President Joe Biden has made a renewed appeal for a ban on assault weapons following a series of mass shootings before Independence Day celebrations. One incident in Philadelphia resulted in five deaths and two children being injured, while three more deaths and 14 injuries occurred in four separate shootings in Fort Worth, Texas. Biden expressed grief for these tragic incidents and called for stricter gun control measures, urging other states to follow Illinois’ example in banning assault rifles. He emphasized the need for Congress to pass meaningful gun reform laws and rejected the idea of arming teachers as a solution.
Normally I wouldn’t oppose gun control, but with the rising threat of fascism, is it really that wise to be talking about gun control? Maybe Voting Rights Act and Reproductive Rights first? “Gun Control” just gives republicans more ammunition for disinformation campaigns. Don’t need another “Beto” right now.
This used to be my position. Gun deaths are dramatic, but their overall impact hasn’t really compared to many other issues that are more fixable. Unfortunately, mass shootings have gone viral, and it’s becoming a bigger issue every year.
I think that instead of focusing on “assault weapons” which are hard to define and regulate meaningfully, we should be focusing on background checks. Those are arguably more effective, and are also far more popular. We should also be focusing on domestic violence, because it is the number one predictor of a mass shooter.
A particularly interesting idea I’ve heard is to require gun stores to provide a free (or publicly funded) service to store guns for a fixed period. That would give gun owners a way to disarm themselves temporarily in times of psychological crisis. It should be a zero stigma, no questions asked, arrangement. The guns would be unavailable to them for some minimum period of time - perhaps a few months.
This here is the reason to oppose an “assault weapons ban”. Dealing with mass shootings with an “assault weapons ban” is like winning the Iraq War by landing a plane on a carrier and posing for a photo under a “mission accomplished” banner. Smart gun nuts will oppose the fuck out of the assault weapons ban in an effort to convince people it would actually work.
The fact that Biden is pushing this as hard as he is demonstrates one of
twothree things (which are not mutually exclusive):- He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.
- He doesn’t actually want to solve the problem, just look like he’s solving the problem in a fashion that will maintain the polarization his electability depends on.
- He’s the kind of “progressive” that actually does want full civilian disarmament to put all power in the hands of the State. (True leftists do not want this. Socialists don’t want to disarm the proletariat. Anarchists are suspicious of any efforts to strengthen the state relative to the populace. Even liberals have, at their root, a tradition of armed citizenry being a check on authoritarian government.)
A pistol is more than enough for self-dense, better weapons won’t help you overthrowing a government anyway.
About 90% of gun crimes in the USA are committed using handguns. The lowest hanging fruit for reducing gun crimes (including shootings) would be to outlaw handguns.
