{"id":519292,"date":"2022-12-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-bidens-repeated-call-for-an-assault-weapons-ban-could-be-a-political-winner\/"},"modified":"2022-12-01T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T11:00:00","slug":"why-bidens-repeated-call-for-an-assault-weapons-ban-could-be-a-political-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-bidens-repeated-call-for-an-assault-weapons-ban-could-be-a-political-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Biden\u2019s repeated call for an assault weapons ban could be a political winner"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40b49268b1b\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40b49268b1b\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-bidens-repeated-call-for-an-assault-weapons-ban-could-be-a-political-winner\/#Why_Bidens_repeated_call_for_an_assault_weapons_ban_could_be_a_political_winner\" >Why Biden\u2019s repeated call for an assault weapons ban could be a political winner<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_Bidens_repeated_call_for_an_assault_weapons_ban_could_be_a_political_winner\"><\/span>Why Biden\u2019s repeated call for an assault weapons ban could be a political winner<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/bidenjoe_110922gn9_w.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President Biden has time and time again called for an assault weapons ban that can\u2019t pass in Congress, but his efforts show that gun control is no longer an issue the Democratic Party is dodging as it did decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>Recent mass shootings that have devastated communities across the U.S. \u2014 600 so far in 2022 \u2014 have reinvigorated Biden\u2019s call for an assault weapons ban, even though Congress doesn\u2019t have the Democratic supermajority it needs for a bill to pass.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Still, the issue has evolved into more of a political winner for the party, unlike the early 2000s, when the National Rifle Association targeted Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore and a host of candidates who steered away from highlighting gun control in their campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is always a tricky issue, because it\u2019s so charged politically,\u201d said Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official. \u201cDuring those times and other times, people thought that it was too controversial to go as far as they could on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the shift is a mix of public support and politics.<\/p>\n<p>Biden served in the Senate in 1994, when Congress and former President Clinton passed a 10-year ban on assault weapons. But when that expired, Democrats distanced themselves from the gun issue,\u00a0 like during the 2004 presidential election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The closest Congress came to reinstituting the ban was in 2013, following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., but that only garnered 40 Senate votes because several Democrats from swing states voted against it.<\/p>\n<p>Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ears to now see pushing for an assault weapons ban as a good strategy for the party, as evidenced in part by its better-than-expected performance in the midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a Democratic rallying point. \u2026 The public actually supports this, so the question isn\u2019t necessarily whether there\u2019s the national support, it\u2019s whether there\u2019s the mechanical route for it to get to the president\u2019s desk,\u201d Zapien said.<\/p>\n<p>Americans have heard Biden plea several times this year following mass shootings for Congress to reinstitute an assault weapons ban, including during a prime-time address after an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, when he declared: \u201cWhat the hell\u2019s the matter with us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0A spate of shootings just before Thanksgiving, including one at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., caused Biden to reiterate his familiar line: \u201cWe need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America\u2019s streets.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u00a0Gun violence isn\u2019t expected to be tackled in the lame-duck session, which marks the final weeks of a narrowly Democratic-controlled Congress before the House flips in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After Uvalde, Biden signed a gun violence prevention law, which passed Congress with bipartisan support and tackles issues like red flag laws and curbing \u201cghost\u201d guns, but no further legislation on the matter is currently in the works.<\/p>\n<p>Biden told reporters last week that he\u2019s \u201cgoing to try to get rid of assault weapons,\u201d adding that he will move forward once he makes an assessment on the votes he has.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>An assault weapons ban would need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster, but Democrats will have a maximum of 51 seats in the next Congress if Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) prevails in a tight runoff race next week to keep his seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet Biden keeps on, even if he knows the numbers aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s something that President Biden feels deeply in his heart. He\u2019s one of the original authors of the legislation that passed in the 1990s, it means a lot to him, it\u2019s part of his congressional legacy, it makes sense from a public policy standpoint,\u201d said Jim Kessler, co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way, adding that while the votes obviously won\u2019t be there in a GOP-controlled House, \u201cit\u2019s still worth talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kessler also noted the composition of the Senate means that Biden\u2019s call for an assault weapons ban won\u2019t politically hurt Democrats in Congress like it could have decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe gun issue does play better for Democrats right now than it did a couple decades ago, but also the geography for Democrats is different now,\u201d he said. \u201cThe nation has sorted itself, and there aren\u2019t as many places where Democrats hold seats in states where an assault weapons ban would be unpopular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that in 2004, Democrats held six of the eight Senate seats in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska. Now, Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) is the only Democrat from those states.<\/p>\n<p>Stricter gun laws, even those geared toward curbing assault weapons, also play well with the public.<\/p>\n<p>Polling from June showed that 63 percent of Americans support banning assault weapons, and 8 in 10 were in favor of raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21 years old. The poll also showed that 84 percent of Democrats favored banning assault weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Mulhauser, former deputy chief of staff to then-Vice President Biden, argued that Biden is simply answering the calls from Americans for solutions to reduce gun violence.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cFor a president who has rightfully read the room on what the moment demands time and again, this is another step in that direction \u2014 leading the country to where he rightfully believes it should go with allies in Congress rather than lamenting what can\u2019t be done,\u201d said Mulhauser, a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive.<\/p>\n<p>Biden calling for gun control could also be a way to paint Republicans as extreme, a tactic he used ahead of the midterms. Republican lawmakers, in turn, have bashed Biden for wanting to curb the use of assault weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said the AR-15 is her \u201cfavorite gun for hunting &amp; home defense\u201d and that banning assault weapons wouldn\u2019t have stopped the Colorado nightclub shooting. She also argued that Biden knows nothing about guns.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Kessler said it makes sense for the White House to highlight that kind of rhetoric from Republicans because \u201cthe politics of guns have changed too with the extremism on the right and the amount of gunfire that they own.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>A White House official noted shifts in the political landscape on the matter in the form of the gun bill that passed this year with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe President has been pushing to revive an assault weapons ban for a very long time. He has effectively used the bully pulpit to make the case to the public and make this a winning issue, and believes it\u2019s important to continue doing so,\u201d the official said.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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