NRA spokesperson Billy McLaughlin told FOX News Digital that the Biden Administration’s “pro-criminal policies drive more people to buy guns.”
The NRA’s chief goal was to take on one of Vice President Kamala Harris’s social media posts in which she pushed Biden’s claim that he beat the NRA once and will do it again. Biden was referencing the passage of the 1994 “assault weapons” ban, when he claims to have defeated the NRA.
McLaughlin responded, “Vice President Harris should learn her history before going on social media. She’s referring to Biden’s 1994 vote for the ‘assault weapons’ ban as his big so-called victory. Yet, thanks to the NRA, the ban expired in 2004. And, AR-15 ownership surged from 850,000 then to 25 million today.”
A customer looks at a custom made AR-15 style rifle at Davidson Defense in Orem, Utah on February 4, 2021. (George Frey/AFP via Getty Images)
A customer looks at a custom made AR-15 style rifle at Davidson Defense in Orem, Utah, on February 4, 2021. (George Frey/AFP via Getty Images)
He also noted that the “assault weapons” ban did not achieve the anticipated drop in crime, saying, “Even President Clinton’s DOJ conceded the ban was ineffective.”
Breitbart News pointed to a Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) report released just as the “assault weapons” ban was set to expire. The authors of the study found that the ban could not be credited with any reduction in crime.
The Washington Times quoted University of Pennsylvania professor Christopher Koper, author of the NIJ report, saying at the time, “We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence.”
McLaughlin suggested the Biden Administration’s gun control agenda is “[persecuting] law-abiding gun owners” while those same gun owners are “under siege from criminals.”
WATCH — AWR Hawkins Tells Young America’s Foundation: “Good People With Guns Do Good Things”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
