When he campaigned for president last year, Democrat Joe Biden posted online his “plan to end our gun violence epidemic,” and on Wednesday the White House released his “comprehensive strategy to prevent and respond to gun crime and ensure public safety.”
Boiled down to the basics, both schemes are gun control in new packaging, with Biden calling for a crackdown on “rogue” firearms dealers who “willfully violate the law,” an increased effort to target gun traffickers, but not much in the way of getting murderous thugs of the street.
The Biden-Harris administration wants to go after so-called “ghost guns” and “modified firearms.” They want to provide “summer employment opportunities.” They will support Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs.
But only deep in the lengthy pronouncement is this paragraph found:
“The United States Marshals Service, in coordination with state and local authorities, is conducting fugitive sweeps throughout the country focused on individuals subject to state or local warrants for homicide, aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated robbery, robbery with a firearm, rape or aggravated sexual assault.”
More than two months ago, Biden announced several executive actions and legislative proposals while calling gun-related violence a “public health crisis.” Critics, such as Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO), have been critical of this approach. Gun rights activists insist this isn’t a health crisis but a serious crime problem, citing release of criminal suspects by lenient judges only to have many of those people re-offend.
At the time, Biden raised eyebrows when he remarked, “But no amendment to the Constitution is absolute … From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons. So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution.”
Critics at the time replied that when the Second Amendment was written, people actually did own all kinds of weapons, including cannons. Democrat Biden should have known better because last year on the campaign trail, a fact checker with Politifact confirmed individuals could own cannons during the Revolutionary War.
But Biden’s emphasis appears to be squarely aimed at the firearms industry, from manufacturers down to the dealers. He wants Congress to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a statute protecting gun makers and retailers from junk lawsuits designed to bankrupt them.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration said it would “focus on reducing the flow of illegal firearms in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C.” All of those cities have Democrat mayors and liberal city councils.
