Would An Assault Rifle Ban Make America Safer?

Why are AR 15s always at the center of gun control conversations? Check out the video to learn why!

Welcome back to Bold TV with Ashton Cohen. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to Bold TV for all things Bold.

So there's been a lot of focus on assault weapons recently.

Will outlawing assault weapons make us any safer? But what precisely are they?

Well, the phrase "assault weapon" is a political invention without a clear definition.

It's a partisan talking point similar to defunding the police, being healthy at any size, or transitory inflation.

Of course, the AR 15 is the primary "assault weapon" that garners the most of media attention nowadays.

Some people seem to think that the AR 15 is this special weapon with mystical properties, and that if we could just outlaw it, everyone would be safer.

The problem is that we have previously tried it.

The federal government implemented an assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004 that targeted the AR 15 and guns like it.

The outcome? The Department of Justice's investigation indicates that the restriction had no effect on crime.

And that shouldn't come as a surprise given that handguns are used by criminals to commit the great majority of crimes in the US. Less than 3% of all gun-related crimes in the US involve rifles.

In actuality, more people are killed each year by knives than by AR-15s and all other rifle types combined. Additionally, in the past 30 years, Americans have bought nearly 20 million AR-15s but at the same time, the US's homicide rate has decreased by 50%.

Of course, the fact that AR 15s have been used in mass shootings is one of the most commonly stated arguments against their prohibition.

However, even if we only focus on mass shootings—which make up roughly 2% of all gun-related fatalities—we can see that handguns are once again used by criminals in the vast majority of these crimes.

So perhaps we should concentrate all of our energy on initiatives that will genuinely have an impact if we truly want to minimize gun violence.

Like providing severe mental health treatment for those who need it or stepping up police presence in high-crime areas

Which do you think is better? Let us know in the comments below.

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