Biden gives his expert advice on what weapons to use for protection after an earthquake ~ John Lott's Website: Chipotle asked its customers to stop ...

Do semi-automatic rifles have advantages over shotguns for self protection? Sure, for example, that you can fire more shots before you have to reload. They are also better at longer ranges than shotguns. AR-15s also don't have that much of recoil, which might be particularly important for smaller women. But do shotguns also have their advantages? Sure. It just seems foolish to categorically say that one is clearly better than the other for self defense.

"[G]uess what? A shotgun will keep you a lot safer, a double-barrel shotgun, than an assault weapon in someone's hands, who doesn't know how to used it, even one who does know how to use it. You know. It's harder to use an assault weapon to hit something than a shotgun, OK. So you want to keep people away during an earthquake, buy some shotgun shells," Biden was responding to a question that was raised during a Google Plus Hangout about reducing gun violence. . . .

The remarkable point here is that the media reports Biden's advice without asking critics whether it makes any sense.

Cops have been less safe after the assault weapon ban ended? Biden claims that there was a large benefit from these laws for police officer safety. Yet, it is pretty hard to look at this chart and see any evidence that police officer deaths from rifles were impacted beneficially by the assault weapon ban. Certainly not a large benefit as Biden claims. Deaths from handguns seems to have fallen after 1994, but there was no increase in that either after 2004.