• ATF Director Steve Dettelbach can’t say what an “assault weapon” is, but he still wants to ban them.
• Dettelbach’s response wasn’t ignorant, it was political. The truth is that “assault weapon” has no real definition other than “gun someone wants to ban.” What’s considered an “assault weapon” in New York may not be an “assault weapon” in Ilinois, while California lawmakers have gone back and redefined “assault weapon” on multiple occasions since enacting its first ban back in 1989.
• But Dettelbach can’t go on the record as admitting that, especially with Biden making his own vague and vacuous demands for an “assault weapons” ban any time a shooting generates national headlines (even when the killer used a handgun). Instead he tried to punt the issue back to Congress, but in doing so he implicitly acknowledged what he couldn’t say out loud; an “assault weapon” is whatever anti-gun lawmakers say it is, and whatever convoluted definition they do come up with will most certainly impact millions of law-abiding Americans and some of the most popular and commonly-owned firearms sold today.

Tagged: 2nd Amendment