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House passes bill to strip your 2nd Amend rights. You can thank two Republicans who voted with Dems.

July 30, 2022 | | Print Article

The Democrat-led House erupted into cheers Friday after the legislative body successfully passed a bill, 217 to 213, to reinstate the so-called “assault weapons” ban on semiautomatic weapons.

The bill passed thanks to two Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Chris Jacobs, crossing the aisle to vote with Democrats. Had the two remained in their lane, the bill would have failed to pass, 215-215.

Though the bill stands zero chance of making it through the Senate, its passage nevertheless “marks the first time in nearly three decades that lawmakers have attempted to reinstate the long-expired ban on semiautomatic firearms, a huge party priority,” according to Politico.

The original ban, known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton in September of 1994. It banned certain semi-automatic firearms that were classified as “assault weapons” and certain ammunition magazines that were classified as “large capacity.”

The law expired in September of 2004 thanks to a lack of interest in renewing it.

The lack of interest likely stemmed from the fact that the law did little to nothing to stop crime.

“Nearly two decades ago the Department of Justice funded a study to analyze [the effectiveness of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban], and it concluded that the assault weapon prohibition had ‘mixed’ results,” according to a recently published report from the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).

“Researchers noted there was a decline in crimes committed with firearms classified as assault weapons, but noted ‘the decline in AW use was offset throughout at least the late 1990s by steady or rising use of other guns.’ In other words, there was a decline in crimes committed with firearms that were banned, but the drop was replaced by crimes committed with other types of firearms that were not banned.”

Overall gun violence reportedly did fall during the 10-year ban period, but the decline continued even after the law expired.

“[W]e cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence,” researchers therefore concluded.

Additional studies published afterward produced similar results.

“A RAND review of gun control studies, which was updated in 2020, concluded there’s ‘inconclusive evidence for the effect of assault weapon bans on mass shootings.’ Research published in Criminology & Public Policy the same year (2020) concluded that bans on assault weapons ‘do not seem to be associated with the incidence of fatal mass shootings,'” according to FEE.

The good news, besides the fact that the bill stands no chance of making it through the Senate, is that the “yes” vote is likely to sting purple-state Democrats.

It “could be a risky vote for vulnerable Democratic incumbents in swing states,” even The Hill admits.

In a statement to Politico, Rep. Kurt Schrader, one of the few Democrats who voted against the bill, warned that voting “yes” on it was tantamount to voting for a “death wish.”

“This is a bill that destroyed the Democrats in ‘94. I guess, do we really have a death wish list as Democrats?” he said.

Why a “death wish?” Because following the vote in 1994 for the original Federal Assault Weapons Ban, Republicans won control of the House in the midterm races.

“When Republicans won control of the House in 1994 for the first time in four decades, many Democrats attributed the defeat partly to the legislation they passed that year banning assault style weapons,” CNN notes.

And indeed, 2022 Republicans are already rushing to capitalize on the Democrats’ latest vote.

“What would do more right now than banning AR-15s would be to ban Democrat thinking in the big cities that’s allowing the crime rates to just explode,” Rep. Louie Gohmert reportedly said on the House floor before Friday’s vote.

In fact, “vulnerable Democrats” were hoping to pass crime-related legislation, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to screw them over.

“[T]he decision to vote on only that bill — and not a handful of policing bills also under consideration — has stung for many centrists Democrats in the caucus, who were eager to vote on bills to support law enforcement before leaving Washington this week,” according to Politico.

That’s already two strikes total against purple state Democrats, and months still remain until this year’s midterms.

Vivek Saxena
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