New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R) has passed his first Second Amendment test. He immediately and forcefully stated that mass murder does not override the Constitution, and contrary to Democratic policy, emotion should not be used to enact laws that would never be acceptable in a quiet and reasoned debate. The statement was made in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox.
For those who prefer text, here is the quote from Mediaite.com:
“The end of the day, the problem is the human heart,” Johnson replied. “It’s not guns, it’s not the weapons. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves and that’s the Second Amendment. And that’s why our party stands so strongly for that.”
He added, “This is not the time to be talking about legislation. We’re in the middle of that crisis right now.”
Just after a mass murder is committed with a firearm, politicians are most vulnerable to manipulation by pressure from the old dominant media. At this point, the old dominant media and the Democratic administration are parts of the same leftist ideology. They immediately push the false narrative that the cause of mass murder is the Second Amendment and firearms ownership in the USA. House Speaker Johnson did not accept the false assumptions. He gently corrected them:
“The end of the day, the problem is the human heart,” Johnson replied. “It’s not guns, it’s not the weapons.
The Biden administration immediately struck back with a false representation of what Speaker Johnson said. From politico.com:
In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the administration “absolutely” rejected “the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans’ ‘hearts.’”
There are at least three lies in the White House statement.
- Lie #1. Speaker Johnson talked about “gun crime”. He did not. In fact, he said it was not about weapons.
- Lie #2. “gun crime” is uniquely high in the USA. It isn’t. Many countries in the world have far higher rates of crime committed with firearms than the United States. Brazil has a homicide rate with guns, which is over four times as high as the United States. Brazil has about 1/16th as many firearms per person as the USA.
- Lie #3. Speaker Johnson did not single out “Americans’ hearts. He spoke of “the human heart”. This is an important philosophical difference between the left and conservatives. Conservatives believe there is a basic human nature. Leftists, generally, since Marx, do not.
Speaker Johnson stands in contrast to former Speaker Paul Ryan. Here is a statement made by former Speaker Paul Ryan a few days after the Las Vegas mass murder on October 1, 2017. Ryan’s comments were made on October 7th. From the jsonline.com:
In the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s open to a vote in Congress on what is known as a “bump stock,” a device that can be attached to a semi-automatic rifle that allows it to mimic a fully automatic one.
The Janesville Republican made his remarks on MSNBC’s Hugh Hewitt talk show, which aired Saturday.
“I didn’t even know what they were until this week, and I’m an avid sportsman,” Ryan said of bump stocks. He added: “Fully automatic weapons have been banned for a long time. Apparently, this allows you to take a semiautomatic, turn it into a fully automatic, so clearly that’s something we need to look into.”
Speaker Paul Ryan killed the Hearing Protection Act on October 3rd, two days after the mass murder in Las Vegas. Earlier, it appeared the act had an excellent chance of passage. Ryan had delayed the act when the dedicated leftist had attacked Congressional Republicans and almost killed Representative Scalise. It appeared to this correspondent as an excuse at the time.
Time will tell how effective Mike Johnson will be as House Speaker.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
“Mass murder is just fine, so long as we can keep our guns!”
What a low bar. If that’s what you consider passing the first test then we’re screwed. Every damn republican that has written and voted for gun control has said essentially the same thing. He should have said ALL arms laws are unconstitutional…..THAT would be passing the first test.
at what point in the interview did the Speaker talk about the 2a? I might have missed it and I really don’t want to listen to this interview again.
Damnit Dean, I woke up in a good mood this morning; then you had to go and mention that scumbag Paul Ryan.
‘At the end of the Day’
Whenever a politician says that,
Dont count on anything getting done.
Mike Johnson’s first few laps with We the People has gone well. He’s well behaved and saying the right stuff. Now let’s see if he will release McCarthy’s J6 videos that will prove the feds did the fedsurrection. Then if he still looks good we can start looking under the hood to see if Raytheon actually has any hooks in him or not.