Donald Trump Chiefs of Police
President Donald Trump solicits response from the crowd before signing an executive order creating a commission to study law enforcement and justice at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

By Larry Keane

The debate over gun control is intensifying as we move into the 2020 election, and with that comes the need for the staunchest defense of our Second Amendment rights. At this year’s International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Chicago, President Trump took the stage to address the thousands of law enforcement leaders and partners who tackle crime in our communities and keep us safe.

At this event, the President took the opportunity to reiterate the dangers of gun control laws that endanger the rights of law-abiding citizens and do nothing to stop criminals that cause harm to our communities.

Backdrop Chicago

The location of this IACP address was also significant. While the number of murders in the nation dropped over the last two years, they remain a significant issue in Chicago – a city home to some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws. Last year alone, 565 people were murdered in Chicago and countless others were injured by criminal violence.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson listens to a question as he responds to remarks made by President Donald Trump at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, in Chicago. Johnson said that the same police officers that the president criticized spent the whole day protecting him. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

There’s an aversion in the Windy City to holding criminals responsible for their crimes. Criminals arrested for gun crimes are turned back out on the street, only to be arrested again after they commit even more violent crimes.

The laws in place to protect society are ignored by criminals, courts and lawmakers alike. Instead, elected officials in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois enact ever more gun control laws that do nothing to fight crime and instead simply take the right to self-defense out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, literally.

Protecting Communities, Gun Rights

Criminals, by definition, ignore the law. They overwhelmingly obtain firearms through illegal means including theft and the black market.

Legislation to confiscate or limit lawful ownership of firearms doesn’t decrease crime. It does, however, make innocent law-abiding citizens more vulnerable.

We need to equip law enforcement officers with the tools they need to do their job to protect our communities and families while also ensuring the rights of U.S citizens are protected. That’s why the National Shooting Sports Foundation supports the Federal Firearms Licensee Protection Act, which would increase penalties for those who steal and rob firearms from licensed firearms retailers.

The firearms industry supports President Trump in this fight and we are working for Real Solutions that keep our communities and law enforcement officers safe from violent criminals. What gun control proponents want are band-aid solutions that cover up the problem rather than face head-on the challenge of balancing genuine solutions while respecting the constitutional rights of gun owners.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel at National Shooting Sports Foundation.

51 COMMENTS

    • And that naive belief us what always leads socialist of all stripes to embrace totalitarianism when the majority of the people they govern refuse to buy into their political agendas. Progressives love police state for just this reason. It’s also why progressives are so terrified of having a well armed citizenry. It’s hard to run a police state when private citizens are as well armed as the cops . . .

  1. Gun control laws are very effective at obtaining their purpose: wearing down the “gun community”. Arguing about effectiveness in preventing crime is preaching solely to the “choir”. Besides, no one can prove how many crimes were/are deterred by any law. Using our logic about the utility in crime prevention, one could make the case that all criminal laws are ineffective, because “crime”.

    The anti-gunners promote gun control as a crime reduction/prevention measure, but few are deceived about the real intent: feeling safer in places “good people” like to go.

    The pro-2A supporters like to talk about guns and crime, but the anti-gunners are only concerned about 93million “good people” being killed every day*. We should take note that the anti-gun mafia ignores the high crime neighborhoods entirely.

    No matter how many voices proclaim that the real “gun problem” is illegal ownership by criminals, the anti-gun mob deflects right into the nice neighborhoods where a “mass shooting” took place. Ever wonder why they do that? Ever wonder why it is an effective argument?

    *Virginia Governor, June 2017

    • Quoting Sam: Arguing about effectiveness in preventing crime is preaching solely to the “choir”.

      This is true, and a waste of time and effort. The left has no concern about preventing crime, just look at the open door philosophy justice system in Chiraq. Arrest tonight, turn loose tomorrow.

      Their goal is a total take over of the US government and ignoring the Constitution. Armed citizens stand in the way of their goal so they must eliminate that obstacle, hence their “common sense gun laws”.

      Quit hollering about it, we agree with you and the left doesn’t hear.

      Get up, get out and elect real conservatives to every political position from dog catcher to President. Turn out the vote or we will surely lose everything.

    • If criminals obeyed laws there would be no criminals. When I was younger there were bumper stickers and billboards proclaiming, “If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have them.”

      • We are proud to proclaim that gun owners are the most law-abdingest people in the nation. Make guns illegal, then what are we?

        I understand the sentiment behind, “Will Not Comply”, but that just seems to identify future criminals. Really amazed the anti-gunners have not yet tried to shove that mantra up our noses.

        • The problem with calling everyone racist is it devalues the word. 40% of America are Nazis? Must not be that dangerous.

          Similarly, if a failure to give up guns during an unconstitutional law makes millions of Americans into felons, then being a felon is less serious.

          Besides devaluing terms like criminal and felon… the Left can only make that argument without the implication that they are indeed wanting to outlaw and confiscate firearms, a Beto level mistake

          • “Similarly, if a failure to give up guns during an unconstitutional law makes millions of Americans into felons, then being a felon is less serious.”

            Less “serious” for whom? The impact of the law remains for those arrested and charged. If non-compliance would mean felonies are less serious for the general pop, that should mitigate any reluctance by anti-gunners and leftists to make even the most trivial of infractions a felony.

        • “Less serious for whom”. The answer is less serious for everyone. The more things you label as a wolf, the fewer people care when they hear a wolf is coming for the sheep.

          I’ll give you another example besides the vast overuse of the word racist. Pew Research says 95% of news about Trump is negative and that’s after you add outlets like Fox. This tells me that stations like CNN run basically 100% negative news about Trump. So tell me, if CNN hasn’t convinced me that Trump is worse than Hitler by now (note, they actually said Trump has killed more people than Hitler, Mao, and Stalin put together), then how are they going to run a negative story that actually changes my mind?

          Similarly, if every gun owner who doesn’t comply and turn over their guns is labelled as a domestic terrorist, told that they are felons, and presented as a threat to society…. then how will the general population react to those negative words when we have an ACTUAL domestic terrorist after the POT are still otherwise law abiding citizens who don’t run around murdering people.

          The more people you include in your insults, mean words, and legal labels, the less impact those things have.

        • Let me try to rephrase this a bit. I tend to have run on sentences. If a felon is presented as the most dangerous type of person and includes less than 1% of the population, my inclination is that an actual felon is going to be among the worst of the worst. Now, let’s say that we expand that to mean 10 or 20 or even 30% of the population. Now it has about as much meaning as someone who speeds. That’s not a threat to society, it’s the norm

          • “Now, let’s say that we expand that to mean 10 or 20 or even 30% of the population. Now it has about as much meaning as someone who speeds.”

            Being a felon, and being called a felon are quite different things. If all gun owners decide to not turn-in their firearms, they would eventually be described as felons (even though no one knows who they are). Anyone actually tried and convicted of non-compliance would be an actual felon, with actual adverse consequences.

            If the idea is that a general claim by society that non-compliance is producing unconvicted “felons, and that claim will just become ho-hum…well, maybe. But to what result? If something becomes so “common” that no one pays attention, then open carry everywhere should do the trick.

            The anti-gun gang is not going to back down just because name-calling becomes “common”. In fact, calling a large portion of the populace “felons” only serves to prove there is a great danger posed by now illegal gun owners.

        • I don’t think you’re understanding me. I don’t know if you’re intentionally ignoring my point or if I’m just not good at presenting it.

          You picture a time when gun owners are legally required to turn in their guns and non compliance is caught onsie twosie at a time and their lives are ruined. I picture a time when non compliance is met with door to door searches and our legal system has to charge, arrest, and convict some 20% or so of the total population and treat them the same as rapists and murderers.

          The cats out of the bag. Treating someone who owns an AR the same as every other felon is going to go over about like treating a marijuana user the same as a meth dealer, or treating someone who believes in border security the same as a KKK member.

          What you picture will never come to pass. And your supposition that Democrats are going to treat the phrase “come and get it” as proof that gun owners won’t comply with bans is the same as admitting that Democrats want to ban and confiscate. Something MOST Dems aren’t willing to do just yet.

          • ” I don’t know if you’re intentionally ignoring my point or if I’m just not good at presenting it.”

            We may be having different conversations with each other.

            Once a total confiscation law is passed, non-complying gun owners go from “some of the most law-abiding people”, to “felon”, instantly. Gun owners become among the most law breaking people. This new status will be used unceasingly to further shame and make pariahs of gun owners, sparking more, even worse laws for those eventually “caught” with guns. As such, “felon” does not lose its sting, and is not the same as “crying wolf”, because there will actually be a “wolf”. Having tens of millions of people labeled “felon” will not somehow work to make actual “felons”, or non-complying gun owners seem less threatening.

            As an aside, I am not one who envisions SWAT teams kicking-in doors. I see the ever-tightening noose that will make it pointless to own firearms. And there never will be a great uprising to throw off a tyrannical government.

  2. As the Right To Keep And Bear Arms is God given,the government/State has no right/business to infringe upon a right out of their hands and above their pay grade,Shall Not Be Infringed. Arbitrary Gun Control Laws Do Nothing About Crime…And Never will,as it’s not about crime and never was,it’s about Control.

    • Makes perfect sense that ‘God given rights’ would be completely ignored by a party that has not only openly and vehemently denied the existence of God, but has worked tirelessly to remove any trace of His moral values from our society.

  3. If you had to choose between being the relief toilet at a hot dog eating contest or being Donald Trump, what brand of toilet would you choose to be?

    • Oh look, it’s a baby troll, just learning how to walk.

      Nice try, but you clearly don’t have much practice at this yet. It’s a gun site, not an anti-Trump site, so if you want to stir up the pot you need to rehearse more. Note how nobody is yelling back at you? It’s because you don’t know how to play the “troll game” yet.

      If you want a response, say something people will get riled up about, or at least want to have fun yelling at you for.

    • Hey, I see that your Trump derangement syndrome is still acting up, huh?
      What’s with all that name changing? We will recognize your idiotic style anywhere.

    • Why do you think “being Donald Trump” would be considered undesirable?
      C’mon, he even has his own perfume!

  4. , since humans seem to be unable to stop crime and criminals it would make sense ito eliminate the things the criminals crime for.. robbing the liiquor store,, burn it , no more robbing that liquor store

    • “since humans seem to be unable to stop crime and criminals it would make sense ito eliminate the things the criminals crime for.. robbing the liiquor store,, burn it , no more robbing that liquor store”

      More effective: eliminate all laws; no laws, no crime.

  5. It’s not about crime. It’s not about guns. It’s about control. Just like every democratic party effort it’s about control. Disenfranchise & denegrate a minority or perceived minority to garner support for your quest for control. Armed free citizens are a stubborn foe to those who wish to dominate the people, or us. Just saying. Leave me alone

    • Make no mistake, to achieve full control, leftists know that they need to disarm us first. So it is also about guns as a necessary step in the way towards socialism.

  6. The people who don’t follow current gun laws have proven that they don’t follow any laws and have no respect for society or any norms because they will rat each other out to save themselves.

  7. Chicago is the primary example of a self perpetuating societal norm of decay. Every level from gov, justice, LE, commercial sector, education, criminals to the populace all have entrenched themselves in the chain. Each link has the power to make and or force change to improve their society but they don’t.

    • Why don’t they want to change things for the better?

      Because some like things just the way they are and others are fearful of anything different.

      • Re: “Why don’t they want to change things for the better?”

        Follow the money. Politicians of either stripe like more government control so they get their skim from favored constituencies. Happens on both sides of the aisle, although it seems to happen more in D-controlled cities.

  8. Criminals, by definition, ignore the law.

    Is that why you showed a picture of the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department who was recently found drunk and passed out in his car in the road?

    Well, at least he wasn’t found drunk and shooting out street lights like his predecessor.

  9. Missed the point entirely. Gun control laws would not be “as bad” if they actually did “nothing” about crime.

    But that is hardly the case. Gun control laws very greatly affect crime: They ENABLE crime.

    And worse than that, they are DESIGNED to fail, so that their failure can justify even MORE gun control laws until they’ve finally convinced that critical mass of people that we shouldn’t have guns in the hands of the law-abiding at all.

    It’s a diabolical plan, and it’s still working.

  10. Gun control of any kind, by it’s nature, will never affect criminals. It’s simply to control the honest citizens. I’ve talked to hundreds of convicts. They are all in favor of gun control. They are more afraid of armed citizens than they are of police simply because they know police are armed, but don’t know if their victims are armed. Any politician who supports gun control needs to be replaced.
    Now onto another matter. I’m not very computer savvy. I just realized for the past month or two, I haven’t received a single TTAG blog. I just learned all TTAG articles have been sent to my spam folder or sent to trash w/o my knowledge or consent. Anyone know how I can remedy this?

    • “Gun control of any kind, by it’s nature, will never affect criminals. ”
      – Not supposed to. It is designed to make people feel good about themselves.

      “Anyone know how I can remedy this?” (TTAG in Spam folder)
      I look at least once a day, then mark TTAG not spam. It may be possible in your email account to create a “rule” for where TTAG articles are to be directed.

      • Marty, I also stopped receiving the “blog” in July, I then just made a “favorites” entry in another browser and use that to connect with TTAG. ……….pm

    • Also, add the email address of TTAG in those notifications you find in spam/trash to your contact list.

  11. Lock him up! F&#K that criminal Trump! Dirty business man turned dirty politician. When will the Republicans get their shit together?

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