But, What About an Assault Weapons Ban?
Passing background check legislation is just nibbling at the edges of a gun violence & domestic terrorism problem in the U.S. What happened to a federal assault weapons ban?
Publisher’s Riff
The only time the country seems intent on pushing an ambitious assault weapons bans is when there is worry too many Black people - Black men, specifically - are running around with guns. As New Jack City-level crack war violence spiraled out of control throughout America’s cities in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, Congress (with prodding and joint authorship from a then-Senator now President) passed a now infamous “1994 Crime Bill,” and inserted a rather comprehensive ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. That eventually expired in 2004 and there’s been no real effort since to revive it.
Fast forward nearly 30 years later and we’re faced with not only 1) an increasing number of horrific mass shootings committed by heavily armed White men, but 2) the threat of organized racially-driven white nationalist domestic terrorism that present greater threats to national security. But, the very real threat of domestic war waged to completely destabilize and overthrow the U.S. government (using those same assault weapons) doesn’t rise to the same sense of urgency to move Congress towards figuring out how it revives the Assault Weapons Ban, especially at a time when the nation’s largest gun advocacy lobby files for bankruptcy. House Democrats, in the majority since 2018, have apparently backed off of a renewed assault weapons ban and have, instead, opted for something that’s got much less teeth if it’s out there by itself alone without backup: a background check.
Background checks aren’t all bad; but, it’s not like they’re all that ambitious in reducing gun violence in any real dramatic way. And, while background checks are in play, it doesn’t directly strike at the gun supply issue. More assault weapons in circulation just means more violence.
Interestingly enough, that 10-year assault weapons back from 1994-2004 was working, as the Center for American Progress notes in a 2019 briefing that argued it’s time to revive it …
Of course, Democrats are looking to get some wins under their belt. They were actually able to snag 8 Republicans for H.R. 8 and 2 Republicans for H.R. 1446, a remarkable feat since no Republicans voted for an even more important emergency $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Passing new background check legislation, by itself, seems much more politically possible; the jury is just out on whether they can get it through the Senate. Still, doing that alone doesn’t help to curb the rise of mass shooting events - events in which assault weapons are the weapon of choice …
But, until concerns over rising homicide rates bubble up into a national fervor - like it did in the 1990s - or until there is worry that, maybe, too many Black people are getting access to firearms, it will be a while before we see another assault weapons ban.