Fact-Check: Mass Shootings Actually Increased During Federal ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

“Assault weapons” Proponents of bans claim that they will save lives. Recent opinion column The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the chance of dying in mass shootings was 70% lower after the federal assault weapons ban in 1994-2004. This column was published in the Chicago Sun-Times while the Illinois legislature was debating an assault weapons ban that would apply to all of Illinois. The law was passed a few months ago.

This claim is based on flawed research that has unreliable conclusions. But gun-control advocates like the Giffords Law Center, Everytown for Gun SafetyAnd Sandy Hook Promise Continue to use this study while they push for more assault weapons prohibitions like the one in Illinois. Legislators, Media Reports?, opinion Writers The study was cited by others, and the Chicago Sun-Times column has been published. Several Media Outlets.

The Study was produced by Charles DiMaggio, lead author; Michael Klein, the opinion column’s author; and seven other medical professionals. The data was gathered from three open-source databases on mass shootings. It identified 44 mass shootings that resulted in at least 4 deaths (not counting the shooter) between 1981 and 2017. The study found that 34 of these shootings were carried out with assault weapons, accounting for 430 (86%) of the total fatalities.

The federal ban on mass shootings was effective for five years. This according to the study. The federal ban could have prevented 314 mass shooting deaths if it had been in place for the entire period 1981 to 2017.

Definition ‘Assault Weapons’

To measure the impact of the federal assault weapons ban, it is necessary to distinguish mass shootings using assault weapons from those with non-banned weapons like handguns. An assault weapons ban’s purpose is to reduce mass shootings using banned firearms.

There is no uniform legal definition of “against” “assault weapon,” So it is important to examine how each law prohibiting such firearms defines them. An “assault weapon” Please see the Federal ban 1994 These firearms include both the specific firearms and semiautomatic firearms. Most state and local bans that have been enacted in the future require one additional feature.

To identify whether a mass shooting occurred with an assault weapon, the DiMaggio study’s authors made no attempt to determine whether the weapons used actually met the 1994 ban’s definition of “assault weapon.” Instead, they simply searched the databases’ text for “AK,” “AR,” “MCX,” “assault,” “semiautomatic.” (Klein claimed, in his column, that the authors “chose to use the strict federal definition of an assault weapon,” But this methodology contradicts that statement.

Semiautomatic assault weapons can be used in a variety of ways. Semiautomatic firearms fire one round per pull of the trigger, and then automatically load the next round. Federal ban

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