Guns Kill People, and Tyrants with Gun Monopolies Kill the Most
Category: RKBA
Gov. Noem announces legislation to cut fees on business incorporations, concealed carry permits
PIERRE, S.D. – On Thursday Governor Kristi Noem announced a single legislation intended to eliminate taxes and fees associated with business incorporations and concealed carry permits in South Dakota.
The bill would eliminate all fees associated with starting or renewing a domestic business with the Secretary of State in South Dakota. It would also eliminates all fees for concealed carry permits in the state…….
Video ~ China’s Foreign Ministry on Americans’ Second Amendment rights: “That’s the freedom the US advocates — freedom to shoot other people.”
The old line from a James Bond movie is;
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action
Paul will affirm that I don’t believe in ‘coincidence’, and I allow for ‘happenstance’ only in very limited instances.
From that, take what you will about what is termed ‘mistakes’ here.
Florida case shows inherent flaw with red flag laws
Red flag laws are a particularly onerous piece of gun control legislation. While a number of states have such laws on the books, all of them have serious problems. Part of that is because they start from a presumption of guilt and then you have to essentially prove your innocence.
But there tend to be layers to problems, and red flag laws aren’t uniquely devoid of those, apparently.
Take this case from Florida recently highlighted by USA Carry:
A case in point. The Lakeland, FL police department petitioned for a Red Flag Risk Protection Order through the Florida Statute 790.401(3)(a) and (b), in May 2020. Under the Order, a man I will call “E.P.” (identity protected because it is an active case) was taken into custody and his firearms and ammunition were seized.
His Hearing on the Order was scheduled for June 12, 2020 “in the court facility located at 255 N. Broadway Ave., Bartow, FL.” This date and time were confirmed on June 3, 2020, by the police department’s attorney, and again in a court notice issued before June 12. So, E.P. arrived at the appointed date and place at 1:30 pm and waited until 3:00 pm. He testified that “he was not let into the courtroom, nor was he aware that the Hearing would take place virtually or how to attend.” The Hearing was held at a remote video conferencing event, without notice of this change to E.P.
At that hearing, the court determined, incorrectly, that E.P. had “elected not to attend” and entered a Red Flag Protection Order against him. He was prohibited from having custody or control of, or purchasing, possessing, receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive, a firearm or ammunition for up to a year, and was required to surrender any and all guns or ammo not already in the custody of the police to law enforcement. E.P. appealed the Order on the basis that it was made without giving him the chance to appear or a notice that the proceedings would take place by means other than those designated in court documents. This non-legal layman understands that a Notice of Hearing must be issued by the court, received, and followed by involved parties about the specifics given.
From May of 2020, the Order was in effect, and not until August 13, 2021, was the Order invalidated. The Appellate Court ruled that E.P.’s Due Process rights were violated by the failure to notify him that the Final Hearing would take place virtually instead of in the court facility listed in the Order. His right to be heard was deprived and the Order was reversed in his favor. I also recognize that his Second Amendment rights were violated.
Note that E.P. spent much time and money to correct the mistakes made by the government court system and to restore his inalienable rights to his guns, ammo, and property… his Second Amendment and Due Process Rights.
Now, as the above-linked piece points out, for poorer people, this simply isn’t an option. E.P. was in a position to seek legal assistance, but a lot of people really just can’t do so. That means they’re stripped of their Second Amendment rights, sometimes because of a bureaucratic screw-up and not because they represent an actual danger to anyone.
E.P. did what he was supposed to, but the state didn’t. Yet because of their mistakes, he was ordered to surrender any and all firearms he might still possess, was denied the ability to even shoot a gun lawfully, and had to spend time and treasure fixing the issue.
Nothing about that is right and there are no repercussions for those who make such mistakes.
If this were the only issue with red flag laws, that would be enough, but it’s not. Red flag laws can be used by those with a grudge against the person, and we’ve seen attempts to do just that. How many have we not heard about?
This is especially troubling since red flag laws aren’t even needed. Those who represent a risk to themselves or others can be held for psychological evaluation for up to 72 hours as it is. Those planning a mass shooting can be arrested under existing laws as well.
There’s really no reason for red flag laws, and yet, here we are.
Something insidious is underfoot, a strategy so subtle it is likely going unnoticed in your own neighborhood, school district, small town, larger city and in your county.
If you don’t wake up and pay attention, you may instead wake up some morning to discover you slept through a takeover of your community. Now is the time to stop it.
Comrade Workman
For more than a year, I have been receiving emails from an organization calling itself the “National Democratic Training Committee” which seems to support every far-left item on the liberal agenda and every far-left politician. Buried down near the end of each of these messages is this ominous note: “Listen, there are 518,000 elected positions in this country. Imagine if Democrats fought for every race — no matter how small. Imagine a world where our values of compassion and dignity for all people are upheld on every school board, on every city council, and in every state legislature.”
Got your attention, yet? This group also includes a hard link to find out more about running for public office. Just click on “I want to run for office” and the Democratic Training Committee will start indoctrinating — oops, we mean “training” — you for what they hope will be a winning campaign.
To paraphrase their own message, “Imagine if puppets for this group won every race — no matter how small. Imagine a world where their values became law, overruling your values, from the level of school board up through the state legislature.”
Data shows there’s more diversity at a gun range than a university faculty lounge
“Gun-ownership in America is diversifying, because of safety fears,” says a headline over at The Economist. As those of us in the Second Amendment community have known for a while, the sociopolitical climate since the start of the pandemic – egregious criminal–coddling behavior by the state, releasing dangerous prisoners because of COVID, nationwide “fiery but mostly peaceful” riots, rising violent crime, looting / shoplifting, hate crimes, falling trust in law enforcement – contributed to a sudden surge in gun purchases by groups historically not inclined to own them. The Economist reported the following:
Of the 7.5m Americans who bought firearms for the first time between January 2019 and April 2021—as gun-buying surged nationwide—half were female, a fifth black and a fifth Hispanic, according to a recent study by Matthew Miller of Northeastern University and his co-authors.
The 7.5 million number may well be a low estimate; one estimate from the NSSF is that there were 8.4 million new gun owners in 2020 alone. As I’ve written before in these pages, adding up numbers for 2020 and the first half of 2021 points to a potential 11.6 million first-time gun owners. The team here at Bearing Arms has written a lot about growing diversity in the Second Amendment community. We see this not only in data collected nationally and over the long-term, but also experience it first-hand at gun ranges. (As an immigrant who grew up without guns and didn’t touch one well into his adult life, I’m living proof of this demographic shift myself.)
However, diversity is a whole lot more than ethnic bean counting or about the superficial differences – religion, sexual orientation, etc. – among us. What counts the most, in my opinion, is diversity of thought and opinion, and the ability to express those freely without the fear of retaliation or retribution. This is where I think gun owners are simply outstanding; respect for individual freedom, for not treading on someone else lest our freedoms be tread upon, appears to come naturally to lawful gun owners. There is some data on political diversity among gun owners. Anecdotally speaking, the gun owners at my local club cover the gamut from traditional blue-collar tradesmen to Ph.D. holders, from the MAGA coterie to Medicare-for-All supporters.
Contrast that with a typical university faculty lounge and the difference is night and day. There is hard data showing how limited diversity is among university faculty. They may look different, have different national origins or sexual orientations, but politically they are incredibly alike. There’s also plenty of publicly available data that shows how faculty donations to candidates for office is overwhelmingly left-wing. Consider these recent examples: 96% at Harvard University, 97% at Yale University, and 98% at Cornell University.
The Economist: Growing Diversity of Gun Owners Is ‘Bad for Gun-Control Advocates’
The Economist pointed to the growing diversity of gun owners in America and noted that it is “bad for gun-control advocates.”
According to The Economist, a study by of Northeastern University shows that of the millions of first time buyers between January 2019 and April 2021, “half were female, a fifth black and a fifth Hispanic.”
Moreover, The Economist noted that “the share of black adults who joined the gun-owning ranks, 5.3%, was more than twice that of white adults.”
The demographics are a marked shift from 2015, when first time gun buyers “skewed white and male.”
Gun ownership changes things, thus The Economist observed that people who own guns “are more politically active around gun issues than non-owners.”
The Biden Family’s arrogance and corruption are astounding. Joe Biden issued several new executive orders on gun control while his son, Hunter Biden, is accused of lying on his gun background check. https://t.co/2HDrArsSZa
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 8, 2021
Therefore, a drop in gun control support at this point in American history is not altogether surprising. On November 17, 2021, Breitbart News pointed to Gallup’s findings that support for stricter gun control was at its lowest point since 2014.
Gallup’s findings are in line with The Economist’s opinion that the growing diversification of gun owners is “bad for gun-control advocates.”
The Tide Is Turning On Gun Control
After two consecutive years of record violence, some on the left may be rediscovering the importance of self-defense.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, the Second Amendment did not create a right to keep and bear arms. Rather, the Second Amendment acknowledges and seeks to protect the People’s natural right to self-defense and the tools required for the exercise of that right, which obviously include firearms. This is why the amendment speaks of “the right” to arms as something already in existence and not to be infringed—rather than as something newly conferred, a point recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court.
It should not be a polarized and partisan issue. Historically, the right of armed self-defense was understood and exercised by figures who were far from conservative or libertarian, from Eleanor Roosevelt and George Orwell to the Black Panthers and Malcolm X. In a dangerous world, they understood that one’s life should not be left to the mercy of an aggressor.
In light of 2021—a second consecutive year of record violence—are some on the left rediscovering the importance of self-defense? There’s reason to think so.
The carjacking surge in Philadelphia shows why the Second Amendment is so important
Democrats routinely disparage guns and gun ownership in this country as one of the main reasons for violent crime. As soon as there is a mass shooting, Democratic politicians beat the drums for gun control legislation.
Even now, amid a violent crime surge largely resulting from failed Democratic policies in cities nationwide, they still blame guns. Yet, what goes ignored are the incidents in which guns are used for self-defense.
People are fighting back, demonstrating the importance of the Second Amendment.
Philadelphia has had a tsunami of violent crime in the past couple of years. Homicides reached an all-time high in 2021 after nearly setting a record in 2020. Carjackings have also experienced a surge in the city, going from 225 in 2019 to a whopping 720 in 2021, CBS3 reported .
The crime wave forced the Philadelphia Police Department to publish a survival guide on what to do if confronted with a carjacking. But with the city failing to protect its citizens, some have realized they must protect themselves. As a result, there are numerous stories of citizens defending themselves from carjackings by using their legally owned guns. In these incidents (with several that do not make the news), guns saved lives.
The “good guy with a gun narrative” is widely disregarded by those on the Left in the debate over guns. They continually promote the narrative that guns are evil tools that cause nothing but destruction and the loss of human life. While this is absolutely true, so is the opposite — guns save lives. According to statistics, guns are more often used to save lives than take them.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are anywhere between 30,000 to 40,000 gun-related deaths each year, with about 60% of those being suicides. Conversely, the CDC reports between 60,000 to 2.5 million incidents involving guns to save lives. The “good guy with a gun” narrative happens a lot more than the media or agenda-driven Democratic politicians like to acknowledge. The stories in Philadelphia are just some of the most recent examples.
With people needing guns to defend themselves out of necessity, the Second Amendment is needed now more than ever. Legal gun ownership can mean the difference between life and death. At a time when Democratic politicians have prioritized the safety of criminals over the welfare of the innocent, the Second Amendment could be the difference between being the victim of a violent crime or surviving one.
A Frank Discussion of Knives for Self-Defense
This article owes a lot to Marc “Animal” MacYoung, a prolific writer and thinker about self-defense issues whose work you should really check out. One of his areas of expertise is knife fighting and the use of knives in self-defense. MacYoung presents three basic considerations for knife use in a self-defense context in his must-read article on the subject, and I’m unable to improve on them:
- A knife is a lethal force item
- As such its legal/moral/ethical application is narrowly allowed
- ‘self-defense’ is a legally defined term.
Any discussion of knives for self-defense has to keep these three points in mind. Legally and morally, you’re introducing a lethal weapon into the conflict—and that may have long-lasting repercussions for everyone involved. You may not intend to do lethal damage, but that’s the trick: knives can wound or kill with a touch, and in the chaos of an assault that can happen inadvertently. Another caveat: this article is about the general use of knives in self-defense, not engaging in a knife fight with another armed person. With all that having been said, let’s talk about choosing a knife as a self-defense tool.
The first step, as always, is to get familiar with your local laws on the subject. Each state—and many municipalities—has its own laws about knives: what you can carry, where you can carry, when/how you may use them, and what constitutes the legal use of lethal force (yes, that again) for self-defense. It might be a good idea to book a consultation with an attorney. Yes, that’s expensive, but it’s best to get legal advice from a professional who is bound to act on your behalf.
The second step is to consider your self-defense plan as a whole. Personal protection does not start and end with weapons; there’s a lot that goes into conflict-avoidance and safety planning other than planning for use of force. Make sure you’ve got those bases covered.
Nor should you neglect other possible self-defense tools. Even if you have a knife, you may not be able to deploy it in time, or you may need a less-lethal tool instead. Make sure to keep those options open.
Now, let’s talk about the knife you’ll be carrying. Unless you live in a rural area, you’ll probably legally and logistically be better of with a lock-bladed folding knife, one designed as an all-purpose tool. Because that’s what it’ll spend most of its time doing. Opening boxes, cutting strings and rope, and other mundane tasks are its purview. If legal in your state, there are knives made specifically for knife fighting such as the Colonel Blade or the Clinch Pick.
Finally, you’ll need some training. Probably quite a bit of training. There are numerous systems for the use of knives in self-defense out there. One that comes to mind but I have not taken is the Edged Weapons Overview course by Shivworks. I would suggest selecting a system or school that teaches both armed and unarmed techniques—you’ll likely need both if something does go wrong. I’m a big advocate of the notion that a short-range weapon like a knife exists to give you the time and space to run, so please give that some thought.
These are just some thoughts to get you started. Please reach out to me in the comments section or via email and let me know if you have any further questions or ideas. I love hearing from you.
Wisconsin Assembly OKs GOP-led gun rights bills
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Assembly approved a package of Republican-authored bills on Thursday that would dramatically expand gun rights in the state, moving forward with the proposals even though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will almost certainly veto them.
The proposals would allow people with concealed carry licenses to go armed on school grounds and in churches attached to private schools; lower the minimum age for obtaining a concealed carry license from 21 to 18; and allow anyone with a concealed carry license from any state to go armed in Wisconsin. Currently, only people with licenses from states that conduct background checks on applicants can carry concealed guns in Wisconsin.
Assembly Democrats railed against the bills during a news conference before the floor session began, saying the measures would make the state more dangerous.
“Today we vote on bills that will bring guns to our school grounds, a bill that will allow high school seniors to carry concealed weapons and a bill permitting people from out of state who would normally fail a criminal-background check to carry guns in Wisconsin. As a parent, as a teacher and as a citizen, this is terrifying,” Rep. Deb Andraca, an elementary school teacher and a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, a group that works to reduce gun violence.
Republicans defended the proposals at their own pre-session news conference.
“Our Second Amendment rights, those are just critically important to everybody across Wisconsin,” said Rep. Shae Sortwell, who is the chief Assembly sponsor for the bill that would lower the concealed carry age. “(We want to) make sure that every adult American, whether they are visiting Wisconsin, whether they are living in Wisconsin, has the same rights under the law.”
BLUF:
It’s well past time that lawmakers recognize that the laws aren’t working except to hamstring the law-abiding citizens of this great nation, so maybe it’s time to repeal some of these stupid laws and give us a chance at standing on a level playing field with the bad guys.
Teens leaving funeral arrested for full-auto guns
Full-auto.
I’m not going to lie, I have almost no experience with machine guns. They’re too expensive for me to obtain legally, and the penalties for doing so illegally just make them another kind of expensive.
However, for some people, that second kind of expensive just doesn’t seem to be that bad. They’re mostly convinced they won’t get caught. That’s probably especially true if your age starts with a “1.”
As some teens in Minneapolis just found out, though, being young and having a weapon modified to be full-auto doesn’t protect you from arrest.
Teenage twin brothers have been charged with possessing firearms illegally altered to fire automatically and with fleeing police after leaving the funeral of a slain friend this week in Minneapolis.
According to charges filed in Hennepin County District Court, the 18-year-old brothers, Quantez and Cortez Ward, were seen riding in a vehicle from which police seized three handguns outfitted with devices called auto-sears — commonly known as “Glock switches” — that can turn the weapons fully automatic.
The brothers did not have lawyers as of Wednesday afternoon, but they were scheduled to make their initial court appearances Thursday, when the court could assign them attorneys.
Minneapolis police and Hennepin County Sheriff’s personnel were conducting surveillance at a funeral for 15-year-old Santana Jackson on Jan. 17 when they saw the brothers arrive, according to the charges. Authorities had learned earlier that they would attend and likely be carrying handguns modified to fire fully automatic.
Authorities and crime prevention workers say the modified firearms have been showing up at crime scenes with frightening frequency in recent months.
Now, this is a good time to look at gun control as a whole.
Full-auto is tightly regulated. Handguns are regulated, too. And no law allows teenagers too young to be named in the papers to purchase firearms, much less buy handguns.
And yet, here we are.
BLUF:
As with any crime, and to be clear, willfully violating the Constitution is a criminal act. You have to look at motive, means and opportunity. Joe Biden has the motive to violate our rights and the means to do so. And although I believe it will happen sooner rather than later, unless fate or the 25th Amendment intervene, for the next three long years he’ll have opportunity for all the infringing he and Kamala desire.
The Question On Gun Owners’ Minds: What Will Joe Biden’s Next Pivot Be?
The Biden-Harris administration is trapped inside a hostile media spotlight, a victim of their own incompetence. They’re like a cornered animal – desperate for a way out, but clearly willing to settle for anything that would shift the public focus off of their ever-growing list of failures.
They’re a consistent bunch, that much is true. They consistently lurch from one self-inflicted crisis to another, while we pay the price for their mistakes.
It began with Joe’s unconditional surrender of Afghanistan and was followed by the Build Back Better bust and the deadly fiasco on our Southern border. Added quickly to the mix were skyrocketing inflation, lots of empty shelves, the Supremes embarrassing denouncement of a clearly unconstitutional vaccine mandate, COVID tests becoming unobtainium while omicron surged.
All the while, the filibuster remaining as strong as it was a year ago thanks to good Sens. Manchin and Sinema, and the fact that Russia is making ready to launch an invasion of the Ukraine, which could trigger a third world war, in which Joe Biden (!) would be the defender of the free world.
The Biden-Harris administration tried to get the focus off of its near-daily faux pas by uploading a Jan. 6-themed “democracy is under threat” speech onto Joe’s teleprompter. The speech caught hold of the media’s news cycle for about a day, but the respite didn’t last long, despite hard-sell attempts by Pelosi et al.
Next, Joe tried pivoting to voting rights, but when voting rights advocates themselves boycotted his speech, his pivot lost its luster. The speech itself – “Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?” – was about as easy for most Americans to stomach as a fistful of ghost peppers. It was, in fact, more of a cry for help – another what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-Joe exemplar.
Now, what has me and some of my much smarter and more experienced friends losing sleep, is trying to fathom what Joe will try next. It is time, we fear, for Joe to pivot once again toward gun control, as he did right out of the box a year ago.
Second Amendment Preservation Act introduced in Iowa Senate
A bill in the state senate would establish a $50,000 fine for an Iowa city and law enforcement agency where an officer enforces federal gun regulations that are stricter than the state’s.
The bill is part of a campaign that has prompted county supervisors to designate 33 Iowa counties as “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” where federal gun laws wouldn’t be enforced by local officials if the Biden Administration or congress were to enact tougher regulations. Senator Zach Nunn of Bondurant, a Republican congressional candidate in Iowa’s third district, is the sponsor of the so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act.
“We want to protect our law enforcement officers on the front line who are serving the community, but not deputize them as agents of a department or agency to go in and infringe upon an Iowan’s Second Amendment constitutional rights,” Nunn said yesterday during a subcommittee hearing on the bill.
Illinois bill to criminalize possession of BB/Paintball/Airsoft/squirt guns
You can’t make this up!!!!!!! Now these imbeciles want to make it a crime to have a freaking Red Ryder!!!!
Can the DC Project be the 2A counter to Moms Demand Action?
We’ve all become familiar with the gun control lobby’s group of red-shirted women demanding more infringements on our right to bear arms, but Moms Demand Action isn’t the only game in town when it comes to a female-centered movement dealing with gun ownership. Since 2016, the DC Project has been attracting a growing number of women who support the Second Amendment, and at this year’s SHOT Show, the group’s founder Dianna Mueller hosted a press event to help spread the word about the organization and its efforts around the country.
Mueller wants the organization to become a counter to Moms Demand Action, and one of the most visible ways the group is doing so is by adopting the color teal to serve as a visual sign of support for the Second Amendment, just as the red shirts of MDA are an easy way for lawmakers to see gun control activists in attendance at legislative hearings or in statehouse galleries. But Mueller and the other DC Project leaders aren’t just looking for ways to visually signal their pro-2A attitudes. They’re looking to have an impact on legislative policies around the nation. In fact, as Mueller told the audience at the DC Project presser on Tuesday, their goal is nothing less than to “save the country” through activism and education.
One of the things that’s most impressive about what the DC Project has been able to accomplish in just five years of existence is that the women have done this largely on their own. Sure, the group has some corporate and individual sponsors, but there’s no deep-pocketed billionaire bankrolling the organization as we’ve seen with Michael Bloomberg and Moms Demand Action. This is a true grassroots effort, and it’s so great to see how the organization has grown over the past five years.
In 2016, the DC Project’s first goal was to bring 50 women, one from every state, to Washington, D.C. to simply demonstrate to lawmakers that yes, pro-Second Amendment women weren’t mythical creatures. From there, the project has snowballed to the point that there are now more than 40 state-level directors for the DC Project leading the pushback against gun control legislation and pressing legislators to approve pro-2A bills, while DC Project members have been called to testify on Capitol Hill on an increasingly frequent basis.
Mueller pointed to the passage of Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, as well as the defeat of a bad bill in the Democrat-controlled legislature in Nevada last year as two examples of the state-level work that the DC Project is engaged in, and also discussed the legislative battles over multiple gun control bills that they’ll be engaged in this year in Washington State, where lawmakers are once again looking to ban so-called assault weapons and high capacity magazines while further eroding the state’s firearm preemption law and allowing localities and counties to impose their own restrictions on the right to carry during public meetings, permitted events, and in government-owned buildings.
The DC Project is still a pretty new endeavor, all things considered, but they’re already doing great work and have big plans for the immediate future. I’d encourage every woman who supports the Second Amendment to become a part of this organization and get involved in what the DC Project is doing. As their sign says, gun rights are women’s rights, and it’s critically important for more of us to be politically engaged if we want to see those rights safe and secure.
Alabama – ASA and Bloomberg Fight Against Constitutional Carry
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Bobby Timmons, director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association (ASA), is so opposed to acknowledging your inherent right-to-carry, and wants so badly to protect the revenue stream from permit fees, that he openly opposes the Second Amendment and allies with anti-gun extremists. He said in a media interview that the ASA is working with a Bloomberg-backed, national anti-gun group in order to oppose the constitutional carry legislation currently in the Alabama Legislature.
From the 1819 News article:
“Timmons has claimed several times that the Second Amendment was not written to give citizens the right to carry a weapon in a concealed fashion, saying that the amendment was only written to allow citizens to have weapons to defend their homes.
Given his interpretation of the Second Amendment, 1819 News asked Timmons if ASA would support amending the Constitution to limit the Second Amendment to the possession of firearms only for the defense of a person’s home.
‘Oh yeah,’ Timmons said. ‘I’d be in favor of that. But, I mean, it would never get passed.’”
…
“When asked if permits were a significant revenue stream for Alabama Sheriffs, Timmons conceded this was true, but stressed that any such revenue would come from permits or taxes on the public.”
Joe Biden Admits More Gun Control Wouldn’t Have Stopped Synagogue Attacker
President Joe Biden took questions on Saturday’s Texas synagogue attack and suggested more gun control would not have stopped the attacker.
Reuters reports the attacker, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was a citizen of the United Kingdom.
Federal agents stormed the synagogue after a 10-h0ur hostage standoff and Akram is now dead.
Biden commented on the incident, mentioning more gun control, only to admit that more gun control would not have helped in this situation:
Allegedly, [Akram] purchased…[the weapons] on the street. Now what that means, I don’t know. Whether he purchased it from an individual in a homeless shelter or a homeless community, or whether — because that’s where he said he was — it’s hard to tell. I just don’t know.
…The guns are — we should be — the idea of background checks are critical. But you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street.
Biden then criticized the surging gun sales America has witnessed during the past two years: “There’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous.”
Breitbart News reported nearly 23 million guns were sold in 2020 and that the FBI conducted over 38,8 million National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks in 2021. The 38.8 is not a precise indicator of the number of guns sold, but it does suffice to show that surge in gun sales continued into 2021.
It is important to understand nearly 23 millions guns sold in 2020, mentioned above, and the number sold after NICS checks in 2021 were all sold via background checks.
BLUF:
To Biden and Democrats, violent crime is a gun crime problem, but they ignore that 92% of violent crime has nothing to do with guns. And they ignore that defensive guns uses are four to five times more common than gun crimes.
The bottom line is that the media could do a much better job of asking politicians such as Biden tough questions on crime. If we want to save lives and protect people from violence, we need those questions asked.
What Reporters Should Ask Biden About Guns at His Promised Press Conference on Wednesday
President Biden’s remarks after the hostage situation at the synagogue in Texas leave more questions than answers.
What were the motivations for the attack occur? A full day after a Pakistani Muslim attacked a synagogue on the Jewish sabbath to gain the release of Aafia Siddiqui described as the “Lady of al Qaeda,” Biden doesn’t know. The synagogue was near where Siddiqui is held. But when asked why the attacker targeted that synagogue, Biden again responded that he didn’t know but promised more at a press conference on Wednesday.
Those answers are surely much better than the answers given by the FBI on Saturday, where they were not sure of the motive but ruled out the attack being “specifically related to the Jewish community.” The investigation should go forward, but it is troubling that the FBI’s immediately concluded no connection between a radical Pakistani Muslim trying to free a prominent al Qaeda member and an attack on a synagogue. The “massive backlash” forced the FBI to walk back its claim.
But there are other important problems with Biden’s comments. While he concedes that “you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street,” what he does know is that this type of attack occurs because “there’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous.”
His first suggested solution? Background checks. Presumably, he means background checks on the private transfer of guns – so-called “universal background checks.” The problem is that even if such a law had been in effect and perfectly enforced, it wouldn’t have stopped one mass public shooting this century.
I’ve got a phone number for him – 1-800-CRY-BABY Waaaahhhhh.
Joe Biden Complains About ‘Ridiculous’ Number of Gun Sales After Synagogue Terrorist Incident
President Joe Biden complained about the number of guns sold in the United States after an armed terrorist suspect took four hostages at a Texas synagogue on Sunday.
“There’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous,” Biden said when asked by reporters on Sunday about gun control after the incident.
Biden noted that suspect, Faisal Akram, 44, a British national, had allegedly purchased his gun on the street, before the incident.
“The guns are — we should be — the idea of background checks are critical,” he said, but admitted that “you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street.”
Biden said that country had failed to “focus as hard as we should and as consistent as we should” on issues like gun purchases, gun sales, and “ghost” guns.
Akram was killed by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, nearly eleven hours after he entered the synagogue. None of the hostages were harmed.
Biden called the incident “an act of terror” but said he did not know why Akram was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, known as “Lady al-Qaeda” imprisoned at Fort Worth for trying to kill American soldiers.
“I don’t– we don’t have I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue, why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged, why he was using an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments,” Biden said.