ABC Covers for Biden With FALSE ‘Fact-Check’ of Assault Weapons Ban

In an address from the White House Thursday evening, President Biden again called for a ban on so-called “assault weapons.” In his remarks, Biden wrongly blamed the expiration of the 1994 law for a rise in so-called “mass shootings” (a term perverted by the Gun Violence Archive). ABC followed up with an analysis of the speech. World News Tonight anchor David Muir and chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas backed him up with a false “fact-check,” calling the comments “not in debate.”

After touting Biden’s call to take peoples’ guns away, Muir gave a quick overview of his argument for an assault weapons ban (whatever those are):

It was valid for ten years. However, when Republicans took control of the Senate it was permitted to expire. He spoke about how the statistics were changed after they expired. He said, “mass shootings went down while the assault weapons ban was in effect. When they expired in 2004,” he said, “those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings have tripled.”

“Has our team had time to fact-check that?” Muir teed him up.

Thomas said their team thinks “he’s citing a New York University study showing a slight decrease in mass shootings when the assault weapons ban was in place and a surge in the decade right after it was allowed to lapse.”

Claiming to speak as a matter of “fact,” Thomas added: “We know we’ve seen a dramatic rise in mass shootings recently. That is undisputed., David.”

This is an utterly false representation of facts. Thomas simply put the pieces together and assumed that they would fit together.

In reality, we know for a fact that the most common type of weapon used in mass shootings is handguns. That’s including when using the Gun Violence Archive’s catchall definition for mass shooting (which again, NewsBusters has debunked). Journalistically, this is grossly negligent.

In addition, since the lifting of the ban on “assault weapons,” they have become the most popular type of firearm purchased in America. There are more firearms that can be used for criminal purposes, as we know less than one percent of guns are actually used in crimes.

So, using ABC’s logic, since the Ford F-150 is the most popular vehicle in America, that means they’re responsible for all vehicle fatalities, vehicle-related crimes, and accidents.

Earlier in their analysis, Muir didn’t bat an eye at Biden’s contradiction of himself when he claimed he wasn’t going to take away guns just before calling for the ban:

He also added, “I want to make it very clear,” and these were the president’s words, he said, “I’m not about taking away anyone’s guns, in fact, we believe we should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave in this country.”

And at a different point, congressional correspondent Rachel Scott seemed to accidentally admit Biden’s proposals wouldn’t have stopped the Uvalde shooter:

MUIR – Would the information you hear right now affect a purchase?

RACHEL SCOTT – You don’t know David. It may have not been enough to arrest the Texas suspect.

She went on to tout how “Democrats do want to go further” than Biden.

Below is the transcript. Click “expand to read:

ABC Presidental Speech on Guns
June 2, 2022
Eastern, 7:48:33

DAVIDMUIR: Tonight, President Biden is at the White House with his request to Congress as well as his thoughts and prayers for America and for those communities who have experienced unimaginable losses in the last week.

He spoke of his visits with the First Lady to Buffalo and Uvalde and he said the families that they spoke with, they had one message for us all – “do something. Just do something.” He spoke of columbine, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Las Vegas, and the shootings we have faced in this country in just the last couple of weeks. And he said, “we have done nothing.”

He also added, “I want to make it very clear,” and these were the president’s words, he said, “I’m not about taking away anyone’s guns, in fact, we believe we should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave in this country.”

He then laid out his vision. The President has a vision for what he wants in the country. He said, “we need to ban assault weapons in this country and if we can’t do that,” he said, “we must raise the age from 18 to 21” to buy those assault-style rifles that have been used in these mass shootings, particularly in these last couple of weeks.

(…)

Eastern: 7:52 p.m.

MUIR : The President spoke of banning assault weapons within the United States. Texas, for instance, is where the suspect has been identified as having turned 18 the day before he was able to buy an AR-15-style rifle. What would influence a purchase such as this?

RACHEL SOTT: It might not have been sufficient to stop the Texas suspect. The President pointed out, however that it might have been sufficient to arrest other suspects involved in mass shootings elsewhere in the country.

Democrats are willing to take it further. They are determined to outlaw assault weapons.

(…)

Eastern at 7:54 p.m.

Pierre, this is the second time we have heard President Trump repeat this. He has repeated it several times in recent weeks following mass shootings. He reiterated that the assault weapons ban passed in ’94 should be reinstated with bipartisan support.

It was valid for ten years. However, when Republicans took control of the Senate it was permitted to expire. He spoke about how the statistics were changed after they expired. He said, “mass shootings went down while the assault weapons ban was in effect. When they expired in 2004,” he said, “those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings have tripled.” Has our team had time to fact-check that?

PIERRE THOMAS. David thinks he is citing an NYU study which showed that mass shootings decreased slightly when assault weapons bans were in place, but increased in the ten years following their expiration. We know that we have seen an increase in mass shootings in recent years. David, this isn’t in dispute.

(…)