Mark Hamill Pushes ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban After UNLV Handgun Attack

Actor Mark Hamill pushed for an “assault weapons” ban Wednesday, just hours after a 67-year-old attacker killed three people at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) with a handgun.

Gun-control group Newtown Action Alliance posted Hamill’s comments as part of its eleventh Annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence.

Hamill spoke about gun violence, saying, “We need to end this public health crisis now, ban ‘assault weapons’ now, enact universal background checks now, pass red flag laws now.”

He did not mention that California has had an “assault weapons” ban for more than 30 years and universal background checks for nearly as long. Moreover, it adopted Gun Violence Protective Orders — A.K.A. a red flag law — in 2014, according to Giffords.

In fact, California has every gun control that Democrats have spent decades pushing on the federal level. Yet California was the number one state for “active shooter incidents” in 2021 and witnessed four mass shootings in one week of January 2023 alone, reported CNN.

Hamill also claimed that “nearly 50,000 Americans die from gun violence every year.” He was referencing 2021 figures but did not mention that suicides make up the majority of firearm-related deaths in any given year. For example, Pew Research reported that 54 percent — or 26,328 — of 2021’s firearm-related deaths were suicides.

Among the remaining firearm-related deaths — after taking out accidental gun deaths, officer-involved shootings, and “undetermined circumstances” — the figure for actual gun violence deaths is 20,958, roughly 30,000 fewer deaths than Hamill claimed.

Additionally, as it relates to an “assault weapons” ban, a closer look at the actual number of firearm homicides shows more people were beaten to death in 2021 than were killed with rifles.

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AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..