The U.S. needs to revive bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, former President Bill Clinton writes in a Time op-ed. He knows the history well: “I worked hard to pass and was proud to sign the ban on these weapons of war into law, and the results were clear: mass shooting fatalities declined while they were in effect and have risen sharply since they were allowed to lapse.”
He’s not kidding about that decline and sharp rise. John Harwood has the numbers: Seven of the 40 deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. since 1949 occurred in the decade before the assault weapons ban. The ban was in effect for 10 years, and during that time there were two mass shootings on the 40-deadliest list. In the 15 years since the assault weapons ban expired, the number is 26. How much more evidence do you need that the policy works?
If you do need more evidence, Clinton offers it, citing “A 2015 study by Everytown for Gun Safety found that shootings where assault weapons were used resulted in 155% more people shot and 47% more people killed than gun incidents with other types of weapons.”
“It pains me to see people in the culture I grew up in buy into the argument that banning weapons of war threatens the Second Amendment and their way of life,” Clinton writes. “As the 1994 assault-weapons ban shows, deaths from mass shootings fell while the number of hunting licenses actually increased. No one has to give up their culture to save the lives of innocent people, so many of them very young.”