President Biden has taken aim at “assault weapons” when he recently signed the Safer Community Act into law. The leader of the Democratic Party said “I am determined to ban these weapons again and high capacity magazines … I’m not going to stop until I do it.” This ban was lifted in 2004 and it has now been reinstated.
Why is gun control so important to him and his party? After all, the majority of Congressmen who passed this bill are Democrats. Is it true that “assault weapons” are a danger to our society? Let us consider the facts.
The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is a compilation of crime statistics that are voluntarily reported by law enforcement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This data is assembled and distributed to the public. Therefore, the “real time” date falls behind the current year. What does this date detail from 2019?
- There were 13,922 homicides in the United States in 2019.
- 45.7% were caused by handguns
- 23.9% were firearms, but unknown source (the source was not reported to FBI)
- 11.4% other weapons
- 10.6% knives and other cutting instruments
- 4.3% hands, feet, fists, etc.
- 2.6% rifles
- 1.4% shotguns
“Assault weapons” are placed in the category of rifles. Yet, the truth is that knives and body parts of humans killed more people than rifles. So the real problem is the INDIVIDUAL who uses the weapon and not the weapon itself. I say, let the voice of common sense and logic prevail to solve this problem.
But why is our present leadership focusing on weapons such as “assault weapons”? Do they think that “We The People” are too stupid to see the truth? Are they so naive as to think that passing such laws will fix the problem? Do our leaders fear that the people will rise up against them? Do they think that such laws, even though they are misdirected, will make us think that they are doing something? Common sense and logic dictates we need to go in a different direction!
Rev. David Corbett
Maine Senate Candidate
District 32 (Biddeford, Arundel, Dayton, Lyman, Hollis)