It’s almost standard for President Joe Biden to call for an assault weapon ban after a mass shooting, even when the killer didn’t use a firearm that would be banned under his pet legislation. For anti-gunners, that’s largely irrelevant. They want these guns prohibited anyway, so the president calling for a ban is normal.
But most people look at the incident and make judgments based on that incident.
Recently, there were two big shootings. One was UNLV and another was a spree shooting in Austin, Texas.
And, just as sure as the sun will come up, Biden is calling for an assault weapon ban.
He called for not just that ban, though, but for “high-capacity magazine” bans, national red flag laws, mandatory storage laws, and universal background checks.
There are just a few problems with all of that.
First, of course, is the biggie: The assault weapon ban.
You see, neither of these shooters used a so-called assault weapon. They both used handguns. In Austin, the alleged shooter used a 1911, most of which are going to hold fewer rounds than any magazine ban would mandate.
When you’ve got someone who is interested in killing people, round capacity isn’t going to keep them in check.
Further, there’s no evidence any of the other stuff would have done much of anything to stop either shooting, but that’s really not what matters, is it?
Once again, like with almost every other call for an assault weapon ban Biden has made during his time in the Oval Office, he’s just using a shooting as a pretext. He doesn’t care about UNLV or Austin, he’s using them as an excuse to try and push for policies he’s wanted since his inauguration and hasn’t had the political muscle to make happen.
He led off talking about a new assault weapon ban despite just that being slapped down in the Senate just last week. Neither of these shootings is going to change the fact that Congress has no interest in passing such a thing.
Further, contrary to what many people argue, the American people don’t really have that much interest in such a thing.
I know what the polling says, but I also know the problems with polling on gun policy. There’s reason to believe people aren’t that into such legislation, for one thing. Then there’s the question of just how strongly they support such policies. Few people are going to vote for the other guy based on whether or not they want an assault weapon ban.
And if Biden isn’t smart enough to figure this out, you’d think someone who works at the White House is.
Apparently, you would be wrong.
As for the rest of Biden’s policy calls, well, those are just as big of non-starters as an assault weapon ban would be. Those likely have even less real support among the electorate.
But we’ll see this every time there’s any kind of incident for as long as Biden remains in office. It’s a broken record at this point. He’s like a doll who says the same thing every time you pull this string.
