Another day, another lie by a politician. Mr. Biden, who some believe holds some kind of power, put his foot in his mouth by claiming more police officers were killed after the original “assault weapon” ban was lifted:
“There were fewer police being murdered, fewer police being outgunned when the assault weapons ban, in fact, was in existence,” Biden said.
Except such things weren’t in existence :
Well the ban went into effect in 1994. It expired in 2004. But last year — eight years after the ban expired — was actually the second safest year for police officers in America since the early 1960s. The safest year since the early 1960s was 2009 — also well after the assault weapons ban expired. The 2001 terrorist attacks were of course an anomaly. There was also an isolated spike in 2007. But as you can see from the graph below, on-the-job police officer fatalities have been in steady decline since the late 1970s. The assault weapons ban doesn’t appear to have affected the trend either way.
Nothing about this is surprising. Biden is a politician and therefore a likely liar and rifles are seldom used to commit murder.