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Credit: ericmetaxas.com

With about two months remaining before America votes for a President, it’s time to take a fresh look at both parties and their respect, or lack thereof, for the Second Amendment.

As regular readers know, it was the Supreme Court’s Heller decision (2008) that first acknowledged that the Second Amendment does, in fact, refer to a fundamental, unalienable individual right, which may be exercised with the weapons commonly in use for lawful purposes.  Not a “right” of the government to form military forces.  Governments have powers, people have rights, and all governments have the power to establish and maintain military forces.  The Second Amendment is not in the Bill of Governmental Powers.

While Heller is an important ruling, the Court went no further, leaving up for litigation in the lower courts, and rampant abuse in blue states, the details of the implementation of that right.  The Heller dissent clearly established that the Second Amendment hangs by a one vote margin in the Court.  That leftist bloc grudgingly admitted it is an individual right, but saw no  governmental infringement on that right that might offend the Constitution.  Outright bans on magazines, magazine capacity, concealed carry, open carry, and entire classes of firearms would not offend their Second Amendment.  They would leave the ink on the paper, but rule the Second Amendment has no meaning in the lives of Americans other than as a historical footnote.  The McDonald Decision (2010) applied Heller to the states.  The anti-liberty/gun minority also disagreed with that entirely justified and rational step.

Before getting into specifics we note that Shooting Illustrated estimates 2020 gun sales, by August of 2020, have almost certainly surpassed gun sales for the entirety of 2019.  What does this mean in real numbers?  The Free Beacon explains:

Nearly five million Americans became first-time gun owners in 2020, according to a new report.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s trade group, estimates that 17.1 million guns have been sold between January and August with 4.84 million Americans purchasing their first guns. The sales—especially to new owners—represent a significant shift in American attitudes on gun ownership.

‘This is a tectonic shift in the firearm and ammunition industry marketplace and complete transformation of today’s gun-owning community,’ Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

The sales figures would be even higher if so many retail dealers were not sold out of guns and ammunition, with little chance of restocking anytime soon.

Another recent NSSF survey indicated that black Americans and women were among the fastest-growing demographics for new buyers. If gun-rights activists are able to make inroads with groups of Americans who have traditionally favored more gun control, the effect on November’s election could be especially significant.

‘These first-time buyers represent a group of people who, until now, were agnostic regarding firearm ownership,’ Keane said. ‘That’s rapidly changing, and these Americans are taking hold of their God-given right to keep and bear arms and protect themselves and their loved ones.’

There is significant evidence many of these people are life-long Democrats.  If so, they’re unlikely to vote for people determined to take away their right to self-defense and the means to ensure it, particularly in blue states and cities where the police are being neutered and defunded and vicious criminals allowed to do as they please.

Gropin’ Joe Biden and Kamala “Comma-la” Harris have released their platform of anti-liberty/gun wishes.  Those that appreciate liberty and believe the Constitution to be the supreme law of the land will not like it:

*Hold gun manufacturers accountable. In 2005, then-Senator Biden voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but gun manufacturers successfully lobbied Congress to secure its passage. This law protects these manufacturers from being held civilly liable for their products – a protection granted to no other industry. Biden will prioritize repealing this protection.

A lie.  Gun manufacturers may still be sued, just like all other manufacturers, for defective products.  The law was passed to prevent lawsuits against gun manufacturers for selling lawful, non-defective products.  At the time, anti-liberty/gun zealots were using that strategy to bankrupt manufacturers with thousands of baseless, nuisance lawsuits.  Imagine someone steals your perfectly functional car and runs down a pedestrian.  Should Chevrolet be liable for damages?  That’s what the law prevents.

*Ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. 

*Regulate possession of existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act.

This would treat AR-15s and similar weapons like fully automatic firearms, and create an illegal registry.  Registries have no purpose other than paving the way for future confiscation.  For many years, Canada had a long gun registry.  It ruinously expensive, accomplished nothing, and was finally abandoned.

*Buy back the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines already in our communities.

Nothing less than gun confiscation, now or in the future.

*Reduce stockpiling of weapons.

For them a “stockpile” is two guns, or perhaps even one.  This is a “one gun a month” plan that would surely become even more restrictive.

*Require background checks for all gun sales.

This is the “gun show loophole” and “online sales loophole” fallacy.  No one can order a gun through Amazon and have it delivered to their doorstep.  Guns bought online must be shipped to a local dealer, who must complete all federal paperwork, including a federal background check.  The gun show loophole is likewise fake.  Any dealer selling at a gun show must follow the same federal laws as though the sale took place in his shop.  This is about making transfers between friends, even relative, even within families, federal felonies.  The blurb claims there will be exceptions for close family members.  Don’t believe it.

*Reinstate the Obama-Biden policy to keep guns out of the hands of certain people unable to manage their affairs for mental reasons, which President Trump reversed.

Yes, because it denied law abiding people due process.  There’s that annoying Constitution again.

*Close the “hate crime loophole.”

 This is a means to call just about anything a hate crime, and disarm people for misdemeanors.  There is no such “loophole.”

*Close the “Charleston loophole.”

There is no “Charleston loophole.” It’s just another attempt to harass the law abiding by allowing up to ten days for the FBI to decide whether they want to allow their computer to clear an eligible citizen to buy a gun.

*Close the “fugitive from justice” loophole created by the Trump Administration.

Nonsense; there is no such loophole.  If one is a “fugitive from justice,” they’re a wanted federal felon and have bigger worries than possession of guns.  If they’re convicted of a felony, gun possession is already prohibited them.

*End the online sale of firearms and ammunitions. Biden will enact legislation to prohibit all online sales of firearms, ammunition, kits, and gun parts.

Again, nonsense.  Guns cannot be bought directly over the Internet.  Accessories and parts, and ammunition can, and there is no rational or public safety reason why these should be restricted.  This would essentially require background checks, perhaps even taxes, for buying even parts such as screws or grips.  It’s all about making gun ownership so difficult people won’t try.

*Hold adults accountable for giving minors access to firearms. Biden supports legislation holding adults criminally and civilly liable for directly or negligently giving a minor access to a firearm, regardless of whether the minor actually gains possession of the firearm.

Think about that one. Think of the damage this would do to law-abiding citizens even if no crime were committed.  The point here is to prevent parents from teaching their kids about guns.

Take the link to see the rest of it.  As I mentioned, for those that respect the Constitution and love liberty, it’s horrifying.  I’ll list just a few more of the Biden/Harris criminal support program:

*”Incentivize”—force–states to license gun owners;

*Deprive citizens of due process and property under the guise of preventing domestic violence;

*Smart gun mandates;

Go here and here to discover how stupid “smart” guns actually are.

*Storage mandates that would render guns useless for self-defense.

*Mandatory reporting laws for gun thefts, even if one doesn’t know it’s been stolen;

*Spend hundreds of millions on “Group Violence Intervention” programs where social workers tell gang bangers the community doesn’t want them to use guns to kill people (I’m not kidding);

*Once again waste millions categorizing guns as germs, and using the CDC to declare gun ownership a public health epidemic;

*No federal funds to train teachers to carry guns to protect themselves or students.

 Again, take the link and read the whole thing.  The platform goes far beyond mere guns and is intrusive on a wide variety of additional liberties.  Let us also visit an article in Reason by Eugene Volokh, which outlines the anti-liberty/gun credentials of Kamala Harris:

In 2008, Kamala Harris signed on to a District Attorneys’ friend-of-the-court brief in D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court’s leading Second Amendment case. Of course, she may have changed her views on the Second Amendment since then (perhaps in light of precedents such as Heller); and she may have different personal views than the ones she expressed as a D.A. (though note that she signed on to the brief as a signatory, and not just as a lawyer for the signatories). But this brief likely tells us something about her views on the Second Amendment.

Again, take the link and read the whole article.  Volokh summarized thus:

Kamala Harris, as D.A., definitely endorsed the view that a total handgun ban didn’t violate the Second Amendment.

She also seemed to endorse the view that the Second Amendment secures only a ‘collective’ or ‘militia-related’ right, and not the individual right that the Court ultimately recognized in D.C. v. Heller.

As regular readers know, I’ve been writing about Joe Biden’s bizarre views on guns for many years.  I’ve written about how Biden suggested people buy double barreled shotguns and shoot them into the air and through closed doors to deal with criminals, both extremely dangerous and ineffective gestures that are likely to put one in jail.  And consider this from an article chronicling one of Biden’s primary debate performances: 

Joe got particularly angry about gun control, stating he beat the NRA twice, and got an ‘assault weapon’ ban, but it wasn’t reauthorized because Bush got elected.  Actually, Bush was elected in 2000, and the ban sunset in 2004.  It accomplished nothing for public safety, and cost many Democrats their congressional seats, so they didn’t even try to reauthorize it.

Joe’s best blooper came when he angrily, and particularly emphatically, claimed guns have killed 150 millions Americans since 2007, because Bernie won’t let anti-liberty/gun cracktivists sue gunmakers for marketing legal, non-defective products.  That’s a neat trick, because 150 million is just a bit under half of the population.

Thinking they’re certain to seize ultimate power, D/S/Cs no longer try to trick Americans into thinking they’re not anti-liberty/gun zealots.  If they can declare any category of guns illegal and confiscate them, they can take them all, and they well know it.  But the Supreme Court will stop them!  That’s why they’re previewing their court-packing plan.  And if that doesn’t work, they’ll just continue to do what they’ve always done: ignore any part of the Constitution that doesn’t fit their political goals of the moment.

President Trump is absolutely right.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will defund and neuter the police, protect criminals and disarm their law-abiding victims.

What’s that? What about President Trump and Republicans?  President Trump supports the Second Amendment, and as long as he’s president, Republicans do too.