GOP Rep. Debunks Dems Gun Control Measures: Steube Brings Murder Stats to the Gun Debate

Martin Falbisoner https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki

On Thursday, Rep. Gregg Steube (R-Fla) fired statistic rounds during the House Judiciary Committee Meeting. The emergency meeting called to advance the “Protect Our Kids Act” in the wake of three mass shootings in as many weeks.

A strong Second Amendment supporter, Steube blasted the legislation before the committee as another bid to grab Americans’ guns. The congressman used his personal handguns to explain the “magazine ban” proposed in the omnibus gun control bill.

President Joe Biden said he “does not support a ban on all handguns” but wants assault weapons and high-capacity magazines banned.

On Thursday, the congressman tweeted, “Everything you need to know about gun control: Democrats don’t even want to let me show you what they’re trying to ban.”

He held up: a Sig Sauer P226, a Sig Sauer P320, and a Sig Sauer P365 XL, all popular American handguns. He demonstrated how magazines with fewer rounds would not fit. According to the congressman, these handguns would be banned should the legislation pass because the manufacturer model magazines begin at ten rounds, even though they are not semi-automatic rifles.

Steube then provided statistics comparing the chance of being murdered in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington DC with Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa.

In Jacksonville, being murdered in 2021 was more than 50% less than in Washington, DC or Chicago and four times less likely than in Baltimore. Tampa and Orlando residents were three times less likely to be murdered in 2021 than residents of Washington, DC or Chicago and five times less likely than Baltimore, Maryland. All the jurisdictions with strict gun control laws and magazine bans already in place had higher murder rates.

The congressman concluded that West Virginia had similar poverty levels as Baltimore and Washington, DC but with few gun restrictions. Yet, according to the latest numbers from these municipalities, West Virginia residents are nine times less likely to be murdered than Baltimore and five times less than Chicago or Washington, DC.

Steube blasted the anti-gun cities with skyrocketing crime and murder rates rising. “These laws do nothing to stop crime, and no one here actually thinks they’ll stop mass shootings.” Then he said the quiet out loud.

“This is a push to take your right to carry whatever firearm you please to defend yourself….A magazine ban will not allow you to carry these types of handguns because they don’t have the capacity to take such a small magazine.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky), the co-chair of the Second Amendment Caucus and member of the Judiciary Committee, confirmed the limits on both semi-automatic handguns and semi-automatic rifles.

“That’s not even a high-capacity magazine. That’s like an average capacity magazine.” He said the magazine capacity limit proposed by his Democratic colleagues would essentially ban some of the most common handguns in circulation today.