Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary, found herself in a difficult position during a press briefing not too long ago. She was called out on her comments regarding assault weapons bans and their effect on gun violence by nationally syndicated radio host Dana Loesch.

Jean-Pierre argued that the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban had resulted in lower levels of gun violence. She stated that when the ban sunset ten years later, gun violence went back up. Her stance echoed similar words from Biden calling for congressional action to address gun violence.

“If you think about Assault Weapons Ban…We saw gun violence go down. When it sunset 10 years laters, it went back up!,” KJP said.

“If you think about assault weapons ban, we know, when we saw — when the president was involved in 1994 to get that done, we saw. We saw gun violence go down and when it sunset ten years later, it went back up,” Jean-Pierre insisted. “So we know what could work and that’s why you continue to hear the president calling on Congress to take action.”

Loesch quickly pointed out that the claim was untrue. She provided evidence to show that there had been no decrease in gun homicide rates as a result of the AWB and no evidence of an overall decrease in incidents of gun violence after its expiration. Furthermore, Loesch declared that firearms often blamed for homicides are actually involved in fewer homicides annually than other weapons.

This literally never happened.

Here's the DOJ saying it didn't happen https://t.co/H4IPoUBHVF

Here's JAMA saying it didn't happenhttps://t.co/L8RsI35nq9

Here's RAND saying it didn't happenhttps://t.co/eRff2Pwmh0

Here's NYT saying it didn't happen https://t.co/Q6Db7XhuQA https://t.co/pQn778L7YN

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) April 10, 2023

The debate over assault weapons bans and their potential effectiveness in curbing gun violence is nothing new but nonetheless remains highly controversial. Those who support the ban argue that it would be beneficial to prohibit access to military grade weaponry used in mass shootings; which would reduce deaths from such attacks as well as other violent crimes involving firearms.

Conservatives who have a little more knowledge about the issue know that an AWB would not have much effect on crime because these types of weapons are responsible for a small portion of all firearm related deaths and only focus on banning certain features or models instead of addressing mental health issues or limiting access to illegal guns already circulating within society.