Biden, Democrats push gun control

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would try to ban so-called assault weapons. He added that it was “sick, just sick” that Americans could still purchase the firearms. The National Opinion Research Center and the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago published a poll reporting that 7 in 10 Americans support stricter gun control laws. A divided Congress next year means any such legislation likely will not make it to the president’s desk. Biden delivered his comments after 14 people were recently killed in shootings at a Walmart, a nightclub, and a university.

What does Biden mean by “assault weapons?” Biden and other Democrats have largely taken issue with an inexact group of high-powered long rifles that can hold and quickly fire off approximately 30 rounds of ammunition. “Semi-automatic” weapons are technically guns that automatically refill their firing chamber after each squeeze of the trigger. This general group of firearms includes everything from legal AR-15-style long rifles to handguns. The United States had an assault weapons ban in place from 1994 to 2004. It applied to semi-automatic handguns and rifles with certain features, such as pistol grips or threaded barrels.

Dig deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher and Myrna Brown’s Culture Friday conversation with John Stonestreet on The World and Everything in It podcast about mass shootings and brokenness.