1994’s Assault weapon ban and was it useful

did 1994’s assault weapon ban really work?

In 1994, President Bill Clinton passed Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. One of the subsections was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which restricted the making of certain semi-automatic firearms for civilian use. These weapons are usually considered assault weapons, and often they have ammunition magazines because they were “large capacity”. These allowed the guns to hold more than the standard number of rounds that they are meant to have, with a particular number of bullets dependent on the control as well as certain types of firearm.

On September 13, 2004 the assault weapons ban expired.  This was because the original assault weapons law was written so that it would expire after ten years. Then in 2004, some Democrats even tried to renew it, but there wasn’t much interest in Congress. Still in a few states, such as  New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey, they still have their own versions of the law.

So did the ban really help do anything or not? 

I spoke to Professor Eugene Volokh from UCLA who is a renowned gun control expert. I asked him about 1994’s AWB and if it really worked and this is what he said, “I’m unaware of any real mass shooting decrease evident in the data at the time of the 1994-2004 ban – or of any studies that show that the assault weapon ban was responsible for any decrease in homicide or crime of any kind.  Partly because of this, I’m skeptical that a revival of the ban will do any good”

He also sent me his website in which he explains in more detail. “Lots of people have been calling for bans on so-called “assault weapons,” often arguing that such bans would reduce mass shooting deaths. But I doubt this would work, because, despite the name, “assault weapons” are no deadlier than other weapons.” says Professor Volokh 

Although most experts say that the assault weapon ban didn’t work Ted Deutch believes that it helped reduce mass shootings. Ted is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives for Florida’s 22nd congressional district. 

“Let’s be clear, mass shootings went up 200 percent in the decade after the assault weapons ban expired,” said Ted Deutch at a town hall with survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting. 

From 1994 to 2004 there were 17 mass shootings causing 106 fatalities. From 2005 to 2015 there were 44 mass shootings resulting in 349  fatalities.  Although the fatalities went up the percentage of households who own gun/s dropped. For example in 1996 40.1% of households owned gun/s but in 2012 only 33.1% households owned a gun/s. The rate dropped by 7%, a sizeable decrease.

In 1994 – 2004 there were only 17 mass shootings, this is considerably small comparing it to now. Overall the rate of gun crime is rapidly increasing and will continue to increase until a gun law comes into place again. As the assault weapon ban did help decrease the rate in mass shooting and gun crime.  Introducing a new assault weapon ban might help decrease the number of mass shooting taking place in the USA. 

Infographic by Ananda de Morais

Save Harker Studios

Harker studio is one of the only 6 art studios left in london.

Built by Joseph Harker in 1904, Harker studio’s is being threatened to be destroyed so new luxury apartments can be built instead. There is a petition going around to try and save the studio. If you would like to sign it heres the link:


Burgess Park revamp

South-west of Burgess park gets a touch up of £3.5M.

Southwark council has decided to comple a £3.5M revant in the Burgess Park, which is also part of the £9m scheme that will also try and improve the sport and public toilets facilities. 

They are planning on building:

  • 90 trees are going to be planted because 45 were cut down int eh park.
  • There will be a Natural play area made of wooden features for the children.
  • A new park entrance will be built with new lighting and seating. 


War memorial in Elephant Park

Bronze war memorial will be built in Walworth by May 2018.

A bronze war memorial of a boy standing on a fallen tree. This will be built in the new Elephant Park area of Walworth. The date given for this war memorial to be built is May 2018. The Southwark council has said that the statue will “represent the lives lost by war” because the boy on the tree will represent us looking into the future. 


Is Citizen Journalism affecting editorial values and biases ?

What is the role of a journalist in a world where news is also provided by citizen journalist and user generated content ?

Some time ago journalism used to have different rules to todays journalism, this was of course to please the audience just like it is now.

The first three old rules were:

  • The power elite: stories about powerful individuals.
  • Celebrities: stories about famous people.
  • Entertainment: stories about sex, animals, human interests and drama etc…

These are not the same now, our society has changed and there for the way we target our audience also has. 

The first three new rules:

  • Exclusivity: stories given to a news company first.
  • Bad news: terrorism attacks, accidents or any story with a negative outcome
  • Conflict: stories concerning conflict such as controversies, arguments and splits etc…

People have changed the way they want their news, so we change our rules to go along with them. Before stories seemed to be happier but now we want the darker stories first. We want to know what bad things are going around the world, our society has grown into this since so much has been happening in the past couple of years.

Although we do become bias because we only read the bad news first we don’t usually see all the good that is also happening in the world.

What news values is:

  • a consideration of what type of news the audience want and need.
  • a idea of organisational, sociological and cultural norms combined with economic factors.

Does our body have its own language ?

Does the way we posture ourselves say a lot about us, does our body communicate by itself ?

Nonverbal communication is key in a conversation. Our body posture sends its own message out even when we aren’t in a conversation. The gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make all send a very strong message to the people surrounding us. The thing with body language is even when we’re silent we’re still communicating through our body language. 

People care about our body language as much as they care about what you are saying. The way you posture  yourself, look at them and move tells them if you care about what they’re saying or not.  We can know a lot before someone even opens their mouth and this is by their face expression. 

We always try and change our body language for the different types of conversations we have, or who we have them with. For example if its someone who is in charge you will always stand straight, look them in the eyes and nod to what they are saying so they know you’re listening.