But in the 10 years since the previous ban lapsed, even gun control advocates acknowledge a larger truth: The law that barred the sale of assault weapons from 1994 to 2004 made little difference.
None, NONE of the gun control laws implemented in the state of Connecticut since the Sandy Hook atrocity [at which I was one of the responders] would have prevented those murders from happening. Not one. All of the laws that were passed were done so by oleaginous politicians cynically manipulating the emotional response of the populace.
[Criminals and lunatics are, by definition, outlaws; they exist outside of laws. Pass and sign all the laws you want, but they will ignore them.]
I would also point out this other fact that has finally been acknowledged by the Times in the same article:
"Annually, 5,000 to 6,000 black men are murdered with guns. Black men amount to only 6 percent of the population. Yet of the 30 Americans on average shot to death each day, half are black males."