Category: Politics

Hard Drive: Joe Biden Thinks ‘2A is Being Badly Interpreted’

Buried in the broad-ranging material found on the hard drive from Hunter Biden’s laptop—a copy of which has been obtained by AmmoLand News—is a view of how Joe Biden looks at the Second Amendment, with reports from his daily newsletter titled “Office of Vice President Joe Biden News Briefing,” published when the Delaware Democrat was no longer serving as vice president, and before he entered the campaign.

This newsletter, produced five days a week by Bulletin Intelligence LLC, based in Reston, Va., is a treasure trove of news and daily Biden updates, evidently published to keep Biden relevant to anyone reading. AmmoLand reached out to Bulletin Intelligence for comment, but there was no response.

A note on each newsletter said Bulletin Intelligence LLC gathers content “from thousands of newspapers, national magazines, national and local television programs, radio broadcasts, social-media platforms and additional forms of open-source data.” The Biden newsletters are no longer available online. But the file remains on Hunter Biden’s hard drive.

Links to various “Biden in the News” stories over the course of several months in 2018 and early 2019 reveal that the former vice president was busy on Twitter following a school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas and five weeks later following a shooting at the newspaper offices of the Capitol Gazette newspaper.

Following the school shooting, Biden sent what might be considered a “boilerplate” reaction declaring, “Enough is enough is enough. Decent people have to take a stand. These are our children.”

In the aftermath of the newspaper office attack, Biden was again on Twitter, stating, “Another shooting. Another night in America where a father, a wife, a friend, a neighbor won’t be coming home. We can’t accept this. It must end. Congress must act.”

They are the sort of messages an anti-gunner would tweet, following the established dictum of “never let a crisis go to waste.”

According to The Hill, as noted in the newsletter, Biden declared during a “discussion” with Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, “I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted. It’s not consistent with what our Founders intended.”

This from the man who repeatedly insisted there were certain types of gun prohibitions in effect at the time the Second Amendment was written. It was a claim even the Washington Post Fact Checker refuted, giving Biden Four Pinocchios in the process, essentially calling the former vice president a liar.

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Left has short memory in ‘Let’s go Brandon’ outrage

There’s a crisis afoot in the land — people are being rude to President Joe Biden.
The trend of anti-Biden protestors chanting or holding signs saying “(Expletive) Joe Biden,” or the cleaner version that has come to signify the same thing, “Let’s go Brandon,” is being portrayed as a new low in American politics.
A recent Washington Post report was headlined, “Biden’s Critics Hurl Increasingly Vulgar Taunts.” It stipulated presidents have always been the subject of derision and abuse, then claimed, “The current eruption of anti-Biden signs and chants, however, is on another level, far more vulgar, and widespread.”
Really? Put aside all the abuse presidents were subjected to prior to the digital age, whether John Quincy Adams (“pimp”), Andrew Jackson (“a greater tyrant than Cromwell, Cesar, or Bonaparte”), Martin van Buren (“Martin van Ruin”), Abraham Lincoln (“the original gorilla”) or Theodore Roosevelt (“that damned cowboy”). The last few years weren’t exactly a mannerly period of polite disagreement in our national life.
As Byron York of the Washington Examiner has noted, Donald Trump’s opponents gloried in the F-word, such that without it some of them would have been rendered practically mute. When Robert De Niro introduced Bruce Springsteen at the 2018 Tony Awards, he used the opportunity to declare: “I’m gonna say one thing. (Expletive) Trump.” Cue the standing ovation.
A Los Angeles art gallery had a “(Expletive)Trump” exhibit, rapper Eminem led an “(Expletive) Trump” call-and-response at a concert in England, and so on.
The new progressive rule is “(Expletive) you” for me, but not for thee.
The “(Expletive) Joe Biden” chant took an unexpected turn last month. The NASCAR driver Brandon Brown won a race at the Talladega Superspeedway and the reporter interviewing him misstated a growing “(Expletive) Joe Biden” chant in the background as fans saying, “Let’s go Brandon.”
The substitute version of the insult, instantly adopted by the president’s critics, is more lighthearted than the original. Fundamentally, it’s a joke. It is a gibe at Biden, but also at the misreporting of the chant at the raceway, taken as a symbol of the media’s ridiculous protectiveness toward Biden.
The chant is also amusingly anodyne, given its provenance. Who can object to the cheering on Brandon, whoever he is?
Not everyone appreciates the humor, though. When a Southwest Airlines pilot allegedly spoke the offending phrase over the intercom on a flight with an Associated Press reporter on board, the outrage machine kicked into gear in a particularly blatant display of humorlessness and lack of proportion.
Harvard professor and CNN commentator Juliette Kayyem posted a missive supposedly from another pilot calling for the Southwest pilot and the crew all to be fired on grounds that he must have been too mentally unbalanced to operate the plane.
Of course, pilots shouldn’t make political announcements on their flights, and it’d be better if no one resorted to public obscenities when referring to Biden, Trump or any other officeholder. But it’s one of the privileges of living in a democratic age that people can insult the head of state without fear of jail or other punishment.
Anyone who thinks deriding a U.S. president is breaking new, dangerous ground knows nothing of our history or what it’s like to live in a clamorous continental nation. Partisan insults, vulgar and not, come with the territory.

Question O’ The Day
If CRT isn’t real then why are they so against banning it from schools?

Glenn Youngkin Defeated Terry McAuliffe Because Democrats Betrayed Parents.
From COVID-19 closures to critical race theory, Republicans can fix schools by giving families more choice.

While former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s loss to Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin was cemented very late on election night, in practice the day that he forfeited the gubernatorial race was September 28. That was when, during a debate with Youngkin, McAuliffe, a Democrat, made the statement that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

That was his response to questions about school curriculum and the fury that had taken hold at many local school board meetings, where irate parents assailed education leaders for allegedly supporting what has been termed “critical race theory” by right-wing activists who oppose it. CRT is a divisive concept, in part because progressives and conservative disagree sharply about what it even is. Many members of the liberal media don’t even believe it exists, and have accused the GOP of fabricating the issue. As Youngkin’s victory became apparent, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace lamented that critical race theory, “which isn’t even real,” had swung the suburbs 15 points in Republicans’ favor.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and the architect of the current CRT framing, has claimed a well-deserved victory: There’s no question that his efforts to supply a memorable name—critical race theory—for the series of semi-related, clumsy diversity initiatives and questionable curriculum choices in some public schools helped raise the salience of the issue.

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The Brit MP got stabbied by a moslem jihadi import, but **Giffords** tries to use this BS article to push for more gun control over here.

**Not Giffords herself, her handlers.  Anyone with one more functioning synapse one can listen to her speak for more than 5 words and can tell she’s nothing more than a cabbage head ChattyCathy pull the string doll, which makes the odds she can write such an article as this highly unlikely.

Opinion: Gabby Giffords: The stabbing of a British MP is another example of how violence eats away at democracy

As the stabbing of Amess makes all too clear, the problem of politicized violence is endemic around the world. But in the United States, this problem is exacerbated by our tragically lax gun laws……………

Senator Richard Shelby is retiring, so it’s a wide open race.

‘Black Hawk Down’ POW Mike Durant enters Alabama’s 2022 U.S. Senate race

Mike Durant, famously known for his heroics in the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” incident, has formally declared his candidacy to seek to Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

In announcing his bid for the U.S. Senate, Durant lambasted President Joe Biden over what he sees as the administration’s failures.

“The career politicians have ruined this country, and their leader Joe Biden is pushing us to the brink,” said Durant. “Between ridiculous vaccine mandates, trillions in spending, and constant assaults on innocent life and the 2nd Amendment, it’s clear that we need to mobilize people from outside of politics to step forward and serve.”

From what little time I spent in Maryland, I wouldn’t want to be a part of the state either.

Justice to call special session for three Maryland counties to join West Virginia

After five Maryland lawmakers from three western Maryland counties announced that they want to secede from their state to join West Virginia, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has begun planning a special session to try to make it happen.

The lawmakers represent three counties that border West Virginia – Allegany, Garrett and Washington. Allegany and Garret are the two counties within the narrow strip of northwestern Maryland that extends between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Part of Washington is also in that strip of land.

This week, the lawmakers sent letters to West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay and Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, requesting the state to add them as constituent counties of West Virginia. The letters said they believe the change would be beneficial to both states and requested to be advised on the next step.

All five lawmakers are Republicans in a state that is mostly Democratic. Former President Donald Trump received a majority of votes in all three counties in a state in which nearly two-thirds of the vote went for President Joe Biden. The counties are in a more rural and more conservative part of Maryland.

Justice, Hanshaw and Blair all expressed support for the change.

“Our state supports personal freedoms, we value the Second Amendment, and we love the rights of the unborn,” Justice said in a statement. “We love and embrace our energy industry. Moving to West Virginia means job opportunities like crazy and a chance to live in paradise. No matter where you’re from, we’d love to have you in West Virginia.”

There are more than 251,000 people who live in the three counties and if they joined West Virginia, two of the cities would be among the state’s 10 largest cities: Cumberland and Hagerstown.

They’re stupid enough to believe they will be immune to any consequences if things ever go kinetic.

Democrats aim to make anyone who disagrees with them an enemy of the state.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-The Moon) made the Democratic position clear Thursday: If you’re not with us, you’re terrorists.

During his opening statement for the Attorney General Merrick Garland hearing, Nadler said there was no difference between the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and parents who are angry about what is being taught in schools.

“This growth in extremist ideology is echoed in an epidemic of violence and intimidation directed at our health care professionals, teachers, essential workers, school board members and election workers,” Nadler said.

Nadler, a partisan loon who spent the past four years stirring up every conspiracy theory against President Trump, claimed there was a “broader pattern” here, including “the growing threats of violence against public servants.”

Yes, it is terrible when a sitting senator is harassed and followed into a bathroom . . . Oh he wasn’t talking about Krysten Sinema? The incident President Biden said was just “part of the process”? Huh.

We’re sure he was inspired by the climate change activists who stormed the Department of the Interior last Thursday, breaking down the front door and attempting to occupy the building. He was calling on AOC and others to denounce them. No?

How about the fact that the letter the National School Boards Association sent to Garland asking for the FBI for help, as reported by columnist Christopher Rufo, “cites only a single example of actual violence against a school official.” That the letter is in fact hyperventilating bunk, describing shouting as “violence” and people who disagree with school boards as “domestic terrorists.”

Turns out the White House knew about the letter before it was made public. Did the president order Garland to get the FBI involved?

It seems like the Biden administration is guilty of what they always accuse Republicans of: Politicizing the Department of Justice, and stifling free speech through intimidation.

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Biden’s Climb to Institute Gun Restrictions Gets Steeper

The President’s gun agenda has been having a hard time through the first year of his term, and it’s only getting worse.

The House has passed two background-check expansion bills, but they aren’t going anywhere in the Senate. His plan to ban “assault weapons,” including the AR-15, hasn’t even gotten a vote in the House. Neither has his stated top priority of repealing legal protections provided to gun makers and dealers for third parties’ criminal misuse of their products.

He couldn’t even convince the Democratic Senate caucus to vote for the ATF director nominee he was counting on to shepherd his executive-branch efforts to implement gun restrictions. And it’s now unlikely he’ll get another opportunity to confirm a director before the end of his first term. That’s especially true after the new polling we saw this week.

As Americans continue to sour on the President’s handling of guns, his political capital will sink alongside his approval numbers. His approval on the issue dropped 10 points in the Economist/YouGov poll since June. It has fallen by half since the Associated Press measured it back in May.

In an atmosphere where Biden already can’t sway moderate Democratic Senators to vote for a nominee they never publicly opposed, it’s difficult to imagine how he’ll be able to convince them to vote for gun-control policies they have come out against in the past–especially while his standing with the public continues to deteriorate. Senators Angus King (I., Maine), Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), Jon Tester (D., Mont.), and Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) wouldn’t go along what Biden wanted when he was polling 10 points better on the issue. Why would they budge on any of the gun bills he wants to pass now?

The odds get longer when you consider how low voters rank the issue of guns on their priority list. The Economist/YouGov poll found only 3 percent of Americans listed guns as their most important issue. That puts it in a tie for the 3rd-least-important issue out of thirteen polled.

As you might imagine, voter apathy tends not to generate action in DC.

So, the President is left with executive action to implement some semblance of the restrictions he seeks. He won’t have his chosen manager to push through those actions, which will handicap him to some degree. But, that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to enact sweeping changes that affect millions of American gun owners.

In fact, his administration appears to be pushing ahead with the effort to increase the ATF’s power by significantly broadening the definition of what constitutes a firearm and the effort to ban possession of nearly all of the millions of pistol-brace-equipped AR-15s in circulation. That’s despite the hundreds of thousands of mostly negative public comments on the proposals. The aggressive executive action hasn’t helped keep his approval on the gun issue up among Democrats, and it has likely driven some of the disapproval among Republicans and Independents.

But, unilateral action is the only viable approach left for him at this point. And, it’s not clear where else he’ll be able to find room to pull it off in a meaningful way. Though, it’s safe to expect him to try and do so.

Chipman says his ATF nomination was a ‘gangster move’ by the White House

During his confirmation process for ATF director, David Chipman said very little publicly – even turning his Twitter account to private. Now that the White House has withdrawn his nomination, Chipman can’t seem to shut up, and he’s got nothing good to say about Biden’s team, who he claims left him hanging out to dry.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Chipman said he felt abandoned by the administration and on “an island” when pro-gun groups began attacking him. No one from the White House, he claimed, even bothered to call.

“Either this was impossible to win, or the strategy failed,” Chipman told the newspaper, adding, “This was a failure.” Later in the interview, Chipman described nominating someone like him – a lifelong anti-gun activist – as a “gangster move” by White House staff.

Once his nomination fizzled, Chipman found it “unusual” that no one from Biden’s team offered any options. “In the back of my mind, I always thought that there would be a Plan B, but so far there hasn’t been,” Chipman told The New York Times.

In the interview, Chipman confirmed he has returned to work at Giffords – which we revealed in a story published Monday. The story also showed how Giffords are using Chipman as a fundraising tool.

Delusional

Many pro-gun groups contributed to Chipman’s demise, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation but, ultimately, his nomination was killed by hundreds of thousands of American gun owners who contacted their senators and told them to reject Biden’s pick.

Still, Chipman remains fixated on the NSSF and its senior vice-president for government and public affairs, assistant secretary and general counsel, Larry Keane.

“Larry Keane put up a photo of me that he knew was false, trying to get me killed,” told the newspaper. The photo purportedly showed Chipman posing on the burnt remains of the Branch Davidian compound after the bloody siege in Waco, Texas. Once NSSF and dozens of other websites discovered the agent in the photo was not Chipman, the photo was taken down. Keane told the Times Chipman’s death threat allegations were “categorically false.”

Personally, I believe the allegation that Keane, the NSSF or anyone else tried to get him killed is evidence that Chipman is in dire need of serious psychological help.

Gangster?

 To be clear, nominating a paid anti-gun activist to oversee the lone federal agency tasked with regulating the firearms industry was not gangster. It was stupid and meant to send a message.

Chipman’s nomination – likely the brainchild of Susan Rice – was intended as an insult to American gun owners, and that is exactly how it was received. Of course we responded forcefully – what did the White House expect? This is our lifestyle they have chosen to attack.

The Chipman saga reminds me of when I was a young boy on my uncle’s farm and accidentally touched an electric fence. I got zapped and learned never to do that again. By nominating Chipman, the Biden-Harris administration touched the fence and got zapped hard. Unfortunately, I doubt they learned a lesson. If they continue to target gun owners, they’re destined to get zapped again and again.

May be just me, but it appears everybody is pointing their fingers at everybody else trying to throw them ‘under the bus’.

Comment O’ The Day:
As soon as Nancy Pelosi contacted General Milley about nuclear weapon procedures, he should have politely referred her to the Secretary of Defense and immediately reported the call to his boss,[actually that’s the President, and then to ] the SecDef. 

Because of civilian control over the military, the decision to employ WMDs is a political decision… the military carries out the orders. Therefore, Pelosi as a civilian should only be talking to DoD civilians about defense procedures.

She was WAY out of line making the call, and Milley was derelict in answering her questions.

Milley Details Nancy Pelosi’s Attempt to Take Over the Chain-of-Command

During his opening statement in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday morning, General Mark Milley denied inappropriate phone calls with the Chinese military and tried to reassure Americans he is dedicated to civilian control of the military.

“I am specifically directed to communicate with the Chinese. These military to military communications at the highest level are critical to the security of the United States,” Milley said. “My loyalty to this Nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed, and will never change, as long as I have a breath to give. My loyalty is absolute, and I will not turn my back on the fallen.”

“I firmly believe in civilian control of the military,” he continued.

Milley also stressed that he does not believe President Donald Trump planned to attack the Chinese in the final days of his presidency.

In his remarks, Milley also addressed a phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 8, 2021, in which she pressed him about the process to launch a nuclear weapon. Milley says he informed her that while launching such a weapon requires multiple people in the chain of command, the president is the sole authority to launch an attack.

“Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire about the president’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president [President Trump]. I explained to her the president is the sole nuclear launch authority and he doesn’t launch them alone and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the President of the United States,” Milley said. “There are processes, protocols and procedures in place and I repeatedly assured her there was no chance of an illegal, unauthorized or accidental launch. By presidential directive, and Secretary of Defense directive, the chairman is part of the process to ensure the president is fully informed when determining the use of the world’s deadliest weapons. By law, I’m not in the chain of command and I know that. However, by presidential directive and DOD instruction, I am in the chain of communication to fulfill my legal, statutory role as the president’s primary military advisor.”

Milley said after the call from Pelosi, he convened a meeting with his staff to go through the process and procedures. He also told Acting Secretary of Defense Mark Miller about Pelosi’s call.

“At no time was I trying to change or influence the process, usurp authority or insert myself in the chain-of-command,” Milley said.

MAKE OR BREAK WEEK FOR BIDEN

This is likely the make-or-break week for President Biden’s progressive domestic agenda, and he’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter II with every passing day. The House is supposed to vote today on the $1 trillion “bi-partisan” infrastructure bill, but the “progressive” Democrats are still holding it hostage until they get their $5 trillion wish-list passed first. I’m not sure the complete bill is even written down fully yet, but I am sure Speaker Pelosi will say it doesn’t matter because we should pass the bill to find out what’s in it. The debt ceiling needs to be raised by Friday as well as a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through December, and we are faced with the prospect of a government shutdown on Friday even though Democrats control both houses of Congress.

Biden resembles Carter in more than just rising inflation and foreign policy ineptitude. When Carter became president in 1977, Democrats had 62 Senators (in other words, a filibuster-proof Senate) and a large majority in the House. Anybody remember his legislative priorities? They were a huge energy bill, incremental health care reform, and tax and entitlement reform. Democrats on Capitol Hill wanted a lot more: they floated the openly-socialist Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Bill, which aimed for an unemployment rate of no more than 3%, and a federally-guaranteed job for anyone who wanted one. The bill that eventually passed was watered down into little more than a nuisance reporting requirement for the Federal Reserve, but even at that first-term Delaware Senator Joe Biden voted against it, saying that the bill was not “cognizant of the limited, finite ability government has to deal with people’s problems.”

House Speaker Tip O’Neill is reported to have groaned when the Carter White House (which he despised) handed him the NY phonebook-sized energy proposal, and it took two years to finally pass a much stripped-down version, even with the huge Democratic majorities in Congress. Carter’s tax reform plans (which meant tax increases of course) got nowhere, such that by 1978 he was signing tax cuts, including cuts that a guy named Biden also voted for. And his belated “hospital cost containment” plan (which meant price controls) got nowhere in Congress.

Biden looks poised to repeat this feat of legislative failure.

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As Biden’s Presidency Crumbles, Democrats in Congress Lose Hope

In 2009, Barack Obama came into office with a filibuster-proof Senate supermajority—255 Democrats in the House to just 179 Republicans. Obama ended up frittering away his time those first two years trying to pass Obamacare — an ill-advised move that ended up quickly costing him his majority.

For Joe Biden and the Democrats in 2021, there is no margin for error. A 50-50 Senate and a margin of just three House seats has required a nearly unprecedented level of partisan cohesion. To get anything passed in a Congress with a united Republican Party in opposition means that virtual unanimity of opinion is necessary to achieve the party’s lofty — and ruinously expensive — goals.

Perhaps a more energetic president would have made a difference. Perhaps a smarter president would have been able to pass something from the party’s wishlist.

Alas for the Democrats, Joe Biden isn’t energetic or smart. As a result, his presidency is failing.

It’s beginning to dawn on Democrats in Congress that Joe Biden is not the sort of leader who can wrangle a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill through both chambers.

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AZ Gubernatorial Hopeful Kari Lake: ‘We Do Not Have a Country Without the 2nd Amendment’

Breitbart News sat down with Arizona gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake this week and she stressed “we do not have a country without the Second Amendment.”

Lake talked to Breitbart News about the change she witnessed in the country during the 2020 gun buying surge, noting, “I know people who didn’t even understand the Second Amendment a year and half ago, and now you could almost call them gun nuts.”

She said, “You know, I know, they are trying to take away our rights, our freedoms, our liberties, and the only thing that is keeping us America, and not turning us into Australia, is our guns. If we did not have our guns right now they would have taken our power  and we would be powerless. We would not be America.”

Breitbart News asked Lake what she would do, as governor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of Arizonans.

Lake responded, “We’re really fortunate here in Arizona. The freedoms we enjoy have been well-protected.” She noted how Texas just adopted constitutional carry on September 1 of this year, something that Arizona adopted in 2010.

Then she said, “We need to preserve those Second Amendment freedoms. And as governor I will never, ever sign a piece of legislation that takes away one scintilla of our Second Amendment rights. As a matter of fact, we need to look at some of the laws we have on the books that might actually be infringing those rights.”

Lake pointed out Arizona is a Second Amendment sanctuary state, and noted, “If Joe Biden gets bossy with us he needs to know up front that he and his people will never take my guns away in Arizona, they will never take our daughter’s guns, my husband’s guns, or our ammo.”

She concluded, “If you haven’t woken up to the fact that our Second Amendment is holding this country together, then you need to take a close look at what this country was founded on and what our Founding Fathers saw coming; what they prepared us for with the Second Amendment.”

Demoncraps were going to sneak in a new immigration amnesty for illegal aliens by putting it in a appropriation bill that can be passed by a simple majority vote of ‘reconciling’ the differences of a bill supposedly already passed by both houses of Congress.

Senate parliamentarian deals blow to Democrats’ immigration plan

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Sunday dealt a significant blow to Democrats’ plan to provide 8 million green cards as part of a sweeping spending package, warning it doesn’t comply with tight rules that determine what can be in the bill.

MacDonough’s guidance, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, likely closes the door to Democrats using the spending bill to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants.

MacDonough, in her guidance, called the Democratic plan “by any standard a broad, new immigration policy.”

“The policy changes of this proposal far outweigh the budgetary impact scored to it and it is not appropriate for inclusion in reconciliation,” she wrote in the ruling obtained by The Hill.

Democrats pitched MacDonough earlier this month on their plan to use the $3.5 trillion spending bill to provide 8 million green cards for four groups of immigrants: “Dreamers,” temporary protected status (TPS) holders, agricultural workers and essential workers. Getting legal permanent resident status allows an individual to eventually apply for citizenship if they can meet other qualifications.

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Yes, this is known, but it always bears repeating.

BLUF:
But that is really what Kulturkampf politics is all about: fortifying one’s own social status by exercising ritual domination over cultural rivals. That’s how you get punitive tax policies that don’t raise much revenue, “inclusiveness” policies based on exclusion, and gun-control proposals that don’t have anything to do with gun crime. It just feels good to exercise power over people you loathe or envy. That is the beginning and the end of it.

Gun-Control Laws Aren’t about Preventing Crimes

In the latest issue of National Review, I write about the lax enforcement of our gun laws and touch on a theme that is worth exploring a little more: Gun control is not about gun crime — gun control is about gun culture.

If we cared about keeping guns out of the hands of felons, we’d be locking up straw buyers. We’d be prosecuting prohibited “lie and try” buyers who falsify their ATF paperwork. And we’d be confiscating guns sold in retail transactions that were wrongly approved because of defects in the background-check system. But, for the most part, we don’t do much of any of that.

Instead of doing the hard work of enforcing the law on people committed to breaking it, we focus almost all of our efforts on the most law-abiding group of Americans there is: People who legally buy firearms from licensed firearms dealers, a group that, by definition, has a felony-conviction rate of approximately 0.0 percent. These are law-abiding people, but they also are, in no small part, the type of people who mash the cultural buttons of the big-city progressives who dominate the Democratic Party both culturally and financially. From that point of view, what matters is not that retail gun dealers and their clients are dangerous — which they certainly are not — but that they are icky.

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