By José Niño
During a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast, President Joe Biden announced that he will make a renewed push for gun control during a hypothetical second term in office.
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Biden stated that he will “make sure that we do something about gun violence in this country” during his second term. He stressed that Second Amendment rights are not absolute and even said that Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote about the tree of liberty needing to be “refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants” is a “bunch of crap.”
In previous decades, Democrats danced around the issue of gun control and even had small pro-gun factions within their ranks. This was most notable among certain Democrats in the South and Rust Belt regions. However, as the Democratic Party began to abandon the working class and embrace professional managerial class voters, pro-gun control sentiments have become the norm in the party.
One would be hard-pressed to find nominally pro-gun leaders in the party. Moreover, Democrats have upped the ante by calling for outright bans on certain firearms such as so-called “assault weapons” and accessories such as “high-capacity” magazines. Biden himself was particularly vocal about banning these accessories in his recent podcast appearance.
When he was asked what issues political leaders should be concentrating on in the years to come, Biden emphasized that gun control must be at the top of their list. He proclaimed that “the idea that we allow assault weapons to be sold with magazines with 100 rounds is just bizarre.”
Gun policy remains a hot-button issue that is routinely exploited by gun control proponents every time a mass shooting occurs.
Since being installed as president at the end of January 2021, Biden has made the imposition of gun control one of the key policy planks of his presidency.
Biden was able to achieve one of his major policy goals after Congress passed the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” (BSCA) in 2022. This legislation expands the background check requirements for firearms sales and lays the groundwork for universal background checks—the first step toward outright gun confiscation.
President Biden was particularly ecstatic about the BSCA’s passage, describing it as “the most significant gun [control] legislation to pass Congress in 30 years.”
Indeed, the enactment of the BSCA represented the largest expansion of gun control since Congress passed the Brady Act of 1993, which created the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). This bill imposed background checks for all firearms purchases from licensed dealers.
In addition, Biden has consistently pushed for the imposition of universal background checks and closing the so-called “gun show loophole.” This has resulted in the BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) establishing a new rule to change the definition of what constitutes a firearms “dealer.”
Under this ATF rule, private individuals could be forced to acquire a federal firearms license (FFL) for carrying out nearly all firearms transactions—be they private sales or transfers to friends or family members that were usually exempt from federal regulation.
Like most Democrat leaders, Biden has reassured skeptics that his gun control schemes won’t result in the complete destruction of gun rights in the United States.
Biden may genuinely believe that his gun control agenda won’t result in the abolition of the Second Amendment. However, politics is a beast that can’t be caged. If history has taught us anything, the thirst for power among the left is nearly unquenchable. When one gun grab is instituted, additional gun control measures will inevitably be imposed further down the line.
What may save America when it comes to gun policy, ironically, is its growing political polarization. While it may not be ideal, the increasingly polarized nature of American politics makes gridlock a constant in Congress, as a divided Congress makes it more difficult for the gun control crowd to legislate at will.
This has been most apparent with Congress being largely unable to pass most of Biden’s gun control wish list. In politics, we must take what we can get. Ideally, all branches of the federal government would be occupied by pro-gun representatives. But that’s not the reality of the current political environment.
The good news is that as more people lose faith in the political system, the less likely the entire governing apparatus will be able to fully realize an anti-gun legislative agenda. This will give the right enough breathing room to pass their own pro-gun reforms and nullify unconstitutional federal gun control measures through their state legislatures.
No matter how bad things get politically, there’s always a silver lining during a crisis that the right can take advantage of to retake previously stolen civil liberties.
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. You can contact him via Facebook and Twitter. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control at josealbertonino.gumroad.com. Subscribe to his “Substack” newsletter by visiting “Jose Nino Unfiltered” on Substack.com.
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