Opinion
By Larry Keane
Wish they may, wish they might – gun control Democrats in Congress are still holding out hope President Joe Biden will deliver their biggest wish. What they shouldn’t hold is their breath.
More than 60 antigun Democrats from the U.S. House and U.S. Senate sent a scathing letter to the president imploring him to “leverage the full power of the executive branch” and implement more gun control.
The problem is Pres. Biden already conceded he’s “powerless” to go it alone.
‘He Better Understand’
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Abagail Spanberger (D-Va.), and more than 55 additional Members of Congress signed their names to the letter, which the president’s administration cooly said they’re “reviewing.”
“With Republicans in Congress refusing to act, the American people are relying on your Administration to ensure that they can move through their daily lives without fear of firearms on the streets, in public establishments, and in their homes,” the letter states, according to CNN. “We also believe you can exercise your executive authority to take additional action to address gun violence without congressional action.”
If the signatories weren’t aware, their pleas are likely falling on deaf ears and are in stark contrast with what President Biden previously told media and gun control activists.
“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns,” the president said earlier this year. The New York Times described those comments as “stark” and a “surprising statement” by the president, “who essentially threw up his hands…”
Asked by media about signing the letter and if the president “understands the urgency” of unilaterally doing more, Rep. Spanberger shot back, “I mean, he better.”
Past is Present
Frustrations with the president among gun control activists have been simmering for a while. No action is good enough and there is always clamoring for more restrictions on law-abiding Americans rather than pushing for stricter enforcement of laws on the books or harsher penalties for the criminals causing the violence. When the president uttered his infamous comments back in March, CNN reported it “frustrated many in his own party.”
National gun control groups have repeatedly made their displeasure with the administration known. “He hasn’t really been a leader,” was the sentiment from March for Our Lives. Giffords gun control has said, “We would like to see more from the Biden administration.” Gun control activist Fred Guttenberg previously put the administration on notice regarding their powers of executive action, saying “They’ve done probably, through executive action, not everything they can do…”
The lawmakers now are hoping maybe one more nudge will get the president to budge, despite the fact that gun control Democrats held majorities in Congress for two years of President Biden’s term.
Kitchen Sink Demands
The letter from antigun lawmakers to the president is a laundry list of demands that might not be typical gun control wishes but would still do little to hold criminals accountable or punish soft-on-crime prosecutors who fail to keep their communities safe.
They specifically request that President Biden require firearm manufacturers with Defense Department contracts to adopt a “code of conduct,” which could include declining to sell “military-grade firearms” to civilians. What they mean is implementing a ban on the sale of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) to civilians. MSRs, as the administration repeatedly lies about, are not military firearms, not automatic “weapons of war,” and are instead semiautomatic rifles, like the AR-15, that are the most popular selling semiautomatic rifles in the country. MSRs operate on the same one-trigger-pull-one-fire technology that has been in existence for more than a century, and that is common among numerous varieties of handguns and shotguns. Industry data shows that commonly-owned MSRs now number more than 24.4 million, making them more common than Ford F-150 pickup trucks on the road.
Other demands of the president urged him to re-evaluate the “sporting purposes” exception for firearm imports and undo the U.S. Munitions List to Commerce Control List (USML-CCL) reforms to transfer export authority from the Commerce Department back to the State Department. This proposal was originally started during former President Barack Obama’s presidency – with then-Vice President Joe Biden – and was later completed by former President Donald Trump.
They even push the president to press the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to restrict First Amendment rights by banning firearm advertising under “unfair and deceptive” practices and also undo Tiahrt Amendment protections for sensitive firearm trace data that would jeopardize law enforcement investigations and malign firearm manufacturers and retailers.
The president has received plenty of justifiable criticism, even from Congressional Democrats, when he has acted to impose unilateral restrictions on the Second Amendment and gets cute with misinterpreting law to pursue backdoor gun control.
Congress is refusing to pursue gun control activists’ agenda towards more Constitutional restrictions because the American people don’t want them to. In this case, these lawmakers would do well to listen to the president.
Democrat Letter to Biden on Executive Actions on Guns
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
Antiprogs:
“Star light, star bright
first star I see tonight
I wish I may I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight
I wish for all guns in the world to vanish (Except for ours)”
<Nothing happens>
No good rotten f%^&*&^ b%$#$%^ star you…”
🙂
Congress cannot pass any Constitutional restrictions, as all are infringements (including the nfa, gca, and Hughes amendment, background checks, etc) and thus UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
oh, i wish every signatory would hold their breath for as long as it takes for ol’ joe to do what they demand in violating our civil rights.
the reason they don’t want to push for more gun control is many informed voters will hold them accountable for actions like this. although many will still vote for the candidate with the d behind the name. they know ol’ joe will not make it through another election cycle and win the election, so this is their best shot at making it happen.
This letter these clowns signed holds just as much weight as the letter that claimed the laptop was Russian disinformation . Just a bunch of morons that are in denial of reality . All these lying criminals are proof you can’t fix stupid !
Fortunately(for us) the consequences of their denial will destroy their own selves, and not us… 🙂 He is free to make the wrong choice, but not free to succeed with it. He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see. Knowledge, for any conscious organism, is the means of survival; to a living consciousness, every “is” implies an “ought.” Man is free to choose not to be conscious, but not free to escape the penalty of unconsciousness:… Read more »
It’s also a written document that can be used as evidence against their willful neglect of their statutory duty as per their Oath of Office and lead to their removal from, “public service”, should WE, The People expound on this issue.
I have to question the culpable mental state of some of those elected officials that signed the letter. I’m singling out Sen. Diane Feinstein particularly.
Does she understand what she’s signing? Further, did she sign that letter herself? Since her return to the Senate, in my opinion, it appears to me that she is incapable of performing simple tasks.
I think her aide has to direct everything she does, including holding her hand to write her name. She’s pretty much the things you grow in your garden.
Glad someone agrees with me. Yep, someone has to direct her, especially during a vote and her aide has to tell her to say ‘Aye’ instead of babbling incoherently. That was really embarrassing.
If she cannot function and perform her duties on her own without assistance, I’m pretty sure that means her “public service” has effectively come to an end. It’s not like being a king or a queen with all their aides and assistance.
Agreed, and IMHO, there are a few others in fed.gov that are in the same boat. A certain senator that can’t wear a suit, but hoodies are fine and a POTUS that has to be assisted/directed off of a stage.
I’m sure there are few others that I cannot recall right now, but it scares me to know these people are making our laws.
Thanks for your service in the Corps. I spent some time wearing those white waiter suits with a dixie cup on top…
Wish they may, wish they might they are going to eat dirt when they start to fight. Can’t any democrap understand the constitution and what it really says. Really? So tired of their tired BS. They will never, ever get rid of all the guns and now they are pushing so far and so hard even their own non commonsense sheeple are starting to question their motive and don’t believe that the government actually cares about their safety or the children. Thank you New Mexico for making that a positive distinction. WTF Screw the dumb son of a bitch O’biden… Read more »
The Constitution is nothing more than a system of rules intended to be followed by people who follow rules.
Today’s Democrats see rules as nothing more than suggestions. Suggestions they will ignore if and when they feel it convenient.
John Adams said the Conbstitution was suitable for a moral people. Moral Democrat has become an oxymoron, kinda like “cherry tart”.
I know what you mean. When I worked for the state, I found out that it was rife with democrats and though nepotism is not allowed, it seemed that many were related to each other, and you found out when they slipped. I never heard so many people say that rules are meant to be broken. I was raised that rules are there for a reason and that is why you follow them. None of them would have made it with my mom and dad or in my Marine Corps.
Is it because they like breaking rules or is it they believe the rules are for the hoi polloi and they are above the rest of us? What’s the term David Codrea uses? “The Ones!” Either way, all dimocRAT’s suck, each and every last one of them. The ONLY ONES, I have more contempt and animus for are the treasonous members of the GOPe, we all know who they are. My wife asked me last night if my opinion included the little old lady down the street who votes dimocRAT because of family tradition? Yes, being stupid is no excuse… Read more »
Lol. I know, it is hard for me to fathom how anyone can make sense that anything can be totally removed from society. I can understand where if we have less guns there might be less people getting shot but there will be more good, honest law abiding citizens that are getting shot than bad because the bad people will always find a way to have and get guns. Oh, and in case you didn’t know it, LOL without a background check. Just teasing. With that in mind, the only conclusion that makes sense is that demokkkrats are deranged and… Read more »
Over the target again, Sir. I brought you back to zero.
Trump/Noem 2024 sounds great to me. Mrs. Noem went kinda wobbly, if I recall, but quickly got herself back on her skis.
I don’t know where she went wobbly but I think her wobbly would be better than any other candidate we currently have for president with the exception of President Trump. I would take her or someone with her brains and conservative values for president any day so long as she doesn’t do my electrical, plumbing or dental work. Lately I am not much for women being in charge of anything but there is always an exception to the rule and in my books, she makes the cut. I would love nothing more than Trump/Nome and then if she keeps it… Read more »
The second (no pun intended) that an EO happens, Iibbies wouId find out, just like King George found out. EO’s and ruIes are NOT Iaws enacted by a legislative, elected, representative body, so…..they don’t mean JACK!
Just who is worrying daily about gun violence on their street, in their school and in their home? Personally, the only gun violence which concerns me is that visited upon guns by idiots like the authors of letter presented above. I do not contend that my firearms make me safer from human violence. My current risk level is imperceptibly above zero, so hard to imagine lowering it further. My gun does make my dog safer in event we meet an aggressive coyote, but otherwise does little to nothing but provide entertainment. For those who are stuck living in a hazardous… Read more »
If they’re worried about “firearms in their homes”, that part alone indicates they want TOTAL DISARMAMENT, something that we’ve been saying all along ! Funny how the truth comes out when the radical left gets desperate !!!
We’ve known it all along but now they are boldly asking out loud for total confiscation.
How about a trial period here. All the “elite” in Congress get rid of their bodyguards and other security staff at the Capitol Building for 5 years. This includes most of the Capitol Police and DC Police, both in Washington and at their homes. Let’s see how that works out for them. Also cut out the SS around the White House, make it the people’s house again! Yeah…like that is going to happen.
The major problem I see with these types of stories is and appears to always be, smokescreens of our society where WE, THE PEOPLE are systematically failing our own selves. WE, THE PEOPLE are wasting precious time on issues (Gun Control) that have absolutely NO chance of flourishing in this country. Sure, the fear-factoring and hype is an attention getter, but if you look at the big picture, the skirmishes over the many decades of power struggles ever since WWII, it’s a no brainer that WE THE PEOPLE, when poked enough will hand REVOLUTIONARY WAR, The Sequel to any dumb… Read more »