American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten pushed a ban on an entire category of firearms, urging the U.S. to have the “courage” that Scotland and Australia showed in enacting their stringent gun controls.
“Today, we renew our call for common sense gun safety legislation, including a ban on assault weapons. This is an epidemic,” Weingarten said, according to FOX News.
She added, “It’s an epidemic that our great nation must solve. And how many lives will be shattered before we have the courage to do what Scotland did, what Australia did, what New Zealand did, what other great democracies do? We must solve this epidemic, and that’s up to us.”
FOX News noted, “Scotland got the U.K. to ban handguns and Australia issued a mandatory gun buyback program in 1996 of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.”
The AFT partnered with Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a prominent gun control lobby group, to “[call] on lawmakers to stand up to the gun lobby.”
They also stand with gun control lobby staple, the Brady Campaign, on their website, and quote a 2018 poll in an attempt to show Americans support an “assault weapons” ban.
However, on February 7 Breitbart News pointed to an ABC/Washington Post poll which showed that the majority of Americans oppose an “assault weapons” ban.
The poll was conducted with 1,003 adults January 27–February 1, 2023, and 51 percent of respondents opposed such a ban.
In 2019, the Associated Press reported that AFT joined with Everytown to oppose teachers in Florida having the option to be armed for classroom defense.
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AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.