The Russian Bots are feverishly using divisive memes (school prayer, lack of discipline, liberal values, etc.) to deflect real consideration of what’s behind the epidemic of mass shootings in the U.S. Let’s not forget that the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban is the direct and proximate cause of the rapid increase in mass shootings in the U.S. over the past 14 years.
The assault weapons ban, effective between 1995 — 2004, covered the Colt AR-15 and derivative assault weapons. Here is an incomplete list - just a sampling - of mass shootings in the U.S. since the expiration of the ban that featured an AR-15 styled assault weapon:
- Oct. 7, 2007: Tyler Peterson, 20, used an AR-15 to kill six and injure one at an apartment in Crandon, Wis.
- June 20, 2012: James Eagan Holmes, 24, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber Smith and Wesson rifle with a 100-round magazine, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun and two .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic pistols to kill 12 and injure 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
- Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, used an AR-15-style rifle, a .223-caliber Bushmaster, to kill 27 people in Newtown, Conn.
- June 7, 2013: John Zawahri, 23, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle and a .44-caliber Remington revolver to kill five and injure three at a home in Santa Monica, Calif.
- March 19, 2015: Justin Fowler, 24, used an AR-15 to kill one and injure two on a street in Little Water, N.M.
- May 31, 2015: Jeffrey Scott Pitts, 36, used an AR-15 and .45-caliber handgun to kill two and injure two at a store in Conyers, Ga.
- Oct. 31, 2015: Noah Jacob Harpham, 33, used an AR-15, a .357-caliber revolver and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to kill three on a street in Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Dec. 2, 2015: Syed Rizwyan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 28 and 27, used two AR-15-style, .223-caliber Remington rifles and two 9 mm handguns to kill 14 and injure 21 at his workplace in San Bernardino, Calif.
- June 12, 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, used an AR-15 style rifle (Sig Sauer MCX), and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub.
- Oct. 1, 2017: Stephen Paddock, 64, used a stockpile of guns including an AR-15 to kill 58 people and injure hundreds at a music festival in Las Vegas.
- Nov. 5, 2017: Devin Kelley, 26, used an AR-15 style Ruger rifle to kill 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
- Feb. 14, 2018: Police say Nikolas Cruz, 19, used an AR-15-style rifle to kill at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Nearly all mass shootings in the U.S. since the expiration of the ban involved an AR-15 or similar assault weapon. I could find only one mass shooting prior to the ban that involved an AR-15 (Feb. 24, 1984: Tyrone Mitchell, 28, used an AR-15, a Stoeger 12-gauge shotgun and a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun to kill two and wound 12 at 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles).
There were less than 1,000,000 assault weapons in private ownership in the U.S. when Clinton took office in 1992, and many of these weapons were in the hands of Veterans with a nostalgic desire to have the civilian equivalent of the M-16. That number increases to about 1,200,000 right before the ban is effective in 1995. The ban expires in September 2004. Assault weapons ownership absolutely skyrockets during the Obama administration (2008 -2016) along with the rise of racist anti-government sentiment and the loony Tea-Party militias. It’s estimated that there are between 10,000,000 - 11,000,000 assault weapons currently circulating in the U.S. They are now ubiquitous.
Here is a graph of mass shooting deaths in the U.S. during and after the federal assault weapons ban (on track to exceed 400 in 2018):
The data is clear (that blip in 1999 is Columbine which did not involve an AR-15). The assault weapons ban was effective in the context of mass shootings. It saved lives.
We are living an NRA-imposed nightmare right now. Kids are dying in scores in horrific incidents which traumatize and desensitize the collective conscious (and subconscious for that matter) of our nation. It’s a hell of a lot to sacrifice all so that Colt and other weapons manufacturers can make a massive profit on these weapons, and the most extreme fringe of the right-wing can run around in the woods on the weekends pretending to save the country from the evil, non-white federal government.