Mayorkas wants to ban guns because that’s what the ‘experts’ told him

.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a House Appropriatons Committee hearing on the FY2024 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, testifies during a House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee budget hearing, Thursday, March 29, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Graeme Jennings / Washington Examiner)

Mayorkas wants to ban guns because that’s what the ‘experts’ told him

Video Embed

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wants an assault-style weapons ban, at least as soon as he figures out what that even means.

Mayorkas was unable to define “assault weapon” when asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), repeatedly saying he must “defer to the experts.” Evidently, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security does not need to be an expert on what weapons are supposedly too dangerous for American citizens to own.

NASHVILLE SHOOTING: MCCARTHY SAYS NOT ‘ONE PIECE OF LEGISLATION SOLVES’ MASS SHOOTINGS

In between his constant referrals to the “experts,” Mayorkas decided that he supported the definition used in the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which banned the sale of guns based on how scary their cosmetic features looked and did not actually do anything to reduce gun homicides. The Columbine High School shooting took place in 1999, right in the middle of the 10 years that the ban was in effect.

Mayorkas did not stop there. He trotted out another gun control buzzword: “military-style weapons.” According to Mayorkas, “military-style weapons are of tremendous concern. We are seeing too much devastation.” So what does that mean? Kennedy asked him, and Mayorkas’s response was as follows: “Senator, I really must say that you are probing a very, very important area, definitionally, in which I do not have the requisite expertise.”

So the DHS secretary doesn’t know what “assault weapons” or “military-style weapons” are; he just knows he wants to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. Mayorkas is a “do something” gun control activist in the mold of David Hogg or Everytown for Gun Safety. He doesn’t know anything about the thing he wants to ban, just that he wants to ban whatever the “experts” tell him to.

The liberal obsession with banning “assault weapons” ignores that it would have almost no effect on gun homicides or mass shootings. The shooter in Nashville, Tennessee, was armed with a handgun, as many mass shooters are or would be if “assault weapons” disappeared tomorrow. Mayorkas could not explain the functional difference between an AR-15 and a semi-automatic handgun because there isn’t one. Like your typical gun control activist, Mayorkas knows nothing about guns.

Unlike those activists, whose ignorance is left to protests and statements to the media, Mayorkas is the homeland security secretary. If he is going to call for things to be banned to protect people, he should at least know a single thing about them. He has plenty of time to go ask his “experts” about it and get back to us. After all, it’s not like he’s letting the border crisis take up too much of his time.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

© 2023 Washington Examiner

Related Content