Make no mistake. The forces aligned against our Second Amendment rights are pulling out all the stops to win their battle to strip guns from American society.
If there is an avenue to be explored, they are exploring it. If there is a way to work around the clear language of both the Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court, they will take it.
Now there is a growing push among some in Washington to declare a “public health emergency” over firearms. On Thursday, a House Judiciary subcommittee held a meeting on the “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment.”
One prominent member argued that the next prudent step is to make an emergency declaration to prevent gun violence. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) told the gathering that “in St. Louis and nationwide, gun violence is a public health emergency and common sense regulations are a necessity.”
As a side note, it is striking how much opponents to individual freedoms love to use “common sense” when describing their efforts to deny basic liberties to law-abiding Americans.
Bush continued, asserting that the U.S. has more guns than citizens. “There are approximately 400 million privately owned firearms in the United States, which has a population of 332 million. The U.S. is home to nearly half of the world’s civilian firearms.”
Her arguments were countered by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who warned of what he believes is the next major move by the anti-gun lobby. Declaring a public health emergency would enable Washington to enact sweeping measures while bypassing the normal legislative process.
For comparison, think COVID-19.
With a public health declaration, officials may ignore normal legalities and protocols to address the “crisis.” And while there may be healthy debate over the lengths taken to address the coronavirus outbreak, a pandemic certainly qualifies as a crisis.
But can the same be said for firearms? Many counter that the U.S. is indeed experiencing a crisis, but it is an epidemic of criminal violence. Others argue that there is in fact a mental health crisis, and there is much credibility to be found in that position as well.
Gaetz agreed that Bush’s push for an emergency declaration should be taken seriously. “While she and I disagree strongly on this issue, her beliefs are sincere and they are strong and they are powerful, particularly when she expresses them,” he said. “And so, when she says to people that she wants to defund the police, she means it. And when she says in this committee that gun violence is a public health emergency, she means that too.”
He continued by proclaiming that such declarations from Washington will render Americans “less safe, less secure, and less able to live a truly American life.”
A recent op-ed in Cal Matters urged a “public health” approach to violence in the Golden State. While the authors lauded a state allocation last year of $156 million to the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program, they were critical of the way the funding was overseen.
The program went through the California Board of State and Community Corrections instead of their preferred pathway through public health officials. The writing complained that involving law enforcement in a crime prevention program was “deeply antithetical” to its intentions.
In other words, police and sheriff’s departments along with corrections officials should not play a role in addressing violent crime prevention.
The possibility of a federal declaration on public health should not be dismissed lightly. The White House recently inched closer towards universal background checks, and just last week the call went out again to ban so-called “assault weapons.” There is nothing in the anti-Second Amendment arsenal that will not be hurled at freedom-loving Americans by anti-gun zealots.
