Fact Check: Karine Jean-Pierre Claims ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban Brought ‘Gun Violence’ Down

CLAIM: During Monday’s White House presser Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the 1994 “assault weapons” ban brought crime down in America.

VERDICT: False.

A 2004 report by the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) demonstrated that researchers could not credit the “assault weapons” ban with any of the reductions in crime or shootings which were sporadically reported elsewhere.

The Washington Times quoted University of Pennsylvania professor Christopher Koper, author of the DOJ’s NIJ report, saying, “We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence.”

The NIJ report continued, “The ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”

The NIJ report put matters into perspective by pointing out  “assault weapons” were “rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban.”

Year after year Breitbart News has pointed to FBI uniform crime report numbers showing far more people are stabbed or hacked to death than are killed with rifles of any kind.

For example, Breitbart reported over twice as many people were stabbed/hacked to death in 2021 than were killed with rifles and over three and a half times as many people were stabbed/hacked to death in 2020 than were killed with rifles.

Jean-Pierre’s claim is false.

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.