Modern Gun Control Movement. “The start of the modern gun control movement is largely attributed to Mark Borinsky, PhD, who founded the National Center to Control Handguns (NCCH) in 1974. After being the victim of an armed robbery [emphasis added]…In 2001, after a few name changes, the National Center to Control Handguns (NCCH) was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its sister organization, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, was renamed the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence…The 2014 gun control lobby was composed of Everytown for Gun Safety [bankrolled by oligarch politician Michael Bloomberg, estimated net worth $82 billion], Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Sandy Hook Promise, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and Violence Policy Center…” [Source: Britannica ProCon.Org]
The idea Borinsky, Bloomberg, Brady et al are promoting is that certain people, if not most people, shouldn’t have firearms. But the police and the armed forces should. (But they seem to miss the concept of Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.)
And yet…
Plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes.
In the Beginning. “Gun control laws are just as old or older than the Second Amendment (ratified in 1791) [empowering the people, not the government, to keep and bear arms]. Some examples of gun control throughout colonial America included criminalizing the transfer of guns to Catholics, slaves, indentured servants, and Native Americans…” [Source: Britannica ProCon.Org]
So there is discrimination. Still. Only it’s not the Catholics, slaves, or American Indians that are subject to it. It’s everyone who owns a firearm or would like to.
The Dysfunctional Mindset. Many politicians and celebrities decry the availability of weapons to the average citizen. Yet, they either arm themselves or surround themselves with bodyguards having firearms. Here are a select few:
Dianne Feinstein: She introduced the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 in the Senate. She said:” I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon and I made the determination if somebody was going to try and take me out, I was going to take them with me."
Mark Kelly, the husband of Former Anti-Gun Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ): reportedly bought an AR-15 and a M1911-style semi-automatic pistol at a gun store in Tucson, Arizona. Kelly and Giffords founded their own advocacy group to restrict gun rights, Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Shania Twain: At her wedding in Puerto Rico, her security guards were armed. She supports the Brady Center.
Rosie O'Donnell: "On her television show, April 19, 1999,O’Donnell had this to say about gun owners: “…You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison.” Several months later, a bodyguard in her employ applied for a concealed gun permit from the Greenwich (Connecticut) Police Department.
Sarah Brady (now dead): "…bought her son a powerful rifle for Christmas...and may have skirted Delaware state background-check requirements…”
Michael Moore: He's a staunch advocate of gun control who has gone so far as to suggest that merely owning a gun is racism. His bodyguard had been once arrested at New Yok’s JFK airport for carrying an unlicensed weapon.
When the Fish Stinks, it Stinks From the Head. Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., elected president of then United States under a cloud, is bound and determined to strip citizens of their civil rights. In several speeches, Biden has attacked the possession of 9mm pistols and “assault rifles”, whatever they are. He seems to acquaint such rifles as military-grade weapons of war. He and many others rage against the most popular rifle in America, the Armalite-developed AR-15. This rifle, while supremely ugly, is not now and has never been in the armory of any U.S. armed service. It is semi-automatic, (you must pull the trigger for each shot), not fully-automatic. While it fires the same cartridge (5.56mm NATO/.223 Remington or 7.62mm NATO/.308 Winchester) as the U.S. military, a far more powerful cartridge, the .30-06 Springfield, is readily available. This cartridge, adopted by the War Department in 1906, has been used in the Army’s 1903-model Springfield rife and the M-1 Garand, adopted in 1936 and discontinued in 1959. The cartridge is used today in many hunting rifles.
Joe Biden has firearms problems within his own family, i.e., Hunter Biden, of Ukraine infamy.
For those who have yet to learn of Hunter’s escapades in firearm ownership, according to a report from Politico, the troubled son of the president purchased a .38-caliber revolver from a Delaware Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) on October 12, 2018. In order to acquire the gun, Hunter filled out the required BATFE [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives] Form 4473. On October 23, Hallie Biden, widow to Joe Biden’s son Beau and then-companion to Hunter, searched the ne’er-do-well’s truck, which was parked at her home in Wilmington, Del., and found the handgun. Apparently fearing for Hunter’s safety, Hallie wrapped the revolver in a shopping bag and threw it into a trash receptacle outside nearby gourmet grocery store Janssen’s Market – which is located across the street from the campus of Alexis I. du Pont High School.
Later that day, after Hunter told Hallie to retrieve the firearm, Hallie returned to where she had disposed of the gun but could not find it. At this point law enforcement was notified of the missing firearm, prompting an investigation that reportedly involved the Delaware State Police, the United States Secret Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation…
Hunter was discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2014 after he tested positive for cocaine. Further, at various times, Hunter has been a notorious and admitted drug user. Hunter’s lengthy battle with drugs has been chronicled by himself and the Biden family in numerous interviews and a forthcoming memoir titled, “Beautiful Things.”…
It is illegal for a person “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” to possess a firearm. Possession of a firearm by a prohibited person is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
In order to purchase a firearm from an FFL, a buyer must fill out a Form 4473. The form asks, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Hunter answered “no” to this question.
Lying on a form 4473 is two separate crimes. It is a crime when a person “knowingly makes any false statement or representation with respect to the information required by this chapter to be kept in the records of a person licensed under this chapter,” such as the Form 4473. A violation of this provision is punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment. It is also a crime for a person to “make any false or fictitious oral or written statement” to a dealer “with respect to any fact material to the lawfulness of the sale.” A violation of this provision is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
Hunter Biden escaped any legal consequences of his illegal actions. (Foregoing source: NRA Institute for legislative Action [ILA], citing Politico and federal law.)
Joe Biden’s son and the above short list of celebrities, politicians, and the very well-to-do show the advantages of their situation—along with benefits of high-level government connections.
But What’s the Real Problem? Simple. Washington, D.C., highly “Democratic” in its “government” is a very good example. A 2021 study there noted:
This small number of very high-risk individuals are identifiable, their violence is predictable, and therefore it is preventable. Based on the assessment of data and the series of interviews conducted, [National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform] estimates that within a year, there are at least 500 identifiable people who rise to this level of very high risk, and likely no more than 200 at any one given time. These individuals comprise approximately 60-70% of all gun violence in the District.
“The report went on to explain that “Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were known to the criminal justice system prior to the incident,” and “most victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had been arrested about 11 times for about 13 different offenses by the time of the homicide.” Given that so much of this dangerous population interacts with the criminal justice system, incapacitating these individuals through vigorous prosecution and stiffer prison sentences should be relatively simple and would go a long way in promoting public safety.
Rather than focusing on cracking down on suspected violent criminals, the federal enclave’s government recently announced a plan to provide them with “life coaches.”
Moreover, “A June 1, Washington Post article titled, “D.C. gun seizures are soaring — but charges aren’t sticking,” also highlighted problems with the federal enclave’s approach to violent crime. The item noted, “About half the people charged with murder typically have a prior gun arrest, according to police, though not necessarily a conviction.” Describing one week in the city, the paper explained, “D.C. police arrested 23 people for gun offenses; prosecutors did not pursue charges against 13 of them. Of the 10 people charged, six were convicted, with sentences ranging from participation in a diversion program to 18 months behind bars, court records show. Four are awaiting trial.” (NRA-ILA.)
The Post again re-visited this article on June 7, 2022. It reiterated the June 1 piece’s statements.
What’s Driving This? It’s the same unhealthy mixture of puling professional politicians, “mainstream media, and extremists who seek to overthrow American society and its basis. Carroll Quigley, Ph.D., Georgetown University (deceased) put it well:
The final link in our chain, the Newspeak which Orwell envisions for 2050, is perhaps hypothetical but is again a logical development of doublethink and of semantics. If words have no fixed meaning (semantics) then the meanings can be changed for political and propaganda purposes (doublethink) and ultimately people can be kept in complete intellectual subjugation by being deprived of all words which refer to politically unacceptable ideas (Newspeak).
Remember the Antifa and Black Racism Matters riots, looting, arson, and general insurrection that occurred during much of 2020 across the United States? Remember how the foregoing individuals, groups, and fanatics shut down major and minor cities and towns across the country? Did anyone or anything oppose them? Or denounce them? What about the mostly peaceful demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2020? Remember the wild hysteria with which the “news media” denounced them? Did anyone question the Democratic Party’s successes in removing the Green party from the ballot in Texas, Montana, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania? Why not? What about the slavish attitudes toward every wild pronouncement of the Holy St. Fauci and the Blessed Birx?
The object of the exercise is to change American ways of thought. To change American values. To change American society. Look at George Orwell’s 1984. And” double-think”. Don’t punish criminals. Punish citizens. Strip them of their rights. Command them to obedience. Leave them to the “mercy” of known criminals.
The Solution? Enforce existing laws. Virginia used to have a policy of adding five years to a criminal’s sentence if an individual used a firearm in committing the offense. A Democrat governor did away with that. Ask yourself why you can’t buy a firearm at 21 years of age if you can vote at 18 or join the Army at 18 and be issued a weapon and trained to kill with it. It’s all Double-Think and New-Speak. And nothing else.
If murder or bank robbery or assault is already a crime, how is it different if you pass another meaningless law restricting law-abiding citizens from owning firearms? The voter is not the one killing his neighbor or robbing the bank. It’s the crook. Penalize him.
J. Michael Springmann is an attorney, author, political commentator, and former diplomat, with postings in Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia. He previously authored, Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World: An Insider’s View, recounting how the U.S. created and used Islamic Terrorism. Additionally, he penned Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos? Merkel’s Migrant Bomb, an analysis of the alien wave sweeping the Continent. He currently practices law in the Washington D.C. Area. He is a frequent commentator on Arab and Russian news programs.