Joe Biden has once more proposed banning what he terms “assault weapons” and magazines that can hold up to “50-70 bullets,” claiming that these measures would help reduce gun violence in the United States. However, this proposal overlooks several important points and does not address the underlying reasons for gun violence.
For starters, rifles are rarely utilized in criminal activities compared to handguns, yet Biden’s proposal targets only rifles. Moreover, a closer look at the statistics shows us that most gun-related deaths are caused by handguns as opposed to rifles. Therefore, if we truly want to deal with gun deaths effectively, we should focus on reducing handgun access instead of targeting all types of firearms indiscriminately.
Furthermore, Biden’s plan does not tackle the primary causes of gun violence such as poverty, mental health issues, and gang activity. It is essential that we address these underlying factors if we want to make any progress in curbing gun violence across America. Until then, any effort aimed solely at restricting firearm access will be largely fruitless due to its narrow scope and lack of attention to the real problems behind this issue.
BIDEN: "There is no rationale for assault weapons and magazines that hold 50-70 bullets." pic.twitter.com/06oggJuQb7
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 14, 2023
The term “assault weapon” is a misnomer; it does not accurately describe any particular type of firearm. Instead, it is an umbrella term for semi-automatic rifles with certain cosmetic features. These features have no bearing on the lethality of the weapon and are purely aesthetic in nature. Furthermore, many of these weapons are used for hunting and sport shooting, activities which pose no threat to public safety.
In addition, banning magazines that hold more than 50 rounds would be ineffective at reducing gun violence because most criminals use handguns with much smaller capacity magazines. It is also important to note that high-capacity magazines can be reloaded quickly with multiple smaller capacity magazines, thus, making a ban on high-capacity magazines largely symbolic in nature.
Finally, banning these types of firearms would do nothing to address the root causes of gun violence such as poverty, mental health issues, and gang activity. In order to effectively reduce gun violence in America we must focus our efforts on addressing these underlying issues rather than attempting to restrict access to firearms through ineffective bans on certain types of guns or magazine capacities.
It’s clear that Joe Biden’s proposal to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines will do little if anything to reduce gun violence in America. Instead, we should focus our efforts on addressing the root causes of gun violence by providing resources for those suffering from mental illness or living in poverty as well as cracking down on illegal gang activity. Only then can we begin to make meaningful progress towards reducing gun violence in America.