On the January 9 Special Report, the "All-Star" panel discussed what the Obama administration might do about gun control. Charles Krauthammer opined that there will probably be an assault weapons ban like the last one but which “didn’t work.” But Krauthammer is wrong.
Krauthammer said,
I think we're going to end up exactly where we started. We're probably going to try an assault weapons ban and it will be a little bit tighter. But it didn't work. The numbers on it, it lasted for 10 years from the mid-90s, and the statistics on it had no effect. And the reason is simple. If we had an honest debate, the gun owners would admit that yes, of course guns contribute to homicide. The rate in Britain where they don't have any is 10 times as much here. Japan had 11 gun homicides last year. That's a weekend in Chicago.
In reality, studies prove that the 1994 assault weapons ban was effective. The share of gun crimes involving assault weapons fell by 17-72% across localities studied, among other findings.
Host Bret Baier should have challenged Krauthammer’s assertion but, of course, he did not.