ASSAULTASSAULTASSAULT WEAPONSWEAPONSWEAPONS BANBANBAN aug. 2019 oct. 2018 feb. 2018 nov. 2017 Sutherland Springs, TX Dayton, OH Parkland, FL Parkland, Pittsburgh, PA 9 killed 11 killed 17 killed 26 killed oct. 2017 dec. 2015 dec. 2012 Newtown, CT Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas, San Bernadino, CA U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein 58 killed 14 killed 27 killed 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 http://feinstein.senate.gov GETTING MILITARY-STYLE ASSAULT WEAPONS OFF OUR STREETS AND OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS 1/20 304861 Confronting Assault Weapons in Society Fifteen years have passed since the federal Assault Weapons Ban on military-style firearms ex- pired in 2004. Since then, more than 887 people have been killed and more than 1,578 injured by these weapons. Towns like Parkland, Las Vegas, Newtown, Aurora and San Bernardino and are now known for the mass shootings that shocked the nation. Mass murders in these towns and others across America demonstrate all too clearly the need to regulate deadly assault weapons and high-capac- ity ammunition magazines. On January 9, 2019, we introduced a new Assault Weapons Ban of 2019. This legislation, stron- ger than the 1994 bill, has two primary goals: • First, halt the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 of the most commonly-owned military-style assault weapons and ban an additional group of assault weapons that are particularly lethal because they can accept a detachable ammunition magazine and have one or more military characteristics. • Second, ban large-capacity magazines and other ammunition feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. These devices allow shooters to fire numerous rounds in rapid succession without having to reload. We firmly believe that weapons designed for war have no place on the streets of a civilized soci- ety. We must enforce existing law and enact commonsense measures to stop the proliferation of military-style assault weapons while protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens who use guns for hunting, household defense or legitimate recreational purposes. This is critical if we are to make the streets of America safer. Please learn more about this issue and get involved. ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN That Assault Weapon Ban? It Really Did Work By John Donohue and Theodora Boulouta September 4, 2019 Recent mass shootings have revived demands for meaningful many gun massacre deaths in that 10-year period as we had gun control. But many opponents of a renewed federal ban during the decade of the federal assault weapons ban. on assault weapons, led by the National Rifle Association, Similarly, fatalities per shooting incident fell during the say the earlier ban, from 1994 to 2004, made no difference. assault weapon ban and have risen sharply since. With Our new research shows otherwise. increasingly potent and readily available weaponry, the We found that public mass shootings—which we defined as average number of people who die in a gun massacre has incidents in which a gunman killed at least six people in increased by 81 percent in just five years. Assault weapons public—dropped during the decade of the federal ban. Yet, were used in at least 11 of the 15 gun massacres since 2014; in the 15 years since the ban ended, the trajectory of gun at least 234 of the 271 people who died in gun massacres massacres has been sharply upward, largely tracking the since 2014 were killed by weapons prohibited under the growth in ownership of military-style weapons and high- federal assault weapons ban… capacity magazines. There is no reason to think that this ghastly trend will abate Using the Mother Jones mass shooting database, we without concerted government effort. We should enact a identified the number of gun massacres over a 35-year period. comprehensive federal assault weapons ban and limit on (And following the F.B.I.’s approach, we excluded crimes of high-capacity magazines, repeal the federal immunity statute armed robbery and gang or domestic violence in evaluating and create a more comprehensive and effective background public active shooter incidents.) Compared with the decade check and red-flag system to ensure that the growing power before its adoption, the federal assault weapon ban in effect of advanced weaponry is not readily available to dangerous from September 1994 through 2004 was associated with a individuals. 25 percent drop in gun massacres (from eight to six) and a Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, pivotal in getting the 40 percent drop in fatalities (from 81 to 49). first ban through Congress, is among the many Democrats— This decline is plausible because assault weapons are both presidential candidates and on Capitol Hill—who are semiautomatic firearms designed for rapid fire and combat pressing to reinstate it or enact a new one. Strong majorities use, and large-capacity magazines increase the number of Americans favor such a ban. of rounds that can be fired without reloading. While the But President Trump and Republicans, who hold the gun lobby prevented the ban from being as effective as it majority in the Senate, strongly oppose this. And the could have been and saddled the law with a 10-year sunset N.R.A. has initiated lawsuits across the country to provision, the ban did impede the easy access to the type overturn existing state bans on assault weapons and of lethal weaponry that those intent on mass killing have high-capacity magazines. It also wants the Supreme readily available in most of the country today. (Assault Court—enriched by two Trump appointees—to weapons are legal in 43 states; large-capacity magazines, effectively end all serious gun safety measures by commonly understood as ammunition-feeding devices inflicting an extreme interpretation of the Second holding more than 10 rounds, are legal in 41.)… Amendment. Indeed, the number of gun-massacre fatalities in the past The Supreme Court should heed the words of the conservative five years alone has already topped the previous high for the Reagan appointee Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson when the decade after the ban was lifted. If we continue at the post- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit voted 2014 pace, by 2024 we will have had more than 10 times as to uphold the Maryland assault weapons ban: - 2 - ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN “To say in the wake of so many mass shootings in so many profitable sales of the most desirable and effective weaponry localities across this country that the people themselves are for committing mass murder. now to be rendered newly powerless, that all they can do is While there are certainly considerable political risks in stand by and watch as federal courts design their destiny— pursuing gun safety measures, if the goal is to save lives, it is this would deliver a body blow to democracy.” time to turn in earnest to the task generations of graduating The extraordinary increase in the body count from public law students have been directed to undertake: “the shaping gun massacres since the end of the federal assault weapons and application of those wise restraints that make men free.” ban and the passage of the federal immunity statute for John Donohue is a law professor at Stanford Law School. the gun industry has one obvious explanation: the brazen Theodora Boulouta is a senior at Stanford. promotion and the proliferating, loosely regulated, highly - 3 - ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN With AR-15s, Mass Shooters Attack With the Rifle Firepower Typically Used by Infantry Troops By: C. J. Chivers, Larry Buchanan, Denise Lu and Karen Yourish February 28, 2018 When a gunman walked into Mar- shooting situations. The weapons a social media movement of mili- jory Stoneman Douglas High are more accurate this way, and tary veterans, including those who School on Feb. 14, he was carrying thus more lethal. served in Afghanistan and Iraq, an AR-15-style rifle that allowed The National Rifle Association and calling for reforms on the sale or him to fire upon people in much the other pro-gun groups highlight the possession of modern military-style same way that many American sol- fully automatic feature in military firearms. diers and Marines would fire their M4s and M16s. But the American “They are the Formula One cars M16 and M4 rifles in combat. military, after a long experience of guns, designed to kill as many Since 2007, at least 173 people with fully automatic M16s reach- people as quickly and efficiently have been killed in mass shoot- ing back to Vietnam, decided by as possible,” Mr. Plenzler said, re- ings in the United States involving the 1980s to issue M16s, and later ferring to AR-15-style rifles. “We AR-15s, according to a New York M4s, to most conventional troops are seeing battlefield-level casual- Times analysis. The grim list in- without the fully automatic func- ties because we are allowing those cludes crimes in Newtown, Conn.; tion, and to train them to fire in a weapons on our street,” he said. Las Vegas; San Bernardino, Calif.; more controlled fashion. Like the military’s M4s and M16s, and now Parkland, Fla. What all of this means is that the civilian AR-15s are fed with box The main functional difference be- Parkland gunman, in practical magazines — the standard maga- tween the military’s M16 and M4 terms, had the same rifle firepower zine holds 30 rounds, or cartridges rifles and a civilian AR-15 is the as an American grunt using a stan- — that can be swapped out quick- “burst” mode on many military dard infantry rifle in the standard ly, allowing a gunman to fire more models, which allow three rounds way.