Would U.S. assault weapon ban impact mass shootings?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - In a Thursday evening address, President Joe Biden addressed recent gun violence in America, suggesting Congress to act on stricter gun laws.

“We should reinstate the assault weapons ban and capacity magazines that we passed in 1994 in Congress and with the support of law enforcement,” Biden said.

Biden said the policy cut down on mass shootings and that deaths tripled after the measure was allowed to expire in 2004.

A 2019 study from the University of New York’s School of Medicine said there were fewer mass shooting deaths during that time period compared to anytime between 1981 and 2017.

Other studies, like one from the nonprofit RAND Corporation, found that banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines would reduce mass shooting deaths, but it was inconclusive about other effects, like injuries and frequency.

“Leftists want to take those firearms away so that people are defenseless to defend our families,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said.

Cruz does not agree with the president.

But, how often are these assault weapons used for defense? That’s a hard question to answer.

The latest FBI crime data, which looks at 2019, said of the 386 justifiable homicides that year, also known as self-defense, only 16 used a rifle of any kind.

Even if those were all assault rifles, that’s 4%.

That number could be a little different though. Of those incidents, 73 did not specify what type of firearm was used.

The U.S. is not alone in mass shootings, but many other countries quickly enacted bans in the wake of tragedy.

In 2019, roughly 50 people were killed at two New Zealand mosques. The country implemented a ban on semi-automatic weapons just weeks later.

Looking at its neighbor, Australia changed its laws in 1996 after more than 30 people were killed. Mass shootings all but disappeared after that.

One crucial difference between those plans and the United States’ ban is buyback programs.

The U.S. 1994 plan only prohibited the sale of new assault weapons. If a person already owned one, it did not affect them.

Australia, on the other hand, included a mandatory buyback of banned weapons, collecting about 650,000 firearms.

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