During Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s testimony on Monday before the House Oversight Committee, Democrats continually pushed for gun control, with Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) going so far as asking if Americans' ownership of guns is a safety threat. Cheatle may now have resigned, but the reaction to her testimony still tells us what Democrats learned from the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
The AR-15 used by the murderer was referred to as an “assault weapon” and “weapon of war.” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) complained that we “allow AR-15s to be purchased with abandon, promiscuously, all over the country.” The implication was clearly that getting rid of AR-15s and other “assault weapons” could have prevented the attack on former President Donald Trump.
The AR-15 is functionally identical to a small caliber semi-automatic hunting rifle. These guns fire one bullet per pull of the trigger, unlike a military weapon. The AR-15’s .223-inch rounds are actually small compared with what is usually used to hunt deer. Many states prohibit using .223-inch bullets out of concern that the animal will suffer from its wounds rather than experiencing a quick death.
If the murderer in Butler, Pennsylvania, had used a standard deer hunting rifle, instead of simply piercing Trump’s ear, he might have lost his ear. The .30-06 bullet is about 40 percent larger than the .223 caliber bullet used in the AR-15, with up to 2.3 times the muzzle energy of the .223. These much larger bullets create a shock wave that liquifies parts of the body that it doesn’t directly touch.
Even the Associate Press Stylebook, which news media outlets across the country rely on, now recognizes that “AR- or AK-style rifles designed for the civilian market” are fundamentally different from military weapons. “Avoid assault rifle and assault weapon, which are highly politicized terms,” the AP notes.
“The preferred term for a rifle that fires one bullet each time the trigger is pulled, and automatically reloads for a subsequent shot, is a semi-automatic rifle,” notes their Stylebook. “Avoid assault rifle and assault weapon, which are highly politicized terms that generally refer to AR- or AK-style rifles designed for the civilian market, but convey little meaning about the actual functions of the weapon.”
The Democrats in the hearing have previously declared that the federal assault weapon ban from 1994-2004 reduced mass public shootings. The claim relies on one researcher’s unique definition of mass public shootings. But there was no drop in the number of attacks with “assault weapons,” and virtually no change in total mass shootings. Even studies funded by the Clinton administration couldn’t find statistically significant changes in the number of attacks. This shouldn’t be surprising, as rifles are rarely used in attacks. Between January 1, 1998, and October 25, 2023, 52.5 percent of mass public shootings used solely handguns, and 16.8 percent used only rifles of any type. Only 2.8 percent of all murders involve any type of rifle.
Rep. Connolly might want to suggest that gun ownership endangers safety, but the problem is much more complicated. When Connolly pushed Cheatle about whether guns like the AR-15 “make your job easier or harder,” she answered that any weapon made the Secret Service’s job more difficult. But anyone listening to Cheatle’s testimony on Monday knows that there were real, inexcusable failures by the Secret Service that have nothing to do with gun control. Extraordinarily, both the Republican chair and Democrat ranking member on the Oversight & Accountability Committee signed a joint letter calling on Cheatle to resign.
Guns make society safer when police aren’t present to protect victims. Every place in the world that has banned all guns or all handguns has seen murder rates go up. If guns on net endanger safety, it ought to be easy to find a place where a ban has been effective.
With Iran plotting to assassinate Trump, does anyone think that a complete ban on all guns, including hunting rifles, would have stopped an Iranian assassin?
It’s good that The Associated Press is more precise and less alarmist in its language. Let’s hope that Congressional Democrats take note and learn something about the guns they seek to ban.
John R. Lott Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He served as senior adviser for research and statistics in the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department.