By Lisa Marie Pane, AP
The gun debate in America will soon enter a new chapter with a Democrat in the White House after four years under President Donald Trump in which gun control advocates developed a long wish list for reform amid a spate of large-scale mass killings in places like Las Vegas, El Paso and Parkland, Florida.
But any hope that Joe Biden will usher in a new era of restrictions on firearms is highly unlikely because of the same polarization in Washington that has tripped up similar efforts under past administrations.
The items on the agenda — largely relegated to the political shelf in recent years — include renewing a ban on AR-style rifles, universal background checks, restrictions on high-capacity magazines and a federal red flag law designed to prevent people at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing a firearm.
But virtually all of those will require Congress to act. And regardless the outcome in two Senate races in Georgia that will determine which party holds the majority in that chamber, it will be a tall order to get a majority of lawmakers on board.
One key reason is because the issues have become so polarized. Years ago, gun politics crossed party lines, and it was easier for Republicans and Democrats to find common ground.
“It used to be a cross-cutting issue, there used to be Democrats that were very pro-gun and Democratic legislators who won districts in part on their pro-gun views,” said Matt Grossmann, an associate professor at Michigan State University and director of its Institute for Public Policy and Social Research who follows gun politics. “And you just don’t have that anymore.”
The number of firearms in circulation has mushroomed in the past 12 years, starting in President Barack Obama’s administration when gun owners feared he would push through significant restrictions.
It continued unabated during Trump’s lone term. In the first years of his tenure, Americans amassed firearms amid fears about new gun measures following mass killings. The gun buying picked up even more steam in the past year as civil unrest, economic turmoil and the pandemic propelled unparalleled buying sprees.
And with the pandemic dominating the conversation, guns took a back seat in the 2020 election.
Gun control groups still want to be heard, however. For one, they want universal background checks that would require the review for virtually every sale of a firearm, and a ban on online sales of firearms, ammunition and parts.
Among the legislative proposals, the one viewed as having some bipartisan support is a federal “red flag” law that would make it easier to temporarily confiscate firearms from someone deemed a risk to themselves or others. Currently, fewer than two dozen states have such laws on the books.
Gun control groups also are more aggressively underscoring the fears they have about the abundance of guns in homes of Americans. They worry about the toll it will have on households where firearms are present, both through murder-suicides and suicides.
During a news conference Thursday announcing their priorities for Biden to take executive action on guns, Everytown for Gun Safety cited statistics that show calls into domestic violence hotlines and suicide hotlines up, and gun violence in cities on the rise. Their list of priorities includes restricting access to untraceable “ghost guns” and cracking down on people who are able to purchase a firearm if the FBI background check isn’t conducted within the required 3 business days.
“The need for action is urgent,” said Michael-Sean Spence, Everytown’s director of community safety initiatives. “This was already a public health crisis before COVID arrived — and the pandemic has made things far worse.”
There are other steps Biden can take administratively. Among the key items likely to be pursued is a rule enacted in the waning weeks of the Obama administration but scrapped by Trump soon after taking office: requiring the Social Security Administration to provide information to the gun-buying background check system on recipients with a mental disorder so severe they cannot work or handle their own benefit checks. The rule would affect an estimated 75,000 beneficiaries.
The most coveted piece of legislation by gun control advocates has been a renewal of the ban on “assault weapons” that expired in 2004. Biden played a central role in pushing through that decade-long ban, and he has pledged to push for another ban on the semiautomatic long guns that have only surged in popularity since their return to the market.
Much has changed since that ban was pushed through — from the political landscape to the saturation of those firearms in the civilian market.
In the years leading up to and following the ban, there were an estimated 8.5 million AR-platform rifles in circulation in the United States. Since the ban was lifted, the rifles — called “modern sporting rifles” by the industry — have only surged in popularity. The National Shooting Sports Foundation now estimates there are more than 17 million in circulation. And there are likely significantly more after this year, which consistently smashed monthly records for federal background checks.
The National Rifle Association, which poured tens of millions of dollars toward electing Trump in 2016, has been weakened by infighting as well as legal tangles over its finances. While it remains a force in the gun arena, it’s unclear what influence it will be able to muster during the Biden administration.
Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said he’s watching for the outcome of two runoff elections in Georgia that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. But regardless what happens, he’s hopeful that efforts to severely restrict firearms will face resistance in the courts after four years of Trump appointing conservative justices throughout the federal court system as well as on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We know where they’re coming from, we know what they want to do. They have a very long laundry list of things they’d like to accomplish,” Gottlieb said. “And we’ll see where we go with that.”
Like the potheads and the pro invasion communists, we will simply not comply with their edicts. And we will defend ourselves if they try to enforce them.
They’re not enforcing anything the thin blue line will
What, you mean the same “thin blue line” they want to defund?
What’s wrong with the potheads?
They are socialist progressive in their political orientation.
Perhaps in your experience. In mine, the real socialists are the ones justifying hyper-bloated tax-hungry federal/state/local governments & the military/police/prison industrial complex needed to stem the flow of jazz-cabbage etc… which has been an abysmal failure and has lead to a government with tentacles so long it can actually reach some of those guns we lose in those horrible boating accidents. I am a MASSIVE proponent of the RESPONSIBLE use of psychotropic substances, just as I am equally a proponent of MODERATION in said use, a proponent of SELF GOVERNANCE, and LIBERTY which is secured by our unalienable right to bear arms. I guarantee that you are far more of a socialist than little ol pothead YOURS TRULY.
“Potheads”….. you’re low IQ is showing……
Marijuana is HUNDREDS of times less dangerous than that alcohol you can’t stop drinking….. YOU STINKING DRUNK….
Now then, about these liberals trying to strip guns from the populace, I only have FOUR words for these POLITICAL CRIMINALS…..
COME AND TAKE IT
Oh, you mean in cities where gun control has had free rein for generations? Those cities?
Fancy that.
they doubled down. not only don’t the laws work when enforced, they aren’t and violent felons all get back on the street.
Not only are Gun Control racists and nazis on my sht list so are perverts like you.
Not to mention suicides and domestic violence increases that are a direct result of Democrat COVID panic and lockdowns. But sure, go ahead and blame me and my gun collection.
The communist party (formerly democrat) won’t let little things like laws and such stand in their way. They will do everything and anything to disarm us. Fortunately, God willing, we won’t have to deal with a Harris administration if SCOTUS does their job.
“The communist party (formerly democrat) won’t let little things like laws and such stand in their way.”
Well they were able to somehow change election laws without the state legislatures. Why would they ever stop that behavior as long as they aren’t being held accountable?
That was my point.
And I heard it through the grapevine
Just about to lose my mind(guns)
Not much longer will you be mine
Hey yah honey yeah
“Trump’s lone term”?
Trump’s first term.
Ransom,
It will be Trump’s one and only term if pertinent government entities — including the U.S. Supreme Court — shirk their duties and responsibilities.
I will be pleasantly astonished if Trump serves a second term. Sadly, I believe the chances to be somewhat south of “slim” and only the tinest bit above “none”.
I picked up on that little tidbit too. The media is sure sticking to their agenda.
I find it very hard to believe the party that shut down small businesses for 9 months and counting, that told you not visit friends and family while publicly flaunting their own rules, that forced you to blow through whatever savings you may have had just to make rent or cover your mortgage cares about suicides.
In a just world all those new pandemic-purchaser gun owners will be using them to sack D.C. and every blue state capitol dragging petty tyrants like Newsom, Cuomo and Whitmer out into the street for judgement.
I predict their hands will be full for the first year at least handing out free CoronaCash and other crapola.
They should have learned from ObamaCare. Their push for that early on killed any political capital they had left. They will have to weigh the risk they will get killed in the midterms.
Nobody really knows. SCOTUS could surprise us. Who the fuck really knows?
Stupid people in groups.
” Gun control groups also are more aggressively underscoring the fears they have about the abundance of guns in homes of Americans. They worry about the toll it will have on households where firearms are present, both through murder-suicides and suicides. ”
Got to call BS on this one. Well, actually, BS on all of it, but this one in particular.
Gun control groups don’t give a rat’s a$$ about “the toll it will have”. That’s just a convenient excuse to push their total ban agenda and a convenient way to telegraph their kind and caring nature (cough cough). What’s galling is that this AP reporter just took a long swig of the kool-aid and passed it along without so much as a raised eyebrow.
From the A.P. source article:
I am astounded at the deviousness of
CommunistProgressive wordsmithing. Instead of saying whatCommunistsProgressives really want, which is a long wish list of infringements (of our self-defense rights), they say that they want “reform”.That level of deviousness reminds me of men who are scoundrels/womanizers and go to great lengths to subtly deceive women into having sex with them.
You have to take a look into the mindset of a Progressive to understand their actions. To them, they are a normal person. They don’t like or want guns. Therefore normal people don’t like or want guns. Only not normal people like or want guns. And that is why they want restrictions on gun ownership.
They are over projecting themselves on to everyone else.
Southern Cross,
You make a very fair point indeed.
“Reform” has a long, sordid history in the annals of progressivism. Government is their god, and Carrie Nation and Margaret Sanger (two people who should be on every American’s “strangle at birth whenever time travel is invented” list) are the saints their activism is modeled upon.
Can’t wait to see the plan to disarm 100 million people of 500 million weapons. This should be good.
Take a page from the vaccine passport playbook and you have a framework.
don’t underestimate how devious these people can be…you look for it in one direction…and it comes at you from another…as they just keep chipping away….
Hear ye Hear ye Gun Control Zealots!!! Being as Gun Control is rooted in racism and genocide that makes Gun Control clearly a racist and nazi based agenda. Therefore all Gun Control Zealots will be dealt with accordingly. You want it…Come and get it.
I could not have less respect for the associated press
Biden will be lucky if he’s not in Gitmo or hung for treason, he won’t around to push for any gun control.
The Chinese will push him around. Who do you think set up Hunter Biden’s foundation and convinced contributors to pay up.
China is already boasting how much influence they have with the Biden administration.
It would only be more blatant if Creepy Joe and Kameltoe had “Property of PRC” stamped, branded, or tattooed onto their foreheads.
You can’t seriously believe Biden will be tried and executed.
Biden will only be a temporary occupant of the White House once his usefulness has come to an end…all part of the plan…..
My expectation is Biden will hang around for just over two years, then “sadly” be unable to continue. Harris will take the reins, on the glide path to serving potentially ten years.
Biden said, according to the audio tape. “Where I have executive authority, I will use it to undo every single damn thing this guy’s done by executive authority. But I’m not going to exercise executive authority where it’s a question where, I can come along and say, I can do away with assault weapons. There’s no executive authority to do that. And no one has fought harder to get rid of assault weapons than me, me. You can’t do it by executive order.”
https://www.aol.com/leaked-recording-biden-says-gop-190813826.html
Your link is from AOL. That in itself makes it worthless.
Your ignorance is worthless because your hatred blinds you to the subject at hand. Finding another source is easy enough. The statement holds and at least allows us to know which direction the attack will come from. If your not reading both sides of it all your never going to stay ahead. Gather intelligence from all sources.
I wish it were that simple. You can’t gather intelligence from people that lie. AOL, Yahoo, etc. are not credible sources. Haven’t we had enough experience with Facebook and YouTube to see what’s going on yet?
The issue might not be completely them. It might be inability to discern the wheat form the chaff.
He said it.
Just like Obama said he didn’t have the authority(22 times) based on the Law to implement DACA and yet he did and now Liberal Judges are backing it. There are two choices when dealing with a corrupted system. eliminate the system or eliminate the corrupters. Doing neither changes nothing.
But he can ban imports by EO and his National Policy Director says it’s a priority to do so.
Reuters also reported on the plan to do this right after the election.
The point is Biden can only do a EO if there is a reason for it. So a reason will happen sooner or later.
Hasn’t the left already proven enough times they don’t actually NEED a ‘reason’ for anything? There is no logic put to anything they do. They WILL make something up if nothing else.
A ‘reason’ has already been given…healthcare.
The Obama EO which stripped Social Security recipients with a court appointed fiduciary from owning firearms was overturned with a LAW. Biden can’t simply issue an EO that nullifies federal law.
Trump got bumpstocks banned
Biden will do the same thing to “braces” and binary triggers
Likely so, although in the case of braces I suspect one would be able to register it as an SBR.
Then 99% of people would just get a stock for their SBR. Why would they bother with a brace?
They wouldn’t, as they only reason 99% of people buy braced pistols is to get a pseudo-SBR without the paperwork.
In any case, my guess is that over 90% of those who own braced pistols would simply ignore the new law, just as owners of bump stocks have done.
Either the POTUS.singled out and “banned” bump stock contraptions by executive order or congress was set to include all the usual politically incorrect firearms, etc. So for all the bump stock crybabies who bad mouthed the POTUS they should be thankful other much better products like Binary Triggers advertised on this forum remain available. Any questions regarding POTUS actions ask Allen Gottlieb.
” requiring the Social Security Administration to provide information to the gun-buying background check system on recipients with a mental disorder so severe they cannot work or handle their own benefit checks. The rule would affect an estimated 75,000 beneficiaries.”
Only a marxist would believe that one has a severe mental disorder simply because one chooses to not handle their own benefit check. For many it is simply a matter of convenience that another family member does such or has much more expertise in financial matters than they do. How disturbing and disgusting but Hitler would be proud.
You keyboard Commandos
had better think hard and long. MacArthur, Eisenhower and Patton were directly involved in clearing a shanty town in Washington, DC where WWI veterans were asking fir a speed up of what they were supposed to get in the early 1940’s. They had women and children in the camp, the military moved in and cleared it out. They were starving with kids, politicians don’t care about you or your kids.
They care about being re-elected, Democrat or Republican.
You’re going to have to decide and it may cost your life. Choose wisely.
no he won’t…he can eo everything…the gop won’t fight it even if it’s unconstitutional…all of them minus a very very few are swamp rats…
Sleepy Joe is fucking brain dead……as if he had one to start with. I seriously doubt it.
He’s a Soros Stooge!!___
Everyone seems to ignore “The big picture” about American gun ownership. Our freedom demands it. Our government making us the world’s policeman has made us a lot more enemies than friends. Proof? Have you ever read about the Jap admiral mentioning during the surrender on the Missouri that they would have invaded California after Pearl Harbor except that they knew how many guns the America people had. I have.
The commie Democrats just openly stole an election. You really think they are gonna balk at confiscating your guns? LOL
They dont even really care about taking guns, when they can just make self defense illegal. Ask the McCloskeys or Kyle Rittenhouse or that bar keeper in Denver who killed himself after getting wrapped up in the anti self defense legal system.
The commies have all the marbles, they will do whatever they want to you now. You can bury your guns and they will still win, you wont have access to them, but at least you can still say you have them (buried in the ground where they are useless for self defense against the rampaging BLM/Antifa mobs.)
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