For the past two days, news outlets all over America have been focused on the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two adults were killed. With details still emerging, there have been claims that the shooter was inside the Robb Elementary School for a horrifying 40 minutes before he was shot and killed by police. Still, as the town is in shock, over at CNN, the main topic is how gun laws in the country need to change by instituting bans on certain assault rifles. Even Joe Biden, who has lost two children, claimed “I spent my career as a senator and as Vice President working to pass commonsense gun laws.  We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy.  But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled.”

While President Biden praised his efforts on banning certain guns, it should be noted that those facts might have been embellished. Speaking with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, former Army Ranger Ryan Cleckner admitted, “The only reason to ban guns is to ban guns. It doesn’t do anything to stop violent crime. I mean, I look at situations like this, where we have a bunch of defenseless children murdered and I don’t understand who thinks that’s a good idea to make the rest of us more defenseless also. I mean Beto O’Rourke is one of those guys that wants to do that. But the assault weapons ban not only didn’t help, it made it worse. Crime actually spiked during the ban. And since then, we’ve been great on violent crime in this country, compared to history or recent history.”

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As for the supposed success of the ban, Cleckner noted that there have been more murders by hammers than the rifles. He said, “It’s easy to focus on the scary gun. But if we will look at real facts, we look at real stats, like the FBI violent crime stats, there are more murders by hammers every year than any type of rifle not just the extra scary assault rifle. And so you’re absolutely right. Focusing on the environment, focusing on the person who wants to do harm is what we need to do to solve this problem, because focusing on the tool would make as much sense as banning pressure cookers after the Boston Marathon or banning box cutters after 9/11.”

Here’s the data from the FBI:

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Continuing his gun agenda, President Biden urged Americans during his speech, “For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It’s time to act. It’s time — for those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget. We can do so much more. We have to do more.”

This piece was written by Zach Heilman on May 26, 2022. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

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