Fact Checking Senator Feinstein on the Assault Weapons Ban

On the 20th Anniversary of the passage of the Clinton Gun Ban, California Senator Diane Feinstein issued a press release stating that the ban was a success and should be reinstated.  But ProPublica has called out Senator Feinstein on her claims:

But gun violence experts say the exact opposite. "There is no compelling evidence that it saved lives," Duke University public policy experts Philip Cook and Kristin Goss wrote in their book "The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know." 

A definitive study of the 1994 law – which prohibited the manufacture and sale of semiautomatic guns with "military-style features" such pistol grips or bayonet mounts as well as magazines holding more than ten bullets – found no evidence that it had reduced overall gun crime or made shootings less lethal. "We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's recent drop in gun violence," the Department of Justice-funded study concluded in 2004. "Should it be renewed, the ban's effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement."

ProPublica notes that the original study Feinstein sighted as proof the ban worked was based on a flawed assumption - that criminals who still owned so-called "high capacity" magazines would not use them in crime.  You see, the law only banned the manufacture of new magazines, it didn't confiscate those already owned.  The 2004 study found that the use of "high capacity" magazines in crimes either remained steady or slightly increased.  Additionally a Department of Justice memorandum that the NRA obtained in early 2013 noted that the only way a ban on so-called assault weapons or "high capacity" magazines would be successful would be if those owned by the public were confiscated, which is exactly what Feinstein wants.

Feinstein Wants Obama to Channel His Inner Clinton to Pass Gun Ban

Senator Diane Feinstein doesn't think Obama is doing enough to help pass her gun ban bill and has told The Hill that Obama should emulate Bill Clinton, who lobbied legislators to help pass the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban.

“The Clinton administration really was helpful in getting the votes and working the issue. There’s no question about that,” Feinstein said. “I would certainly welcome [Obama] taking a leaf out of Clinton’s book and really engaging. I think that would make a difference.

“He’s got a bully pulpit that none of us have,” she said.

Obama rolled out his plan and made a plea for it during the State of the Union but has largely left it to Vice President Joe Biden to push the issue in Washington and in at least one state.  The Administration has said Obama will get more involved if legislation hits a wall in congress.

 

But with pundits and more than a few in the pro-rights community openly saying all but maybe the background check legislation will be defeated, one has to wonder if Obama is really serious about this or if it was just one more item on the list to check off as done.

 

Note, while many are predicting that a renewed so-called "assault weapons" ban will not pass, we should not take that for granted.  I have heard from a number of VSSA members that they have contacted their senators and congressman and some have event shared the response they received.  Keep it up!  Obama may not personally be pushing the issue but his Super Pac is and so is Mayors Against Illegal Guns. 

“The polls all show the American people want something done. Unfortunately Congress sometimes doesn’t listen to the American people,” McCarthy said.

She hopes members of Obama’s inner circle, who have set up a new 501(c)(4) advocacy group to promote his agenda, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an advocacy group funded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will put pressure on lawmakers to embrace the ban.

Bloomberg has gobs of money but grassroots can trump money, but only if we are active.  Keep up the pressure.

Lou Dobbs Stands Up for Gun Owners Again

Last night during coverage of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Drugs hearing, Lou Dobbs came to the defense of America's law abiding gun owners, questioning Senators Feinstein and Durbin's assertion (that he said were based on Brookings Institute numbers) that 2000 guns are smuggled into Mexico every day. That would be 780,000 firearms a year!!! This exchange took place between Dobbs and reporter Casey Wian:

Dobbs: Yeah, I'd like to see the audit on all of that nonsense. Durbin, with all due respect to the senator, to suggest that the reason for the violence, as he put it, American firearms, is he aware of the five principal drug cartels at war with each other, the outright law of those. What in the world is a chairman of a committee doing speaking so irresponsibly? That's absolutely -- I find it astonishing. Where do we go from here with that committee?

Wian: Well, he seems to be echoing the statements of the Obama administration. Eric Holder said that, you know, he wanted to resume the assault weapons ban, to help Mexico allegedly help Mexico or theoretically help Mexico curtail this drug cartel violence. As many other senators on that committee today pointed out, if some of those guns weren't coming from the United States, Mexican drug cartels would get them from either the Mexican army or from other nations, Lou.

Dobbs: I don't know if Senator Durbin has ever been to northern Mexico, but I'd sure like to go there with him. I'd like to show him around. And, you know what else I'd like to do? I just like to suggest, perhaps, to the senator that he think about this, that his -- his affinity with the Obama administration and the efforts of the president and the attorney general Eric Holder, to try to roll back our second amendment rights, will be, by the fiercest, I guarantee you, the most substantive resistance in the history of -- of politics in this, in this century so far at least. I mean it is just disgusting to hear that. I had been calling for secure borders here since September 11th. I have been calling for secure ports since September 11th. And now, this man, Senator Durbin has the effrontery, talking about securing the borders and winning the war on drugs because he finds it convenient to the interest of the president of Mexico. There may be a conflated interest shared. I have to say it is astonishing the man has no sense of context and what he is saying.

BATFE's William Hoover told the subcommittee the numbers are more in the hundreds. In 2007 working with the Mexican government, BATFE traced 6561 firearms. In 2008 BATFE traced 10,977 and to date in 2009, they are already approaching the 10,000 number. Even if we use this year's number as a baseline, that is still a lot less than the 780,000 number based on the Brookings Institute.