President Joe Biden last week renewed calls for a gun ban. But proposals to ban modern sporting rifles, or what gun control advocates misleadingly call “assault weapons,” in the wake of recent tragedies by mentally disturbed people will do little to increase public safety. What they will do, however, is weaken the Second Amendment and distract from what should be the top priority of Republicans and Democrats in Congress: to provide law enforcement with the tools they need to protect our communities and intervene before lives are lost.
First, it’s important to understand the facts. MSRs are used in a very small number of violent crimes across the United States. A report from the FBI shows that in 2019, rifles of all types made up just 2.6% of homicides across America. By comparison, homicides committed with knives or “cutting instruments” were 10.6%, and “hands, fists, or feet” made up 4.3%. Every loss of life is a tragedy, but the fact is that you’re 4 times more likely to be beaten to death than killed by a criminal misusing an MSR. The vast majority of people use MSRs responsibly, yet Democrats continue to depict law-abiding citizens as criminals and press for a ban on this popular style of firearm.
Liberal activists rely on disinformation to paint America’s most popular rifle as an uncontrollable public menace, rather than the multiple-use tool that its owners overwhelmingly respect and operate safely. Gun owners know this, which is why there are over 20 million MSRs in circulation inside the U.S., and the vast majority of these firearms will never be used to commit any crime.
These misinformation campaigns distort many of the most basic facts. Democratic politicians in Congress and liberal activists continue painting MSRs as fully automatic assault weapons, which they are not. Fully automatic military weapons have been strictly controlled in the U.S. since the 1930s. MSRs, on the other hand, work in the same manner as most duck hunting shotguns and handguns. Every one of these rifles is semi-automatic, meaning for each pull of the trigger, only one cartridge is expended.
The misinformation also extends to discussions about muzzle velocity. While rifles such as the AR-15 have a higher muzzle velocity than handguns, so do nearly all traditional bolt- or lever-action hunting rifles. Using muzzle velocity to differentiate hunting from sporting rifles is something that can only be seriously proposed by those who don’t understand how these firearms work.
As a Second Amendment champion, I oppose misguided bans on MSRs, and I support commonsense solutions to protect lives, target criminals, and support law enforcement. One top solution to the problem is to respond to requests for help from law enforcement far more quickly than we do now. This should not be a political issue.
In March 2020, FBI Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report that stated the FBI either had investigated or was currently investigating six different domestic terrorists at the time they carried out mass casualty crimes. This includes both murderers at the 2009 Fort Hood incident and the 2016 Pulse nightclub incident. While FBI Director Christopher Wray attributed these failures to several issues, he said in a congressional testimony, “We need more agents. We need more analysts. We need more data analytics, etc.” Congress needs to come together to ensure these resources are effectively delivered to law enforcement.
Federal legislation such as the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act of 2019 and the bipartisan FIX NICS bill signed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 sought to address the FBI’s concerns. These bills focus on faults in the function and funding of the National Criminal Instant Background Check System run by the FBI. The former would provide direct grants to NICS, while the FIX NICS bill ensures the FBI has more immediate and complete criminal and disqualifying mental health records when conducting background checks on firearm purchasers. Passing these laws was the first step; now, we must make sure they are implemented and fully funded.
No gun owner wants to see a firearm misused. Enforcing existing laws and delivering more resources to law enforcement agencies are how we can address the horrible tragedies we witnessed recently in Boulder and Atlanta without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of the vast majority of law-abiding people. These policies will protect people, as opposed to creating new regulations that could lead to federal firearm registries and compromise the American right to keep and bear arms.
Claudia Tenney represents New York’s 22nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
