Instead, it was the same old song and dance blaming the Second Amendment for acts committed by bad people.
The loudest call came from the bully pulpit of the White House and President Joe Biden (D).
“Today, Jill and I grieve for those who have lost their lives and, as our nation celebrates Independence Day, we pray for the day when our communities will be free from gun violence,” he said in a statement. “It is within our power to once again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of guns, to end gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and to enact universal background checks.”
The president renewed his oft-repeated call for more oppressive gun control by asserting a claim that is patently false. He declared that action needs to be taken to hold gun manufacturers liable, which they already are.
However, gun control fanatics want these companies to be held accountable when their products are legally manufactured and sold in compliance with federal, state and local ordinances. So, if a criminal then commits a senseless act, the gun maker may be held liable.
The fallacy at work here is the assertion that these companies are immune from liability suits. That is simply false. If a weapons manufacturer produces an inferior product that causes injury to someone properly using it, they may very well be held liable.
And the government knows this.
What Biden objects to is the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). This shields firearms producers from so-called “junk lawsuits” that became popular years ago among local governments that opposed Second Amendment rights.
In what amounted to death by papercut, these municipalities tried to sue gun manufacturers out of existence. National lawmakers recognized this trend and passed PLCAA under the George W. Bush administration.
The president on Independence Day also called for federal safe storage requirements and “universal background checks.” And he furthered his plea to ban so-called “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines.
Thirty people were shot at a block party in Baltimore Sunday, allegedly by an AR-15-style weapon. But as anyone paying attention already knows, Baltimore and all of Maryland has a ban in place on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines along with universal background checks.
So how did that prohibition work? Did a violent criminal see the error of his ways and avoid causing holiday mayhem?
Philadelphia suffered a mass shooting that left five people dead, including a 15-year-old. A two-year-old and a 13-year-old were injured in the incident.
A shooting that apparently targeted random festivalgoers in Fort Worth, Texas killed three people and injured eight others.
Eleven people were injured in a Sunday shooting at a nightclub in Wichita, Kansas.
And Chicago endured 32 shootings from Friday through Monday with three fatalities in a city and state that have an “assault weapon” ban in place along with other sweeping restrictions.
This nation has a criminal violence problem that leaders are not willing to confront. Instead, they take the low road and throw all their rhetoric at constitutionally protected firearms, which are inanimate objects incapable of acting on their own.
But it takes political courage to call out criminals and demand more protection for law-abiding citizens against those who care nothing about background checks and safe storage requirements. And that courage in 2023 is in very low supply.
