Pittsburgh Presbytery: Only 'Government Authorities' Should Be Allowed to Own 'Assault Weapons'

The Pittsburgh Presbytery is asking state lawmakers to ban “assault weapons” from private ownership, suggesting only “government authorities” should be allowed to own such firearms.

The presbytery “represents 140 congregations and about 30,000 members of Allegheny County churches in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Presbytery is also calling for a ban on .50 caliber rifles and “armor piercing handgun ammunition.” Additionally, the presbytery asked that church members “consider destroying” any “assault weapons” in their possession.

The presbytery bases its call for a ban on “assault weapons” on the March 10, 2016, mass shooting in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and the June 12, 2016, attack on the Orlando Pulse nightclub. The presbytery failed to note that the Wilkinsburg attack was successful because of the tactics used by the pair of gunmen–one of whom was actually armed with a handgun, not an “assault weapon.” The attacker with the handgun opened fire in a such a way as to cause people to flee to a porch where they were trapped. Then, the second gunman used an AK-47 to shoot the defenseless people.

The presbytery also failed to note that Orlando Pulse was a gun-free zone, so all the victims in that attack were defenseless. The gunman had a handgun and an AR-15, but any type of gun would have worked in a setting where the law-abiding citizens were disarmed by policy.

Nevertheless, the Pittsburgh Presbytery calls for a ban on private ownership of “assault weapons,” writing, “We … call on our commonwealth to ban this type of weapon from the state, city and county except for its use by governmental authorities.

Has the presbytery studied the myriad of historical examples of what happens to people when they live in a nation where only the government has guns?

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.