One of the first steps of a Biden presidency should be to reinstate the assault weapons ban.

[jorgevlorgan]

That should help derail the lawless gang movement substantially, I would think.

The morons are nothing without their guns.

[poli-junkie]

1. Hear hear!

[Backseat Driver]

2. I join in the applause!

[BumRushDaShow]

3. That was legislation that had a 10-year sunset provision that was allowed to expire

and thus Congress would need to pass a new law.

Good luck with that.

As an alternate sidenote, it took James Brady, Raygun's Press Secretary, 13 years to get his "Brady Bill" passed - and this was after he had been shot and permanently disabled in the Raygun assassination attempt in 1981. This was in contrast to the ass Steve Scalise, who promptly forgot that it was a bullet that tore him up.

[regnaD kciN]

4. It SHOULD, but...

...such a move, seeming to confirm the far-right's paranoia about "jackbooted government thugs taking away our guns," might well set off civil war right at the point where we need to come together. I suspect that Joe wouldn't want to make such a hot-button issue his first agenda item.

[Claustrum]

8. I agree with you. That timing is just really bad.

Let their hatred and sadness dies down a bit before making such a move. They are already triggered when Trump loses. Taking their guns away at the same time is asking for trouble.

[MyOwnPeace]

9. Holy Mother of us All - there is SO much to do

to clean up the mess if we can actually get rid of BunkerBoy and his RepubliCon bandits!

Where do you start?

This is a list that could keep DU busy for a month all by itself! As a matter of fact - I'm gonna' start a thread about that now!

With regards to the "weapons" ban - I'm with 'ya - let's work our way up to that. It NEEDS to be done - timing is critical.

GET OUT THE VOTE so that we can get started!!!!!

[fierywoman]

5. I'd like to change "should be" to "will be."

[Kaleva]

6. The AWB did not ban the ownership or sale of the millions of assault weapons already out there

The militias will still be able to keep their assault weapons and high capacity magazines and thousands of rounds of ammo.

[RainCaster]

7. Joe & Kamala will have a long list of shit to do on the first day...

I bet as much of it as possible will be prepared early.

[former9thward]

10. The blowback from the first ban cost Democrats the House.

They will not make that mistake again.

[PTWB]

11. To what end?

It seems like you’re paying a giant political price but continuing to play to RW talking points with nearly zero positive benefit.

The reality is there are already millions of “assault weapons” in circulation. I own one and I’d be happy to give it up if we could ever pass legislation banning ownership of existing weapons but that is almost certainly not politically achievable.

In the mean time, banning the sale of AR style weapons right now would do nothing to remove the millions that are in circulation.

Meaningful gun control is getting every gun out of this society save for heavily regulated hunting rifles and shotguns. Banning the sale of new ARs is not meaningful, effective or politically expedient.

[uncle ray]

12. jesus h christ.

no. not right fucking now.

[Marius25]

13. No, that would be disastrous.

Focus on fixing Democracy and ending corruption first.

A gun ban is a way to immediately destroy everything Dems have worked for the past 4 years.

[Shermann]

14. Big mistake!

Trump divided the country by (among other things) taking sore winner victory laps four years into his term.

Imagine if Trump were to aggressively go after Roe vs. Wade in his first 100 days? The AWB is a similar wedge issue.

We need to reunify the country again and put the damn wedge issues away for a while.

[Straw Man]

15. That would be a very bad move.

The weapons wouldn't magically disappear, and it would hand the far right the best rallying point it has ever had. It is the mother of all wedge issues, and would pretty much doom any efforts to move the country forward out of the divisive muck that we're mired in.