We’re living in the late 1970s again. Inflation is on the rise, gasoline prices are spiking, and we’re seeing a dramatic rise in violent crime. We have a President who has no ideas worth bringing to the table, so he’s falling back on the old standby: gun control.
In remarks made today, he called for a reinstatement of the so-called “assault weapons” ban and crackdowns on gun dealers. Neither of these things will have an impact on violent crime, and the worst part is, he knows it.
His first claim is this:
For folks at home, here’s what you need to know: I’ve been at this a long time and there are things we know that work that reduce gun violence and violent crime, and things that we don’t know about. But things we know about: Background checks for purchasing a firearm are important; a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
We don’t know that at all. The “assault weapons” strategy goes back to first implementation in California in 1989. There is no evidence it has had any effect on violence. It was in force on the federal level from 1994 until 2004. Again, there is no data showing it had any real effect.
In fact, when the federal ban expired in 2004, we were warned there would be blood in the streets and a massive rise in shootings with these guns. That prediction failed to come true. In fact, the drop in gun crime that began two years before the ban was enacted continued well into the current decade.
Background checks have thus far kept more than 3 million guns out of the hands of felons — convicted felons, fugitives, domestic abusers, and others prohibited from being able to purchase a gun.
I have no idea where he’s getting this number, but it’s blatantly false. The only way you get to it is to include all erroneous denials and all delayed transactions. These aren’t criminals being denied gun ownership; they’re errors in the NICS database that are most often corrected within minutes.
Again, there have been innumerable studies on the issue. The Brady Act mandating background checks at retail has been in effect for 27 years now, and even the most biased studies fail to find any real correlation between the Act and reductions in crime.
And I might add: The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own. You couldn’t buy a cannon.
Again, this is just wrong. You could buy a cannon in the 18th century. In fact, you can buy one today. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
On the idea that the right to keep and bear arms allows people the means to resist government tyranny, he gives us this chestnut:
What’s happened is that there have never been — if you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.
Tell that to the people of Afghanistan, Vietnam, or Cambodia. History is replete with citizens resisting their governments with small arms.
Perhaps most chilling is his eagerness to go after gun dealers.
Today, the Department is announcing, as I just did, a major crackdown on — to stem the flow of guns used to commit violent crimes. It’s zero tolerance for gun dealers who willfully violate key existing laws and regulations. Let me repeat: zero tolerance.
I dealt in guns for nearly a decade. We were already terrified of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). They’re a complete mess, staffed by macho go-getters who aren’t above engaging in horrible misconduct. Rather than do their jobs and go after gun traffickers, they grasp at the low-hanging fruit and harass lawful dealers.
Part of this is pulling licenses for the most minor of violations. The definition of “willful violation” is terribly vague. It can mean the dealer forgot to initial next to the blank when he corrected a misspelling, or perhaps he didn’t date a form correctly. The President’s remarks are a clear signal to the ATF: bully and harry gun dealers out of business.
There are many factors contributing to the rise in violent crime we’re experiencing, which include but aren’t limited by:
- unemployment and economic distress from the Covid-19 pandemic
- rioting driven by people who profit from and endorse civil unrest
- a lack of prosecutions
- the demonization of police by mayors and governors
It would take courage and resolve to address those things. Unfortunately, depsite all the rhetoric, courage and resolve are things sorely missing from our political leadership. So they fall back on gun control, just like they always do when they’ve lost control of the narrative. Biden’s proposals won’t do anything to stem the uptick in violent crime, and they only punish the people who aren’t hurting anyone.