NIJ Agrees: Assault Weapons Ban Didn't Do Anything
The National Institute of Justice funded an independent study on the Assault Weapons Ban and the Washington Times reports that the unreleased report finds it did not reduce violence.
"We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence," said the unreleased NIJ report, written by Christopher Koper, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
"It is thus premature to make definitive assessments of the ban's impact on gun violence. Should it be renewed, the ban's effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement," said the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.
It's not often you find a government report that says a policy didn't do anything.
Josh Poulson
Posted Wednesday, Aug 18 2004 09:02 AM