President Joe Biden called for an “assault weapons” ban following Monday’s shooting attack at the Boulder, Colorado grocery store.
Politico reported Biden urging the Senate to take action on H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, the former of which would create universal background checks and the latter of which would expand the length of time a background check can last.
He also called for an “assault weapons” ban.
Biden admitted he was making his comments before information on the gunman was fully known, saying, “While we’re still waiting for more information, I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future, and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act. We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again.”
“I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again,” Biden remarked.
Ironically, the Department of Justice’s Institute of Justice (NIJ) released a report following the 1994-2004 “assault weapons” ban and noted that no real reduction in crime could be credited to the ban. The Washington Times quoted University of Pennsylvania professor Christopher Koper, author of the 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.”
Biden is also pushing the creation of universal background checks via H.R. 8. Breitbart News reported that Colorado adopted universal background checks in 2013.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, 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. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.