The Guardian Weekly

Shootings lead to renewed calls for assault weapons ban

By Edward Helmore EDWARD HELMORE IS A GUARDIAN US REPORTER

Gun control returned as a leading topic over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats issuing fresh calls for a ban on assault weapons for the general public.

At the same time, questions were raised about the funding of law enforcement agencies in places that refuse to enforce so-called red flag laws, after shooting tragedies in Virginia and Colorado in the past few weeks.

“If you passed an assault weapons ban you would see less mass shootings in this country,” Connecticut’s Democratic Senator and leading gun control advocate, Chris Murphy, said last Sunday. “You are not going to magically eliminate mass-shootings, but an AR-15, or AR-15 style weapon, is generally the choice of mass shooters.”

Such a military-style rifle was used in the shooting at an LGBTQ+ night club in Colorado last weekend, although different firearms were used in the shootings of University of Virginia football team players last month and at a Walmart store, also in Virginia, two days before Thanksgiving, in a tragic spate of violence.

The Democrat lawmaker pointed to a “dramatic decline” in mass-shootings after the decade-long assault weapons ban passed in 1994. “It wasn’t until the expiration date of the ban that we started to see mass shootings spiral up.”

With Biden returning to the White House last Sunday after spending the Thanksgiving break with his family in Nantucket, the gun issue returned to prominence.

On Thanksgiving day itself, Biden spoke about the “scourge” of gun violence, saying he wants to sign into law a ban on high-powered guns that have the capacity to kill many people quickly.

“The idea that we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick,” Biden said. “I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.”

The Democratic-led House passed legislation in July to revive the 1990s-era ban on assault weapons, following the passage of a landmark bipartisan bill on guns, strengthening background checks and red flag laws, which allow authorities to remove firearms from those posing a danger.

But the legislation is going nowhere in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass and Democrats lack Republican support.

House majority whip Jim Clyburn admitted that an assault weapons ban and other gun restrictions would not get through Congress, even in the lame duck session while Democrats still control the House, but that did not mean it was not worth pursuing.

“Just because it’s legal [to buy a gun] doesn’t mean it’s the right thing. Slavery was legal but it was not right,” he said.

Murphy, who has been the Senate’s leading advocate for stronger gun control since the massacre of 20 children and six staff at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, also told CNN last Sunday that one avenue Democrats might pursue is to restrict federal funding for law enforcement in counties that declare themselves gun sanctuaries.

“We learned in Colorado that the county in which the shooting happened was a so-called second amendment sanctuary state,” Murphy said. “The majority of counties in this country have declared that they’re not going to enforce state and federal gun laws.

“It’s a growing problem in the country and we’re going to have to have a conversation about that in the Senate. Do we want to continue to supply funding to law enforcement in counties that refuse to implement state and federal gun laws?”

Red flag laws, Murphy added, had proved wildly popular across the county but “we have to do something” about the refusal by 60% of counties to enforce gun control laws.

The idea that we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick

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2022-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://theguardianweekly.pressreader.com/article/282157885264792

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