously. They know them as well as we do.

So let’s appeal to the common-sense nature of gun laws, which is what the Left constantly harps about.

— Through July 27, there have been 293 murders in the city of Chicago this year so far. While that figure is 33 fewer than last year, it is still very high and yet no one wants to talk about this glaringly obvious hypocrisy: Chicago already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. And yet, during the past week, 12 people were killed in the city — the equivalent of a mass shooting. Where’s the outrage?

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Oh, and no “assault weapons” were used.

Oh, and this goesÂ on and on and on every single week in the city. Some days there are as many people killed in Chicago as were at the Garlic festival.

— While mass shootings get the headlines, far more Americans are killed every year on our streets and highways.Â USA Today reports:

The year 2018 ranks as the third-deadliest of the previous decadeÂ on America’s roadways.

The National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationÂ estimated MondayÂ that 36,750 people were killed in the U.S. in traffic crashes in 2018.

No one except Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a few 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are seriously arguing that we should ban certain classes of vehicles — not because of their deadly nature, anyway.

— More Americans die each year from heart disease than anything else, and most of those deaths can be attributed to bad diets and health habits. We’re never going to “ban” foods nor “mandate” exercise, two policy proposals that would actually have a positive impact and lower cardiovascular death rates.

— Opioids are killing scores of Americans — so many, in fact, the CDC has labeled it an “epidemic.” No one except Joe Biden is proposing banning or punishing drugmakers.

— As we’ve seen in Europe and other places were guns are banned or heavily restricted, people who want to do bad things to other people find other ways to kill them: Heavy trucks, vehicles, knives, etc. And again, no one is considering vehicle bans.

— Say we do ban ‘assault weapons.’ What’s to stop the next mass murderer from using a semi-automatic handgun? Or a large capacity shotgun? Or a combination of both?

The Post discounts the voices of Americans who are concerned that a ban on certain semi-automatic rifles will eventually lead to bans of other classes of weapons. That’s not something to discount; if they think that a rash of mass murders involving semi-automatic handguns wouldn’t then spark an outcry — maybe even from them — to banÂ semi-automatic pistols, then they’re just not being realistic. Or honest.







As we noted Sunday, we don’t have a “gun problem” in America. We have a “culture problem,” and some of the same people who are bitching about ‘assault weapons’ are members of the party most responsible for our cultural demise: The Democrat Party.

Leftism has done more to damage our country from within than any weapon. It’s not aboutÂ what people are using to kill others, it’s aboutÂ why they’re doing it. What motivates someone to act in such a manner? It’s so abnormal that we ought to be trying to figure out theÂ why instead of banning the tools of murder.

Because until we figure out and direct our efforts at theÂ why, these mass murders aren’t going to stop. We may take away one tool of murder, but deranged, hopeless, depressed, angry people will simply find some other tool to commit such heinous acts.

We understand the motivation behind the Post’s plea for new semi-automatic rifle bans. But we vehemently disagree that isÂ the solution. It’s not.

Before we start trampling on the ConstitutionÂ again, let’s put our vast resources into figuring out why certain Americans feel motivated to commit acts of mass murder in the first place. That will necessarily require that we take a long, hard look at the damage the Left has done to traditional values and our culture.

By Jon Dougherty, The National Sentinel

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