No one ever accused American politicians of letting the facts get in the way of a good argument. However, when it comes to basic constitutional freedoms, facts are extremely important and should not be tossed aside like yesterday’s garbage.
Unfortunately, that’s the approach taken by dozens of senators in the wake of a series of tragic incidents in California. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wasted no time in posting a video on Saturday calling for a nationwide “assault weapons” ban.
The senator cited the Jan. 21 Monterey Park shooting that claimed 11 lives and the Half Moon Bay shooting two days later that took another seven.
Unfortunately, Klobuchar ignored the underlying facts in both cases.
First, California has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, and several are being fiercely litigated at this time for what plaintiffs believe are clear violations of the Second Amendment. As for a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” the Golden State has had one in place since the 1990s.
Second, both shootings were carried out using pistols. Not the popular military-style firearms that anti-gun zealots want to strip away from law-abiding Americans, but pistols.
The cabal is calling her effort the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2023.” This proposed legislation bills itself as a measure “to regulate assault weapons, to ensure the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and for other purposes.”
Among the anti-Second Amendment supporters already signed on are Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Dick Durbin, Chris Murphy, Patty Murray, Charles Schumer, Ron Wyden, and dozens of others. Blumenthal and Murphy are the act’s leading co-sponsors.
The bill stretches for 126 pages.
Nearly 100 of the pages are a list of guns that are approved by the senatorial group. Undoubtedly the sponsors sent aides scurrying about to find specific guns that meet their approval so they could tout that there are many firearms that are not to be banned.
Then the measure gets down to business.
There are a full eight pages of weapons intended to be banned. And along with these disapproved firearms are mandates for what the senators believe is “safe storage” and more for “identification markings.”
The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 further prohibits ammunition magazines that may hold over 10 cartridges. It also provides taxpayer dollars for a so-called “buyback program” to get the semiautomatic firearms out of the people’s hands.
The announcement notes multiple times that people who already own such weapons may keep them. However, background checks will be required “on any future sale, trade, or gifting of an assault weapon covered by the bill.”
This is hardly new territory for Feinstein, who was the original sponsor of the Clinton-era “assault weapons” ban that was in force from 1994 through 2004.
The White House joined in the foolishness, issuing a statement saying the ban is necessary “to do all we can to ensure the safety of our children, our communities, and our nation.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also sang along with the chorus of those calling for further restrictions on the Second Amendment. Calling the Founding Father’s words a “suicide pact,” the governor and potential presidential candidate slammed the existence of “weapons of war.”
Again, he was referring to pistols.
Politicians do what politicians do, and in this case the mainstream media will let their misleading and outright false claims go unchecked. That leaves it up to the American people to arm themselves with the facts and recognize these efforts to rip away precious Second Amendment freedoms.
