Curbing gun violence is a priority of President Biden’s reelection campaign message, and topping his crime agenda is an implausible plan for Congress to ban America’s most popular rifles.
Mr. Biden has taken several executive actions and signed the first major gun safety bill in nearly three decades. Yet the U.S. remains awash in gun violence, including shocking bloodshed nearly every weekend this summer.
At least nine mass shootings shook cities across the nation this weekend, leaving more than a dozen dead and scores injured.
The body count included:
• Six people killed and eight others injured in a spate of shootings in the nation’s capital.
• Six people, including an 8-year-old girl, killed and at least 25 others shot in Chicago from Friday through Sunday.
• Four people killed in three shootings in Hartford, Connecticut.
• At least nine people wounded in shootings Saturday and Sunday across Philadelphia.
No one was identified or arrested in any of the shootings.
Four or more people have been hit in 427 shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings.
Americans are demanding an end to the carnage, and Mr. Biden believes their anger will make gun violence a potent issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The administration has highlighted its efforts to combat gun violence by depicting the bloodshed as a public health crisis. In late July, senior White House officials met with roughly 70 state legislators to discuss enhanced background checks to stop the transfer of firearms to those prohibited from owning weapons.
Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have traveled the country to tout the administration’s actions to address gun violence and to pin the blame on Republicans on Capitol Hill for not doing more.
Mr. Biden hasn’t been able to accrue enough congressional votes to reinstate the ban on military-style semi-automatic rifles, or “assault weapons,” that he helped champion as a U.S. senator in 1994. The ban expired in 2004.
Lawmakers are even less likely to take up the issue since Republicans, who oppose a ban, won the House majority in November.
Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris repeatedly call on Congress to pass additional legislation banning high-capacity magazines and AR-15-style rifles, which are the most popular rifles sold in America. The rhetoric about bans, however, may not attract enough swing voters, who will be crucial in deciding the presidential race.
A Monmouth University poll released this year found that voters were divided on banning sales of “assault weapons,” including AR-15 rifles. The poll revealed that 46% of voters support the idea and 49% oppose it. That represents a drop in support for a ban since last year, when 55% of voters favored it and 42% opposed it.
The slipping support for a ban is mainly among independents, with 49% supporting the idea in 2022 and 37% this year. The idea of a ban also has lost ground with Republicans, whose support fell from 32% to 24% since last year.
“Gun violence is among the top issues for Democrats, but it barely registers for Republicans, and independents are, as you would expect, in the middle of the road on the issue,” said pollster Whit Ayres. “The assault weapons ban is only going to appeal to voters who were already going to vote for Biden.”
It’s unclear why support for an assault weapons ban has dipped because other gun control proposals remain popular with voters.
Roughly 80% of voters support more stringent background checks for all gun purchasers, and 72% favor a federal red flag law allowing police to seize guns of Americans who pose threats to themselves or others.
Several studies found the original assault weapons ban to be ineffective at reducing gun violence. A Justice Department study in the late 2000s found a decline in crimes committed with assault weapons but concluded it was offset by the use of other guns. The Rand Corp. issued a study in 2020 that found assault weapons bans “do not seem to be associated with the incidence of fatal mass shootings.”
Although polls show that voters are looking for other solutions to solve the gun violence epidemic, Mr. Biden remains wedded to a ban. He also has asserted that he has done all he can and has put the burden on Congress.
In March, Mr. Biden said he had “gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently suggested that the White House could take additional actions, but she didn’t provide details.
“We’re always going to figure out what else we can do to protect communities,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “So that is something that we’re — that certainly our team is going to look at.”
Activists on both sides of the gun issue say that isn’t true and insist the president can go beyond passing the buck to Congress.
“Biden is a one-trick pony. His goal is to ban firearms ownership. Not solve our violent crime problem and make us safer,” said Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. “If he cared about public safety, he would work to help fund more police on our streets and come down hard on people who break gun laws like his son Hunter. He would also push for changes in our mental health system that is underfunded.”
Gun control advocates who support Mr. Biden have called him out. A coalition of 117 groups sent Mr. Biden a letter this year proposing executive actions, including banning imports of assault weapons that have no supporting purpose and establishing a federal office with a point person to drive the gun violence issue every day.
Mr. Gottlieb said the answer is not more and stricter gun laws but increased funding for mental health care and better enforcement of existing laws.
The gun bill Mr. Biden signed into law last year bolstered mental health support, but critics say the system remains woefully underfunded.
Others have called for increased enforcement of the nation’s 20,000 gun laws and stricter punishments for violators.
In Philadelphia, police records show that 61% of gun cases are dismissed without charges or trial.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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