Should assault weapons be banned?

[AgnosticBoy]

In the city of Atlanta, a mass shooting leaves 8 dead. Now recently, a mass shooting in a Colorado grocery store, leaves 10 dead, including 1 police officer. Both shootings happened this month. In the wake of these mass shootings, President Biden is calling for stricter gun laws, which would include an assault weapons ban.

Debate Topic
Should assault weapons be banned?

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Should assault weapons be banned?

In my view, assault weapons, which comprises the vast majority of the guns out there for civilian use, should not be banned. There are two reasons for my position.

One reason is because it doesn't take banning assault weapons to reduce gun crime. The vast majority of gun crime are committed by criminals and the mentally ill. Criminals are not even supposed to have guns in the first place. This would mean that if we focused our efforts on taking guns away or restricting them from those two populations, then there would virtually be no gun crime, no mass shootings, etc. But the proposals I'm hearing now, mainly on the Democrat side, it would seem they just want to ban everyone from having assault weapons.

Another reason I wouldn't want to see assault weapons banned is because they are an effective means of self-defense. By that I mean, you're able to inflict maximum harm with minimal injury. I can shoot a bad guy at a distance, which injures him but I'm likely not injured. Now if all I had was a knife to defend me, then that would require that I be up close to use it, and the closer I am to the bad guy, the the more likely I am to get hurt. That's especially the case if the scenario involves a woman and a man, especially an elderly person. If you take away my assault weapon or leave me with some ineffective weapon, then you're taking away from self-defense.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Video of an elderly suspect getting shot by police after they realized he had a gun:

Before shots were fired (start of video to 22:00), the video shows the cops interacting with the suspect, and trying to deescalate the issue. Around 22:00 minute mark, they realize he has a gun. He does not comply so they fire at him a minute or so later.

In my view, this video shows why we need periodic background checks for guns, and checks that get into mental health. What we have now is a ONCE in a lifetime check, although you are flagged for certain crimes. But we also need periodic checks that dive into mental health, because I suspect this elderly guy was probably suffering from dementia. If so, he had no business having a gun and something like that would've been caught had there been a way to track mental health, and not just at the point of purchasing a gun, but throughout the time of owning a gun, as well.