Weapons ban fixes nothing

A deranged former Las Vegas resident recently ran his rental van onto a busy New York sidewalk, killing one person and injuring several others.

His son later told authorities that his father had been arrested and jailed several times for vicious assaults, but had eventually been freed.

President Joe Biden’s proposed assault weapons ban wouldn’t have helped the man’s victims. In his recent State of the Union message Biden urged Americans, “Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons!”

No one questions Biden’s good intentions; however, it’s doubtful that a ban would do more than persuade mentally disturbed shooters to carry more cartridge magazines with them. Or, in the case of this recent killing in New York, to use a vehicle or different weapon.

Banning assault weapons is a false cure. Voters seem to acknowledge this. In 2000, Al Gore pushed for an assault weapons ban in his presidential campaign and lost Tennessee (his home state) and the neighboring states of Arkansas (Bill Clinton’s home state) and West Virginia. These are states Gore could have otherwise won, and the presidency along with them.

President Barack Obama knew a ban was a bad idea. Although he made vague suggestions about reinstating one before he was elected, he abandoned the idea once in office.

Deranged mass shooters present a complicated problem, and the solution lies in passing reasonable red flag laws for gun purchases and mandatory treatment programs for the mentally ill, not in passing ineffectual and divisive bans.

Mike Barrett, Ashburn, Va.