Schumer tries, fails (again) to get assault weapons ban passed through unanimous consent

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WASHINGTON, DC- Once again, Democrats are attacking the Second Amendment, and it has caught the attention of the National Rifle Association (NRA). 

The Democrat-controlled Senate, led by gun-grabber Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), has reintroduced a ban on so-called “assault weapons” (otherwise known as black, scary-looking guns), a move that was slammed by the NRA as yet another attempt to “destroy our self-defense and Second Amendment rights,” Fox News reports. 

“Sen. Chuck Schumer launched a failed attack on the Constitution itself, targeting firearms legally owned and used by millions of Americans. This is yet another attempt by gun control extremists to erode and eventually destroy our self-defense and Second Amendment rights,” NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch told Fox News Digital this week. 

Schumer, a Democrat who is obsessed with taking away rights from lawful gun owners, said earlier this week he would bring legislation to the floor for a vote to reinstate a ban on semi-automatic “assault weapons” that was sunsetted nearly 20 years ago. 

“This week, I will put the Assault Weapons Ban on the Senate floor,” Schumer bragged in a post on X. “After I led the passage of the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban 30 years ago, America saw a decrease in mass shootings and gun deaths.” 

“We must stand with the American people and against the gun lobby,” Schumer bloviated.

In a report on the effects of assault weapon bans on mass shootings, the RAND Corporation concluded that “evidence for the effect of assault weapon bans on mass shootings is inconclusive. Evidence that high-capacity magazine bans may decrease mass shootings is limited.” That report was updated on Jan. 10, 2023. 

Even FactCheck.org, hardly a right-leaning site, said “raw numbers, when adjusted for population and other factors, aren’t so clear” that the 1994 crime bill “brought down mass killings,” as touted by the current occupant of the White House, Joe Biden. 

In fact, FactCheck found that in a three-part study funded by the Department of Justice, it concluded the assault weapons ban’s success in reducing crimes with banned guns was “mixed.” 

That matters not to Schumer, who has never met a gun he didn’t want to ban. When he went to the Senate floor this week, he said he is introducing an “assault weapons ban, among other gun safety legislation” while asking his colleagues to end the “scourge of gun violence in America.” He asked for unanimous consent, allowing the bill to pass without a formal vote. Still, as expected, Republicans wouldn’t let that slide, with several already objecting to the legislation. 

Republican Sen. John Barrasso (D-Wyoming) took to the Senate floor to block Schumer’s attempted end around. 

‘Almost every single page of the bill that’s in front of us today adds new restrictions and new burdens on people who follow the law. It tells you what you can buy and what you can’t buy. It bans more than 205 rifles, shotguns, and pistols by name. Republicans reject these unjustified and unconstitutional restrictions,” the senator said. 

“Democrats’ bumper sticker solution to ban guns is not about safety. It’s about restricting lawful gun ownership,” he added. 

Kozuch thanked Barrasso for speaking out against Schumer’s scheme. 

“NRA’s millions of members are grateful to Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming for courageously standing on principle and championing the rights of law-abiding Americans and stopping Schumer’s egregious onslaught on the rights of responsible gun owners,” he said. 

Severely restricting the rights of gun owners has been an obsession of Biden since he took office, and he repeated that in an event in the Rose Garden in September. 

“I’ll say it again. I’m not going to be quiet until we get it done. It’s time again to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Biden mumbled. 

The 1994 assault weapons ban was signed into law by President Clinton in September of that year, but with it came a 10-year sunset provision, which helped get it passed. That ban included a 10-year ban on the manufacture, transfer, or possession of “semiautomatic assault weapons” and “large capacity ammunition feeding devices.” 

Democrats were punished in the next election, with Republicans gaining control of both the House and Senate. The law expired in 2004 when George W. Bush was president, and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress. 



 
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