Robert Farago

Opinion contributor

An “assault weapon” and large-capacity ammunition magazine ban won’t reduce the number or severity of mass shootings, any more than banning alcohol reduced alcohol-related fatalities.

There are tens of millions of “assault rifles” and large-capacity magazines in private hands. For reasons many do not understand or accept, millions of owners won’t surrender them. A federal ban did not and will not eliminate “assault rifles” or decrease their number in any meaningful way.

A killer only needs one firearm and any size ammunition magazine to commit an atrocity. Mass murderers will use whatever they can find to commit their crimes: a rifle, truck, airplane, an improvised explosive device or gasoline and chains. As they have in the past. As they will in the future.

“Do something!” the justifiably appalled cry. “If a law saves one life, it’s worth it!”

Anyone with a heart wants the carnage to stop. But banning the sale and possession of a rifle used safely and lawfully by millions of Americans for hunting, recreation and self-defense is a bad landing at the wrong airport. It won’t prevent an attack, but it will put the government on a slippery slope toward gun confiscation. A trend that will leave Americans defenseless against criminals and tyrants.

OUR VIEW:It's time to ban the sale of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines

If the Democratic Party, its presidential candidates and others want to ban “assault rifles,” they are free to repeal the Second Amendment to the Constitution. But if they want to prevent spree killers, there’s only one answer. We must acknowledge the existence and persistence of evil, root it out and remove it wherever and whenever we can. Vigilance is the only plausible deterrent.

Murderers are not deterred by a law. Any law. To believe that an assault rifle ban, “red flag” laws or “universal” background checks will stop spree killers in their tracks is delusional. To ban an effective weapon — any weapon — for lawful self-defense is worse.

Robert Farago is a novelist and former publisher of The Truth About Guns website.

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