<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654272502457,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000166-a247-d45e-a96f-bbefe96e0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654272502457,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000166-a247-d45e-a96f-bbefe96e0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54185662", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1024458"} }); ","_id":"00000181-2a53-dedf-ad93-bf7322230000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden gave a prime-time address on Thursday, lamenting child gun deaths after the Uvalde tragedy and calling for a number of new restrictions on gun rights. There was just one big problem: The president’s “solutions” weren’t solutions at all, let alone the easy, commonsense fixes he painted them as.
“The issue we face is one of conscience and common sense,” he said. “This isn’t about taking away anyone’s rights. It’s about protecting children, protecting families, protecting whole communities, protecting our freedoms to go to a school, to a grocery store, to a church, without being shot and killed.”
“It’s time to act … for the children we’ve lost, for the children we can save, for the nation we love,” the president continued. “Let us finally do something.”
Do what? Well, Biden outlined several specific proposals, including:
- Banning “assault weapons”
- Strengthening background checks
- Enacting federal “red flag” laws
- Repealing liability protections for gun manufacturers
But there’s little reason to believe that any of these suggestions would stop or even meaningfully reduce mass shootings in the United States.
The president’s push for an “assault weapons” ban, for example, might sound reasonable enough, but it is actually worse than useless. It would arbitrarily ban some weapons and not others based not on lethality but on how scary they look.
And we know it wouldn’t actually make us safer because we had a similar ban from 1994 to 2004, and it failed. A comprehensive review of studies on the ban by the RAND Corporation found zero qualifying studies providing evidence that it reduced the frequency or lethality of mass shootings.
So, too, we already have a robust system of background checks that covers nearly 90% of firearm sales. Expanding it wouldn’t have stopped the Uvalde shooter — he bought his guns legally from a licensed firearms dealer and, as a result, must have passed background checks. While “universal” background checks might make some difference at the margins of everyday gun violence, there’s no reason to believe it would stop determined mass killers.
What about federal “red flag” laws? These laws allow members of the community to report someone if they are exhibiting red flags of violent behavior and have their guns temporarily confiscated. They would really only make sense at the state level, though, not federally.
They could perhaps help in theory, but we already have laws allowing the involuntary commitment of those deemed a harm to themselves or others. And many places already have red flag laws that aren’t able to stop tragedies — in Buffalo, for example, New York’s red flag law was never invoked despite many warning signs.
And making gun manufacturers liable for what other people do with their products is just absurd. That’s like saying you should be able to sue Honda if somebody hits you in one of its cars when driving while drunk. Regardless, it’s not going to affect mass killings at all. Do you think a would-be mass shooter cares if some gun company is going to have to pay out damages or not?
Biden’s solutions all sound great until you think about them critically for even a few seconds. He apparently thinks that his empty gun control “solutions” will still benefit him politically. Here’s hoping the public sees through Biden’s cheap rhetoric and proves the president wrong.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the BasedPolitics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.
