With the nomination of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate, gun owners have every reason to be frightened about the prospect of these two candidates winning in the 2020 presidential elections in early November. Arguably the most anti-Second Amendment presidential ticket in American history, Biden-Harris are committed to gutting gun rights in America.
One way they’ll do so is by removing liability protections from firearms manufactures. Since the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2005, firearms makers have been shielded from lawsuits concerning the criminal usage of firearms that were originally made and sold in a lawful manner. In other words, gun makers, also have to receive punishment for the actions of individuals who commit criminals acts involving a firearm.
In 2020, Biden was vocal in his criticism of the PLCAA. Breitbart News reported that back in 2019 Biden gave a speech at a MSNBC/Gabby Giffords/March for Our Lives gun control forum calling for gun manufacturers to be subject to litigation. Biden proclaimed, “No other outfit in history has gotten this kind of protection.” The 2020 presidential candidate went as far to say that the lawsuits could bring about “overnight” change to gun policy when compared to traditional gun control legislation.
Furthermore, Biden went before a New Hampshire audience earlier this year to rail against the PLCAA. In his view, the PLCAA provides gun makers with “a loophole that does not allow them to be sued for the carnage they are creating,” according to a Breitbart News report. Repealing the PLCAA is on the top of Biden’s list of priorities should he occupy the White House.
Kamala Harris is also in favor of scrapping the PLCAA. When she was running for the presidency she called for a repeal of such protections. According to a CBS News report from April 2019, Harris supported “a repeal of [PLCAA].” The California Senator is willing to go the extra mile to carry out this unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment. In the case that this kind of repeal cannot be achieved through legislative means, she would instruct the ATF “to revoke the licenses of manufacturers and dealers who violate negligence, nuisance and marketing laws.”
The Democrat duo also supports banning so-called “assault weapons”, imposing mandatory buybacks on certain firearms, and signing universal gun registration into law.
On August 12, Harris said that the federal government must enact a mandatory gun “buyback” program in order to confiscate up to 10 million firearms.
Harris participated in the “2020 Gun Safety Forum” in Las Vegas where she was grilled by MSNBC host Craig Melvin about how she would get rid of “assault weapons”.
“We have to have a buyback program,” Harris said in response to Melvin’s question. “I support a mandatory buyback program.”
“There are five million at least, some estimate as many as 10 million,” she continued. “We’re going to have to have smart public policy that’s about taking those off the streets, but doing it in the right way.”
Based on her legislative behavior, Harris is no friend of the Second Amendment. Harris teamed up with seasoned anti-gunner Dianne Feinstein to co-sponsor the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019.
Certain organizations like the National Rifle Association have stepped up to refute the narrative that the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban worked in reducing gun crime. The NRA referred to a study, published by the U.S. Department of Justice, which found that the 1994 AWB has a negligible impact on gun crime.
“[Assault weapons] and [large capacity magazines] were used in only a minority of gun crimes prior to the 1994 federal ban,” the study declared.
Curiously, gun ownership has increased significantly since 1994. Moreover, the AWB expired in 2004. Even with its expiration, murder rates have stayed low and have actually decreased.
The obsession gun controllers have with “assault weapons” is simply misplaced when looking at the data. FBI numbers demonstrate that handguns are the most common weapons employed in murder cases.
In 2017 alone, handguns were used to murder 7,032 people, as opposed to rifles, which were used to murder 403 people.
On top of that, the Department of Justice released a survey in 2019 that illustrated how half of state and federal prisoners involved in gun crimes obtained their firearms illegally.
Of the prisoners who had a firearm while committing their crime, 56 percent had either acquired it from the black market, stolen it or discovered it at the scene of the crime.
25 percent obtained their firearms from family members or friends, whereas only 7 percent “purchased it under their own name from a licensed firearm dealer.”
In sum, not only would the Biden/Harris gun control agenda be unconstitutional, but it would be ineffective in battling crime. The cold, hard truth is that criminals will work tirelessly to acquire firearms by any means necessary. If gun control laws are strict, they will turn to the black market, while law-abiding citizens are rendered defenseless should they ever be targeted by criminal’s in anti-Second Amendment jurisdictions.
It goes without saying that gun owners should give the Biden/Harris ticket the cold shoulder.
