Chuck Schumer Pledges to Bring ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban to Senate Floor this Week

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Monday night via an X post that he will be bringing an “assault weapons” ban to the Senate floor “this week.”

Sen. Schumer posted to X:

This week, I will put the Assault Weapons Ban on the Senate floor.

After I led the passage of the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban 30 years ago, America saw a decrease in mass shootings and gun deaths.

We must stand with the American people and against the gun lobby.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 5, 2023

Breitbart News has done numerous fact checks on Democrats’ claim that the 1994-2004 “assault weapons” ban reduced gun violence.

For example, on June 19, 2023, Breitbart News noted that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the ban lowered gun violence. We found her claim to be false as the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) issued a report, noting that any impact the ban had on crime was negligible.

Schumer is repeating Jean-Pierre’s claim and it is still false.

He noted that Democrats “stand with the American people” by standing for the proposed gun controls. However, just two weeks ago — on November 21, 2023 — Breitbart News pointed to an NBC News poll that found American gun ownership hit its highest level ever in poll history. Over half of Americans said they or someone in their home owns a gun.

Moreover, Breitbart News reported a Harvard/Harris Poll which showed six in ten voters said owning a gun is part of defending oneself against criminals.

If we focus specifically on firearms that Democrats label “assault weapons,” there were nearly 25 million such firearms in circulation on June 21, 2022. At that time, the National Shooting Sports Foundation observed there were more AR/AK-style firearms in circulation “than Ford F-Series trucks on the road.”

The number of AR/AK-style rifles in circulation is certainly much higher now.

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.