Category: Anti Civil Rights ideas & “Friends”
Last night, news broke that the Biden Administration is taking behind-the-scenes steps to further strangle the already constricted market for ammunition in the United States. The move could result in a reduction of the commercial production of 5.56 caliber ammunition by over thirty percent.
The move, if completed, would dramatically reduce availability of ammunition for America’s most popular rifle (and, not coincidentally, the one most targeted by gun prohibitionists).
Supplies would undoubtedly plummet and prices would undoubtedly skyrocket, putting the availability of ammunition for self-defense, training, and competition out of reach to many Americans.
News of the move was broken by Larry Keane, the general counsel and senior vice president at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the leading trade association for America’s firearms and ammunition industries. Keane on Wednesday night published a tweet, which stated: “The U.S. Military is actively considering shutting down the sale [of] M855/SS109 ammo from Lake City to the commercial market.”
The cartridges mentioned in Keane’s post are very popular forms of 5.56 caliber ammunition, the most common caliber for the AR-15.
Close followers of Second Amendment issues will remember that these same rounds were targeted by the Obama/Biden administration under the guise of relabeling them “armor piercing ammunition,” which is banned from commercial sale by federal law. The resulting (and righteous) furor from the Second Amendment community was so intense that it culminated in Obama’s ATF director, B. Todd Jones, quitting his job. Jones had been the first and only confirmed ATF director since Senate approval became required for that post.
Lake City is a sprawling ammunition plant in Independence, Missouri, originally established by Remington in 1941 to manufacture and test Ammunition for the U.S. Army. It is currently owned by the government and operated by private contractors and produces well over a billion rounds of ammunition per year.
Ammunition in excess of the government’s requirements has long been made available to the private commercial market. Lake City’s output, according to some estimates, accounts for one-third of the 5.56 caliber ammunition available to U.S. consumers.
Of course, gun prohibition advocates have a long-standing desire to ban the AR-15 and other types of semiautomatic long guns outright. Joe Biden in particular loves to brag of authoring the so-called “assault weapons” ban that Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994. Congress, however, allowed the ban to expire 10 years later, after a Department of Justice sponsored study was unable to substantiate any significant crime reduction benefit from it.
Needless to say, this attack on America’s ammunition supply is just the most recent in a long line of anti-freedom attacks by the Biden Administration.
NRA will be working to fight this effort to crush America’s ammunition supply, just as we did with the last attack on M855 ammunition, and will provide updates as more information becomes available.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On Wednesday, families of victims and survivors of the mass shootings in Uvalde and in Buffalo, New York, testified on Capitol Hill.
“I came because I could’ve lost my baby girl,” a Uvalde father told lawmakers.
Many Americans now begging for stricter gun control, universal background checks, banning assault weapons, and red flag laws, which allow certain people to petition a court to have firearms taken away from someone they consider to be a threat.
State representative Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) said he thinks red flag laws would help keep Tennesseans safer. “Red flag laws will keep people who do not need to have guns from having them. That’s one thing that’s needed. But we also have to do something about the illegal guns on the streets as well.”
Dixie added he’d like to see the permitless carry law repealed and tighter gun regulations overall.
“We definitely need to register each gun. We need to know who has guns and they need to know how to use them,” Dixie said.
On the other side of the aisle, many Republican lawmakers disagree. Some even calling red flag laws unconstitutional. In a statement sent to News 2, Representative Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) questioned the effectiveness of red flag laws:
“From my perspective, red flag laws appear unconstitutional or ineffective. Forcibly taking someone’s gun from their house without due process creates a hostile environment for law enforcement and potentially criminalizes law abiding citizens. I am interested in how we can better equip our local schools and how we can do better with mental illness.”
On Monday, Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order aimed at strengthening school safety in Tennessee, but it didn’t mention anything about guns. He went on to tell reporters that he currently has no plans to talk about gun reform.
“We’re not looking at gun restriction laws in my administration right now,” Lee said.
Dixie said the governor needs to take a stronger stance. “I think this executive order was extremely weak and I think it puts more work on people that are already strained and stressed in their daily jobs.”
Right now, there are 19 states with red flag laws on their books, including California, Colorado, and Florida.
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Chile’s far-left President Gabriel Boric said on Monday that he hoped to “imitate” a policy implemented by leftist Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that would significantly limit gun ownership in the country.
Boric made the remarks while visiting Canada. Both leaders are expected to attend this week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California.
“We have discussed details about the firearms restriction policy that has been promoted in Canada for quite some time, which has had very good results and which, in Chile, we also want to precisely imitate as well, because good ideas are great to replicate in our countries,” Boric said in a joint statement with Justin Trudeau at the end of the diplomatic encounter.
In the same statement, Boric called for international firearm control legislation.
“We have to promote international legislation. Hopefully an awareness will be generated, beyond our borders, that the possession of firearms is bad for societies,” Boric asserted. “That is why we do it from Chile to Canada, hopefully with all the countries that are close, hopefully it will be of some use.”
The meeting between Boric and Trudeau took place a week after Trudeau announced a complete freeze on handgun sales in Canada. Boric’s gun control statements in Canada are a continuation of his government’s ongoing push towards firearm control in Chile.
On May 19, Chile’s Ministry of Interior and Public Security presented the “Fewer Guns, More Safety” program. Through it, the Chilean government will seek to establish a legal framework to reduce both legal and illegal access to firearms in Chile.
Before traveling to Canada, Boric, in his first annual speech as president on June 2, called for a total ban on gun ownership in Chile.
“Armed violence will not be tolerated in our country. And that is why our ‘Fewer Guns, More Security’ Program proposes the radical limitation of its legal access,” Boric said in his annual address.
Additionally, he asked the Chilean congress for “all support to pass a law that allows us to move towards the total prohibition of possession of weapons and at the same time strengthen the institutional framework.”
“A Chile without firearms is a safer Chile,” Boric added. According to the Investigations Police of Chile, there were a total of 50 reported firearm related deaths in January 2022, up from 35 in January 2021.
Currently, Chilean law allows any resident over the age of 18 to legally own up to two firearms, provided they go through an extensive procedure which includes registering with the national firearm authority, obtaining psychiatric approval, and passing an official exam on the proper use and maintenance of firearms. Obtaining a carry permit for said firearms is a completely separate process and certain firearm types, such as semi automatic, are outright forbidden by law.
Chile and its citizens have been victims of continuous leftist violence and rioting since 2019, when then-President Sebastián Piñera faced condemnation because the capital, Santiago, proposed a fare hike for public transportation. The alleged fare hike protests rapidly morphed into acts of terrorism with no overt relation to the Santiago subway: multiple churches burned down, supermarkets looted, and residential communities attacked.
Violent attacks continued through last year’s presidential election, when leftists supporting the winner, Boric, assaulted family-friendly campaign events for rival José Antonio Kast. Boric did little to stop the attacks.
As a result of the ongoing wave of violence unleashed by leftist protesters, Eduardo Vergara, Chile’s undersecretary for crime prevention, lamented on a radio interview held on April 18 that Chile is experiencing “its worst security moment since its return to democracy.”
During a May Day celebratory march in the Meiggs barrio (neighborhood), Chilean journalist Francisca Sandoval was shot in the face. Saldoval died after being in ICU under critical condition for 11 agonizing days. Protesters disturbed a silent vigil honoring her memory.
On May 14, a group of armed delinquents broke into the house of Chilean Defense Minister Maya Fernández Allende. While she was not at home at the time of the incident, the perpetrators, who made it out with stolen electronic devices and a vehicle, punched her son and handcuffed her husband. Fernández Allende is the granddaughter of Salvador Allende, Chile’s socialist president overthrown by Augusto Pinochet in 1973.
That same night, one of the drivers of the presidential escort was assaulted by three unidentified men. The bodyguard was shot in his arm. Perpetrators threw the victim on the street and took away the stolen government vehicle.
Shortly before these attacks, Boric pleaded with the same leftist groups he once supported to stop “normalizing violence.”
The continued violence has caused huge fluctuations in President Boric’s approval rating. Boric’s approval rating plummeted from 50 percent down to 36 percent a mere month after he began his presidency — bumping back to 44 percent after his first annual address.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Like it or not — and many on the leftward side of the political spectrum don’t — firearms and civilian gun ownership have been part of our history and culture since before the nation’s founding and have become as American as mom and apple pie. May it ever remain so for lawful citizens. Not that my assertion based on historical reality would be accepted by many undaunted public health researchers and others dedicated to civilian disarmament.
The foes of civilian firearm ownership have a long and sordid record of revising history to fit their anti-gun narratives.
One researcher, an Emory University professor and Bancroft Prize winner, Michael A. Bellesiles, faked historical data to “prove” in his now discredited book Arming America: The Origins of a Natural Gun Culture that widespread gun ownership in early America was really a fiction.
Bellesiles contended that guns were, in fact, uncommon in the civilian population during the colonial and early periods of the Republic. Consequently, most Americans weren’t proficient with guns.
Bellesiles argued, citing non-existent probate court records, that widespread firearm use by the civilian population occurred only after the Civil War and that was only because the mass production of firearms had lowered to cost in owning one.
Only one of Bellesiles’ contentions was correct; that mass production decreased the cost of firearms while increasing their quality and accuracy. The rest of his argument was fabricated mendacity. His conclusions were wishful thinking, tailor-made for the liberal intelligentsia who opposed civilian gun ownership and received his book with great fanfare, and enthusiastically supported the great revelation he produced.
Yet Bellesiles’ conclusions, which contradicted well-known facts of American history, were preposterous for anyone with even a modicum of historical knowledge. How could early Americans survive the wilderness without possessing firearms and not be proficient in their use? How could colonists on the frontier, subject to Indian raids, protect their families? How could the colonial militia be ready at a moment’s notice not only to repel Indian raids but also to join with the British army in fighting in the French and Indian War (1756-1763), as Colonel George Washington and his militia did?
Most astounding of all, how could the celebrated event in American history we now refer to as Patriot’s Day (April 19, 1775) have taken place without the availability and familiarity with firearms? How could the minutemen, summoned by Paul Revere in his famous ride, assemble so quickly and with their muskets to fire “the shot heard around the world”? Why would American patriots prevent the British army’s attempt to disarm them and seize the arm depots at Concord, while passing by Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts? How could they have harassed the Redcoats all the way back to Boston if they were unarmed?
Bellesiles’ preposterous attempt at historical revisionism was truly audacious. Only an anti-gun “scholar” with a supreme capacity for arrogance and hubris would have even attempted this kind of fraud, but such dishonesty was only an illogical extension of the politicized “research“ that we have been exposing all along.
So, it didn’t take long for scholars to prove that Bellesiles’ “reseach” was fraudulent and his conclusions fabricated. His book a bag of lies conceived to reach the preordained conclusions that the American gun culture was actually a relatively new phenomenon, the result of a tragic civil war and an overabundance of cheap mass-produced weapons.
Bellesiles’ mendacity cost him his reputation, his coveted Bancroft Prize, and his position at Emory University, which is sadly also the alma mater for my post-doctoral neurosurgical training.
Foes of firearm ownership and the right to keep and bear arms lie often when the topic is guns. What they don’t know, they make up, whether in the media, popular culture, or academia. That’s how far the common denominator has fallen — in academics, entertainment, and in politics.
Written by Dr. Miguel Faria
Miguel A. Faria, Jr, MD is a retired professor of Neurosurgery and Medical History at Mercer University School of Medicine. He founded Hacienda Publishing and is Associate Editor in Chief in Neuropsychiatry and World Affairs of Surgical Neurology International. He served on the CDC’s Injury Research Grant Review Committee. This article is excerpted, updated, and edited from his book, America, Guns, and Freedom: A Journey Into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements (2019).
This article was also published on TheTruthAboutGuns.com on February 20, 2022 with the title of “The Anti-Gun Left Never Lets History Get in the Way of Its Narrative.“
This article may be cited as: Faria MA. Revising American History for the Sake of “Gun Control.” HaciendaPublishing.com, February 20, 2022. Available from: https://haciendapublishing.com/revising-american-history-for-the-sake-of-gun-control-by-miguel-a-faria-md/.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -(Ammoland.com)- Obama advisor Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” And gun-grabbing politicians have latched on to his words.
Since the senseless acts of violence in Buffalo, NY, and Uvalde, TX, Democrats have smelled fresh blood in the water and have pounced. They are exploiting the tragedies to attempt to pass a dream list of gun control packages through Congress. Moreover, some Republicans are on board with some of these proposed draconian laws.
The Democrats believe that they can get legislation passed that we as a community have successfully prevented from becoming law in the past by exploiting the actions of two madmen. This article will break down anti-gun bills that I envision coming down the pipeline. I will give some background on each proposal and discuss how likely they are to pass in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Red or Yellow (its all the same) Flag Gun Confiscation
The most likely item to pass both chambers of Congress is a bill on red flag laws or extreme risk protection orders (ERPO). Sidney Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham have been working on a proposal in the background. The proposal ranges from so-called yellow flag laws to grants to states to enact red flag laws. They might call it a yellow flag law, but it will still be a red flag gun confiscation bill.
The threat of some kind of red flag legislation reaching the President’s desk is extremely high. These laws violate an individual’s right to due process as guaranteed under the US Constitution. The extreme risk protection order (ERPO) target doesn’t have the opportunity to defend themselves in court before their door is kicked down by the police and their property is stripped from their possession. Sell-out Republican Senator Susan Collins supports this type of bill.
21 to Buy Guns
Raising the age to buy a semi-automatic rifle to 21 is also likely to pass out of the House, although it will not be a slam dunk in the Senate. The bill has some support from weak-kneed RINO Republicans in Congress. Overcoming the filibuster will be hard, although Democrats might be willing to drop other legislation as a “compromise” to get this bill passed.
Unenforceable Safe Storage Laws
Safe storage laws are another measure that has some out-of-touch Republicans support. I wouldn’t call it a sure thing for a bill to be passed, but I see some type of safe storage law making it out of the House only to be blocked in the Senate. But there will be immense pressure put on Republicans by Democrats in the Senate and special interest groups to back this bill.
Bump Stock Ban Redo
A bump stock ban is also in the works. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has already banned the controversial item by changing the definition of a machine gun, but that is on shaky ground legally. If the Supreme Court takes up the case brought by Gun Owners of America (GOA) out of the Sixth Circuit of Appeals, that ban could be knocked down.
Rob Olson, Chief Legal Counsel for GOA, claims that the ATF abused Chevron deference when changing the definition of a machine gun. Some Justices on the high court have shown skepticism that Chevron can apply to a criminal statute. Many gun rights activists believe GOA will get a victory if it is taken up by SCOTUS, and apparently, so do the anti-gunners in Congress. Any proposed law like this will fight a tough uphill battle because the language will likely include expanding the ban past just bump stocks to other types of trigger devices such as binary triggers. Are belt loops next!?
Serialize Everything
Another proposal on the table would require serializing all unfinished firearm frames and 3D printed guns. These are known colloquially as 80% frame and receivers. A bill will probably pass the House in some form, but I believe this will be stopped in the Senate. Once again, there will be a lot of pressure to pass something. Even if a bill does pass, it will be unenforceable.
Now let’s get to the proposal that Democrats will almost assuredly introduce, but I believe it does not have a great chance of passing out of Congress. Although you never know since most Republicans in Congress seem not to have a backbone.
Standard Magazine Ban
A magazine ban has been batted around that would ban magazines holding more than ten rounds. I don’t believe that a proposal like this can make it through the Senate and might be a sacrificial lamb to pass other less extreme bills. Republicans tend to play defense and are happy just not to give up everything. Democrats, ask for the world, then settle for half.
Assault Weapons Ban… the Sequel
The second sacrificial lamb proposal is a 1994-style “assault weapons ban.” The original ban did not affect the crime rate. This piece of legislation has been a wet dream of Democrats for years. Dianne Feinstein has introduced this bill multiple times, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has also thrown weight behind a ban. Biden wants this legislation on his desk, but I don’t see Republicans letting a bill pass in the Senate. I see this as a negotiation piece of legislation. But you never know if the anti-gun politicians will be able to dig up the votes to pass a bill.
Everything Gets a Background Check
The final piece of legislation I can see being introduced is universal background checks. This proposed law has been a goal of Democrats for a very long time. The anti-gun side will be sure to bring this proposed law up, but the chances of it passing in the Senate is slim, although it could pass the House.
We need to pressure our legislators not to bend a knee to the anti-freedom coalition. Here are a few names we need to put extra pressure on to keep the line on gun rights. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Senator Susan Collins of Maine are the weakest links on the Republican’s side. We need to let ALL members of Congress know where we stand.
I sign off all my YouTube videos by saying, “Stay ever vigilant; stay ever free.” What I mean by that is that freedom requires constant vigilance. If you are vigilant, you can take action to prevent our freedoms from being stripped. Our political apathy has led to many of our rights being stripped away. It is time that all gun owners wake up and get at least as politically involved as the anti-gun side.
All gun owners should voice their concerns about overall gun control measures to their Senators. Senator’s offices can be reached through the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 or online here.
Here are links to some of the worst of these anti freedom bills:
- Protecting Our Kids Act
- Raise the Age Act (HR3015)
- Prevent Gun Trafficking Act (HR2280)
- Untraceable Firearms Act (HR3088)
- Ethan’s Law (HR748)
- Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act (HR6370)
- Kimberly Vaughn Firearm Safe Storage Act (HR130)
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Gun control debate
New York has enacted new gun control laws in the wake of recent mass shootings. Will Congress take up national reform?
NEW YORK – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed 10 bills into law on Monday intended to strengthen the state’s gun laws after recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Among the new laws is the prohibition of the sale of body armor to civilians, the requirement to have a license to purchase semi-automatic rifles, the making of a threat of mass harm as a crime, and the strengthening of the state’s red flag laws which make it easier to take guns away from dangerous people before they commit a crime.
The other new laws include requiring that all new pistols be equipped with microstamping technology, which uses lasers to imprint markings on a firearm, making it easier to trace guns and raising the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic rifles to 21.
“In New York, we are taking bold, strong action. We’re tightening red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people,” Hochul said at a press conference in the Bronx.
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New York enacts new gun laws
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a series of bills into law. One law now requires all purchasers of semiautomatic rifles to be licensed.
“Passing comprehensive gun legislation is quite literally a matter of life or death, and part of this package includes our legislation to require gun manufacturers and dealers to implement micro-stamping technology, which adds a trackable serial number to spent ammunition,” State Sen. Brad Hoylman said after introducing the bill last week. “So literally when a gun is fired, the casing will be inscribed with a code that can then be tracked back from the scene of say a crime to the gun that actually fired the bullet.”
10 new gun laws in NY
Among the ten new gun laws signed by NY Gov. Kathy Hochul is the requirement of a license to purchase semi-automatic rifles.
New York’s Legislature passed the bills last week, pushing the changes through after a pair of mass shootings involving 18-year-old gunmen using semiautomatic rifles. Ten Black people died in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket May 14. A Texas school shooting took the lives of 19 children and two teachers 10 days later.
“This is a moment of reckoning for us is in New York and as Americans,” added Hochul.
The Supreme Court was expected to hand down a decision in the coming weeks on the state’s concealed carry law and whether it is constitutional.
Uvalde massacre aftermath
The U.S. Justice Department plans to review the police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Perhaps, like me, you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the un-American Left is ignorant of many things. But then they open their mouths and remove all doubt.
The most recent example comes from the gaping maw of Elie Mystal on MSNBC, where he claimed that, like everything else in this country apparently, the Second Amendment is the creation of long-dead, racist white supremacists who supported it for the sole purpose of putting down slave revolts keeping the enslaved populations in bondage. Of course, there is as much “truth” to that as there is in the 1619 Project. Progressives use such revisionist history to discredit the founders so that they can dismantle the founders’ republic.
The basic history lesson the Left seems to have missed while being indoctrinated in our schools is this: the founders believed in natural inherent rights—ones that were given to human beings by their Creator. As these were rights given by a transcendent source. They understood that no earthly power—say, a despotic British empire—could legitimately take them away. Among those rights were life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and property, but that was just a start to their list. In fact, Alexander Hamilton didn’t think a Constitution could ever be written that could fully enumerate all human rights.
In this discussion of rights, understand that the founders also viewed as inherent the right to property. As Madison wrote, “There is a right to property and a property in rights.” These beliefs informed the founders’ construction of the machinery of government in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which are really nothing more than an attempt to spell out and codify higher, transcendent law so it can be formed into a workable form of earthly government. Because of that, the founders also believed that a free populace had the right, if not the responsibility, to protect their God-given rights with anything and everything at their disposal; to not defend their natural rights was to shame their Maker.
It was to that end the Second Amendment was written. When all arguments and words failed in the defense of natural rights, the last defense is an armed one. The Second Amendment is for when the talking is done and the shooting begins. A “well-regulated militia” did not mean, as Progressives insist it does, some formal government entity, the membership of which is determined by the government. The founders simply meant that citizens needed to have the right to possess weapons sufficient to organize themselves into militias. In no way did they imagine government regulation of who gets a gun or who doesn’t.
The founders defined a well-regulated militia as one well armed with the best muskets, supplied with copious amounts of ammunition, and regularly drilled to maintain proficiency with those weapons. Again, revisionists want to define words in terms suited to their altered telling of history, but that’s antithetical to the historical method, real history, and the founders’ use of the terms.
All of which is to say that I am pretty sure the founders would have advocated Stingers, Javelins, and machine guns (and, yes, even tanks) for private citizens to use in defense of their rights today. They were all for the people being as well-armed as any government in order that they would serve as a bulwark against the government becoming despotic and attempting to take away their rights.
Case in point: When the founders were confronting an increasingly draconian British government, and all attempts at dialogue with the Empire failed, they were simultaneously and actively smuggling and stealing cannons and gunpowder; dare I say, actively smuggling and arming with “weapons of war.”
So all this talk from Progressives about why the Second Amendment is really just a well-regulated, government-sponsored militia can be summed up in one word: gibberish.
What the un-American Left really wants is to destroy the American people’s right to self-defense. Why? Because it’s much, much harder to send people to reeducation camps where “conscience reformation” can happen when those people are shooting back at you.
In watching recent events unfold, I’ve concluded the irreligious, un-American Left simply hates you and your rights. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking they don’t, that somehow they’re rational human beings who can be reasoned with, or that ultimately they want what’s best for the American people. If they did, then Joe Biden would never have just admitted that his administration had no interest in hardening schools against potential attacks in the future. They want to take away your rights and your ability to defend yourself. Period.
If you want to ignore what is happening and where it will ultimately end if we’re not careful, it’s a free country and that is your prerogative. Just don’t whine when the country is no longer free and they come knocking at your door and you have no means of resisting them when they tell you to get on the trains headed to reeducation camps.
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Ned Ryun reports for American Greatness.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 31, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Democrats in the House have put forward an array of wide-reaching gun control bills that are set to come to the floor this week, but in the Senate, which can make or break the success of most bills, Republican Party negotiators are requesting more time.
Various Democrat factions in both the House and Senate have pushed for sweeping federal legislation to change gun laws in the United States, in the wake of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead.
House Democrats Float Various Gun Control Proposals
In the House, where simple majorities rule, Democrats have pushed for the wide-reaching “Protecting Our Kids” Act, which was pushed through the House Judiciary Committee in a party-line vote last week. It is expected to come to the floor for a vote later this week.
That bill, among other provisions, would ban the sale of “any semi-automatic centerfire rifle or semi-automatic centerfire shotgun that has, or has the capacity to accept, an ammunition feeding device with a capacity exceeding 5 rounds” to citizens below the age of 21. Currently one only needs to be 18 to buy such a weapon.
It would also codify the Department of Justice’s controversial ban on bump stocks, a weapon modification that increases the fire rate of a semi-automatic firearm.
In addition, the bill would make it a federal crime to possess weapons that critics have pejoratively labeled “ghost guns”—a term usually describing homemade or 3D-printed weapons without a serial number.
However, the real litmus test for any bill is in the Senate, where most legislation must overcome a 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass.
Foreseeing difficulty overcoming the filibuster threshold, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) put forward a bill that would bypass the filibuster entirely.
That bill, much narrower in scope than the Protecting Our Kids Act, would place a 1,000 percent tax on many types of semi-automatic firearms in the hope of making them unaffordable for most average Americans.
Specifically, the bill targets weapons like the AR-15, which can range in price from $400 to $2,000. If Beyer’s bill were to become law, this range would increase to over $4,000 on the low end to $20,000 on the high end.
“Congress must act to prevent mass shootings,” Beyer said in a June 5 Twitter post. “I’m writing a bill to restrict the flow of weapons of war into American communities—including AR-15’s and high capacity magazines—that could bypass the filibuster and pass with just 50 votes in the Senate.”
To do so, the bill uses the budget reconciliation process. This process allows bills specifically related to federal revenues and expenditures to pass through the Senate by a simple majority vote, with no need for the bill to overcome the filibuster threshold.
Democrats have already relied on the process on various occasions to overcome GOP resistance in the upper chamber.
At the beginning of 2021, the budget reconciliation process was used to advance the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to President Joe Biden’s desk. Later, Democrats used it for the Build Back Better Act, which ultimately failed after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) refused to vote for the package.
However, this process too is subject to some limitations.
Because of the potential for abuse of the system, as indeed happened through the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan and the Democrat-controlled House, the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) authored a rule requiring all items in a budget reconciliation bill to be directly related to federal revenues and expenditures.
The parliamentarian, who serves as the Senate’s nonpartisan referee, has wide-reaching authority to accept or reject items in budget reconciliation that go beyond the bounds of this rule.
This was a power that current parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough exercised on several occasions, during negotiations surrounding immigration provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
Though Beyer’s bill seems to be within the bounds of the reconciliation process, Republicans could try to convince MacDonough to rule against the bill if it comes to the Senate.
So far, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrat leaders have given no indication that the bill will be considered, however.
Senator Cornyn, Leading GOP Senate Negotiations, Asks for More Time
In the Senate as well, lawmakers have spent the past few weeks working to find a legislative response to the shooting.
Republicans, citing Second Amendment rights, have long pushed back against Democrats’ efforts to tighten federal gun laws. Some Republicans seem to be open to softening this stance, though most have pushed for bills to increase school security or address widespread mental illness issues instead of stricter gun control.
Most prominently, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said during an interview with CNN that he had instructed Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to negotiate with some Democrats, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), to try to hammer out a compromise bill.
“I’ve encouraged him to talk to Senator Sinema, Senator Murphy, and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that’s directly related to the problem,” McConnell said, adding that he is “hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that’s directly related to the facts of this awful massacre.”
McConnell was anxious to emphasize that he was not pushing for legislation that would advance a partisan Democrat agenda, but only to find a legislative solution directly related to the circumstances of the Uvalde shooting.
“What I’ve asked Senator Cornyn to do is to meet with the Democrats who are interested in getting a bipartisan solution and come up with a proposal, if possible, that’s crafted to meet this particular problem,” he said.
However, Cornyn has indicated that lawmakers need more time to work out any such agreement, despite a sense of anxiety on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) part to bring legislation to the floor as soon as possible.
Cornyn told another news outlet that negotiators will need at least a week to hammer out any such deal, and he asked Schumer to push back the deadline for reaching an agreement.
“Good consensus legislation takes time. So I hope Sen. Schumer will let his members work,” Cornyn said. “There’s no use in rushing a vote on a doomed partisan bill like the House is expected to vote on this week.”
In a June 5 ad in the Dallas Morning News, 250 GOP donors praised McConnell’s decision to tap Cornyn as the lead negotiator in the effort, saying Cornyn is “the right man to lead this bipartisan effort, as he has demonstrated throughout his career.”
It remains unclear what will come of the Senate negotiations, however.
Even with McConnell’s backing, any agreement reached between Cornyn and Democrats will need the support of at least 10 Republicans. And many, concerned about returning to their constituents with a gun control bill on their record, may be hesitant to back any such bill.
Further complicating the issue, progressive elements in the House may be hesitant to give their backing to a bill that does not go as far as they would like.
Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.