President Biden has made curbing gun violence a focus of his reelection bid and topping his crime agenda is an implausible plan for Congress to pass a ban on America’s most popular rifles.
Mr. Biden has made some strides on gun policy, including a slew of executive actions, and signed the first major gun safety law in nearly three decades. And yet, America remains awash in gun violence, including shocking bloodshed that has marred nearly every weekend this summer.
At least nine mass shootings shook cities across the nation this past weekend, leaving more than a dozen dead and scores injured.
The body count included:
• Six people were killed and eight others injured in a spate of shootings in the nation’s capital.
• Six people were killed — including an eight-year-old girl — and at least 25 were shot in Chicago between Friday and Sunday.
• Four people were killed in three separate shootings in Hartford, Connecticut.
• At least nine people were wounded in shootings Saturday and Sunday across Philadelphia
No suspects had been identified or arrested in any of the shootings.
This year has seen 427 shootings in which four or more people have been shot, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings.
Americans are demanding an end to the carnage and Mr. Biden believes that anger will make it a potent issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The administration has been highlighting its efforts to combat gun violence, depicting the bloodshed as a public health crisis. In late July, senior White House officials met with roughly 70 state legislators to discuss the implementation of enhanced background checks to stop the transfer of firearms from those prohibited from owning a weapon.
Both Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have traveled the country touting the administration’s actions on gun violence and pinning the blame on Republicans on Capitol Hill for not doing more.
Mr. Biden hasn’t been able to wrangle the votes to reinstate the ban on military-style semiautomatic rifles or “assault weapons” that he helped champion as a U.S. senator in 1994. The ban expired in 2004.
It is even less likely lawmakers will take up the issue since Republicans, who oppose the ban, won the House majority in 2022.
Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris repeatedly call on Congress to pass additional legislation banning high-capacity magazines and AR-15-style rifles, which are the most popular rifles sold in America. The rhetoric about bans, however, may not be enough to attract swing voters who will be crucial in deciding the presidential race.
A Monmouth University poll released earlier this year found voters were divided on banning the sale of the AR-15 rifles that critics call assault weapons. The poll revealed that 46% of voters support the idea, while 49% oppose it. That represents a drop in support for the idea since last year when 55% of voters favored the ban while 42% opposed it.
The slipping support for a ban is mainly among independents with 49% supporting the idea in 2022 compared to 37% this year. It also has lost ground with Republicans whose support fell from 32% to 24% since last year.
“Gun violence is among the top issues for Democrats, but it barely registers for Republicans and independents are, as you would expect, in the middle of the road on the issue,” said pollster Whit Ayres. “The assault weapons ban is only going to appeal to voters who were already going to vote for Biden.”
It’s unclear why support for an assault weapons ban has dipped because other gun control proposals remain popular with voters.
Roughly 80% of Americans support more stringent background checks for all gun purchasers and 72% of voters favor a federal red flag law that would allow police to take away someone’s guns if they pose a threat to themselves or others.
Several studies found the original assault weapon ban to be ineffective at reducing gun violence. A Justice Department study in the late 2000s concluded that there was a decline in crimes committed with assault weapons, but that was offset by the use of other guns. The Rand Corporation issued a similar study in 2020 that found assault weapons bans “do not seem to be associated with the incidence of fatal mass shootings.”
Although polls show that voters are looking for other solutions to solve the gun violence epidemic, Mr. Biden has remained wed to pushing the ban. He’s also asserted he’s done all can do and the burden to act was now on Congress.
In March, Mr. Biden said that he had “gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently raised the possibility that the White House could take additional actions but didn’t provide details.
“We’re always going to figure out what else we can do to protect communities,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “So that is something that we’re — that certainly our team is going to look at.”
Activists on both sides of the gun issue say that simply isn’t true. They insist more could be done by the president beyond passing the buck to Congress.
“Biden is a one-trick pony. His goal is to ban firearms ownership. Not solve our violent crime problem and make us safer,” said Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. “If he cared about public safety he would work to help fund more police on our streets and come down hard on people who break gun laws like his son Hunter. He would also push for changes in our mental health system that is underfunded.”
Gun control advocates who support Mr. Biden have called him out for lack of action. A coalition of 117 gun groups earlier this year sent Mr. Biden a letter calling for new actions they say could be accomplished through executive action, including banning the importation of assault weapons made in other countries that do not have a supporting purpose. The groups also called for him to establish a federal office of gun violence run by a point person who would drive the issue every day.
Mr. Gottlieb contends that more and stricter gun laws are not the answer, but rather increased funding for mental health and better enforcement of current gun laws.
The gun bill Mr. Biden signed into law last year bolstered mental health support, but critics say the system remains woefully underfunded.
Others have called for increased enforcement of the nation’s existing 20,000 gun laws and stricter punishments for violating those laws.
In Philadelphia, for example, police records show that 61% of gun cases are dismissed without charges or trial, which is up from less than 2016.
“If [Biden] cared about public safety he would work to help fund more police on our streets and come down hard on people who break gun laws like his son Hunter. He would also push for changes in our mental health system that is underfunded,’” Mr. Gottlieb said.
Source:Washington Times
