Straight Talk 101: Ban AR-15 & Pass the Forthcoming "Protecting Our Kids Act"

Three versions of the AR-15 assault rifle

Add: Waco; Charleston; Benton Harbor MI; Philadelphia; Buffalo; Uvalde TX; and Tulsa 

A man walks into a public building armed with an assault rifle, kills four people, and commits suicide. That scene took place on June 1, 2022 in a Tulsa, OK hospital.

Similar incidents, with slightly different figures and circumstances, have taken place in Waco, TX; Charleston, SC; Benton Harbor, MI; and Philadelphia, PA. And that’s this week alone.

Since the beginning of 2022 there have been 233 attacks of this nature in the U.S. where gun violence has become such a daily occurrence that it is coming dangerously close to dystopia.

Nearly 20 years after AR-15-style rifles returned to the market, the powerful weapons are back in the spotlight as the United States once again debates the role of assault-style guns in society.

There are now roughly 20 million of them in the US, according to a 2020 survey from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group.

That’s a staggering number of weapons in circulation for a design that was made largely illegal in 1994, when lawmakers on Capitol Hill united with a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, to ban a number of AR-15-style models from the market. 

The Clinton-era ban lasted until 2004, when it lapsed amid a tide of growing gun rights sentiment spurred by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other political and cultural forces.

To be considered a mass shooting, at least four people must be shot (either injured or killed), not counting the shooter. And these four people cannot be members of the same family.

According to these guidelines, so far this is one of the bloodiest years in memory with 233 mass shootings — for now, the record is held by 2021 with 692.

That means there have been an average of 1.5 mass shootings per day. That’s more than 10 a week, or around 45 a month.

The killing at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa came eight days after the one at Robb’s elementary school, in which an 18-year-old named Salvador Ramos murdered 19 children between the ages of 8 and 11 in Uvalde, TX along with two teachers.

Since that tragedy, there have been 20 mass shootings elsewhere in the country, proving the contagious power of violence. Some of them are especially difficult to comprehend from a European perspective, such as the weekend incident in Chattanooga, TX in which six kids ages 13 to 15 were injured in a quarrel that included two handguns. 

The Tulsa attack came just 18 days after the massacre in Buffalo, NY where an 18-year-old white supremacist named Payton Gendron killed 10 African-American customers at a TOPS supermarket.

In Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa, the weapon of choice was an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which is easily accessible to anyone over the age of 18 (who must still wait three more years to legally buy a beer). The U.S. is once again gripped by one of its eternal debates – that is:

It is early to know if this time will be any different. But the general impression is that once again, lawmakers in Washington will be incapable of reaching an agreement to make changes to a right that is guaranteed by the Second Amendment in a country where the number of handguns (about 390 million) far exceeds the population (332 million).

My 2 Cents: Here is what elected Republican members of Congress say:

Here from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and his suggestion, which is totally insane – he seems to want to make schools into combat training grounds just in case they come under attack.

Here from Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) who says: “We can't regulate assault weapons because raccoons eat chickens.” Read his story because it’s too insane for me to try and explain it. In short, Buck is off his rocker on this very serious issue wanting to protect chickens more than elementary school children.

Here is an excellent example from retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, the former Commanding General of the Infantry Center at Fort Benning, GA, and Chief of Infantry training, who counters those who say AR-15’s are not combat style rifles. He proves them flat out false.

Not much else to add except this short message for those who resist any change in policy regarding this mass killing weapons pass the damn bill now forthcoming in Congress (I posted about that here).

Thanks for stopping by.