The National Rifle Association (NRA) is taking Kamala Harris and Joe Biden to task for their historical revisionism with regard to the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

Harris posted a graphic on X, formerly Twitter, saying about a new ban, “@JoeBiden has taken on the @NRA and won. He can do it again.” The graphic quotes Biden as saying, “I am determined to BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS. I did it before. I’LL DO IT AGAIN.”

AR-15 Production Increased After Assault Weapons Ban

Gun manufacturers complied with the ban by redesigning their rifles for the civilian market. In 1990, AR-15s accounted for 1.2% of all guns manufactured in the U.S.

By 2000 that had doubled to 2.4% despite the ban.

“Vice President Harris should learn her history before going on social media. She’s referring to Biden’s 1994 vote for the ‘assault weapons’ ban as his big so-called victory,” NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. “Yet, thanks to the NRA, the ban expired in 2004. And, AR-15 ownership surged from 850,000 then to 25 million today.”

The now-expired law banned guns if they had things such as bayonet lugs. The law did not impact AR-15s purchased before the ban went into effect.  

Supporters of a new ban note that the number of mass shootings fell during the 1990s; however, the effort to create a correlation fails to account for other factors including the overall decline in violent crime during that decade. Overall, crime fell by 30% in the ‘90s.

“The weapons banned by this legislation were used only rarely in gun crimes before the ban, but supporters regarded these weapons as a threat to public safety because they are capable of firing many shots rapidly,” a 1999 Justice Department study found.

Kamala Harris Takes Gun Control Talking Points to Chicago

Kamala Harris has become the administration’s pitchwoman for a new ban on semi-automatic rifles, which cause only a small fraction of the gun-related homicides in America.

“I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe we need to renew the assault weapons ban. We need red flag laws. We need universal background checks,” Harris said earlier this month during a Chicago campaign stop. “It is reasonable to say that a weapon of war, a weapon that was literally designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly.”

Nationally, 6,012 homicides were committed with pistols nationwide compared with 447 using rifles of various unknown types in 2021.

The NRA notes that a 1999 Justice Department study threw cold water on the ban’s efficacy in reducing homicides.

“Finally, the ban has failed to reduce the average number of victims per gun murder incident or multiple gunshot wound victims. Findings indicated that the public safety benefits of the 1994 ban have not yet been demonstrated and suggested that existing regulations should be complemented by further tests of enforcement tactics that focus on the tiny numbers of gun dealers and owners linked to gun violence,” the study said.

Such rhetoric might sound good to the Democratic Party’s liberal base; however, the impact on violent crime would be minimal. The small dividend from such a ban raises questions about the real motivation.

“They’re playing politics with human lives and are blind to the fact that their pro-criminal policies drive more people to buy guns. But then again, perhaps the President hesitates on enforcing gun laws because of issues closer to home,” McLaughlin concluded hinting at Hunter Biden’s firearms offense. 

John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.

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