Moving Beyond Thoughts and Prayers: A New and Improved Federal Assault Weapons Ban
The United States is infamous for its high levels of gun violence and a significant number of mass shootings. Each time the United States experiences a new mass shooting, public debates arise on changing US gun laws. Australia’s strict gun laws that were enacted in response to a 1996 mass shooting are often used as an example of what the United States could do. Recently, New Zealand has been added to the discussion because it implemented strict gun laws within a week of mass shootings at two mosques in 2019. Critics opposing similar large-scale changes to gun laws in the United States argue that the United States is too different from these other countries to create successful reforms because of the Second Amendment and a strong gun culture. Yet, the federal government was not always reluctant to reform gun laws in response to mass shootings. The United States tried implementing large-scale change when it passed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, but since its expiration in 2004, attempts to enact similar measures have failed. This Note proposes a new federal assault weapons ban that incorporates lessons from Australia, New Zealand, and past attempts for reform in the United States. This Note analyzes how the different approaches to gun control in Australia and New Zealand will likely fare in the United States by discussing each country’s gun culture and history with guns, how these factors shape the various legal challenges to gun control in the United States, and considerations that must be accounted for when constructing a new ban. A new law formulated with these challenges in mind can achieve long-lasting success and make the United States safer.
Recommended Citation: Esther Ness, Moving Beyond Thoughts and Prayers: A New and Improved Federal Assault Weapons Ban, 44 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1087 (2021).