As the gun debate’s presence in the national media and social media has grown over the past several years, it has become increasingly clear that many of the prominent lawmakers calling for increased gun control are either unwilling or unable to do their homework on what laws and regulations already exist.
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, despite having served as a prosecutor, recently revealed herself to be one of the least informed candidates running for the Democratic nomination.
The Lie
At a presidential campaign rally in New Hampshire, Sen. Harris told the crowd that if elected to office she would use executive orders to “pause imports of ‘AR-15 style’ firearms until the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can analyze whether the ban should be permanent.”
While this may have gotten rousing applause from those in the crowd, the reality is that this proposal is just as misleading as suggesting that rifle owners often attach chainsaw bayonets to their firearms. The truth, however, is that the ATF already strictly regulates what types of firearms, especially rifles, can be imported into the United States.
The Regulation
In order to qualify for importation, a rifle must have “generally recognized sporting features… such as single shot, a lever action, or a bolt action.” More specifically, a rifle featuring “non-sporting” characteristics such as pistol grips, folding stocks, suppressors or threaded barrels designed to fit suppressors, and night vision scopes has been illegal to import since 1989.
While many of these features are a frequent sight on the more than 16 million modern sporting rifles in lawful private ownership in the United States, that is because they were produced domestically and not subject to the same regulation. Sen. Harris seems determined to ignore these important details and is instead focused on beating all other Democratic presidential candidates in the race to the ideological left by banning firearms that the ATF already bars from import.
While we do not agree with this ATF policy because modern sporting rifles are in fact used for sporting purposes like target shooting and hunting, it is has been thus for 30 years.
She Didn’t Stop There
In the same rally, Sen. Harris went on to say that “one in four police officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire is killed by an assault weapon.” This stat, however, fails to paint an accurate portrait of the threats facing law enforcement.
Over the course of the past 10 years, 21 percent of law enforcement officers (LEOs) were killed by a rifle but this figure has been trending down since 2016. From 2016 to 2017, the percentage LEOs who died with rifles fell a dramatic 15 percent and, in 2018, was 18 percent, the lowest percentage since 2012.
Though we are only five months into 2019, firearm related deaths of LEOs so far this year are a third fewer than what they were at this very time last year. Out of those, only 7 percent have been perpetrated with a rifle.
Moreover, data also shows that criminals with handguns, not rifles, are the No. 1 threat to LEOs by a significant margin. Over the same period of the last 10 years, handguns contributed to a stunning 66 percent of LEOs killed feloniously. Here as well, the Senator is making an apples-to-oranges comparison.
More clearly, she’s conflating lawful firearms ownership with that of criminal possession. The Department of Justice released a report earlier this year that noted nearly 90 percent of criminals using guns in their crimes stole it or obtained it illegally.
Whether she was simply misinformed or willfully uninformed, Sen. Harris’ talking points about the laws surrounding Americans’ Second Amendment rights don’t reflect reality and only seek to further mislead the public on this incredibly important issue.
If we hope to preserve our right to protect ourselves and our families, it is imperative we hold elected officials accountable and ensure that the truth is not buried under presidential campaign rhetoric.
Larry Keane is Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs and General Counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association.
Some fringe self-defeating gun owners:
“Trump sucks, Trump sucks”
OK so do you want Harris or Booker? Or do you prefer you have “no right” to a firearm Biden”
Response: “Bbbut bump stocks…”
The Boomers would. They no doubt figure they can flip some of their mags for $100 a pop under a new ban. To them the Clinton AWB was the good ol days. Whatever keeps them flush in secure under garments and their 1960’s car/motorcycle/boat waxed and shiny. Throw every other generation under the bus because why not they only have 15 or so years left to milk it.
What did future generations ever do for you?;-)
Vic, more to the point is: What is Shire going to do for future generations? Will he start the revolution? 10-15 years left? What do we have to loose? Besides, we have real rifles and know how to shoot. Not mag dump.
Shire. One fine morning you’re going to wake up to some snot nose punk ragging on you and your generation for ruining everything.
Think of me when the light finally pops on above your head. Until then you can keep chanting the mantra of the triggered entitled, ‘ I didn’t ask to be born.’
Have nice day.
Agree.
I actually agree with the old fool on this. We tend to blame the older generations for falling for tricks while we fall for the next set of tricks.
They’re the same tricks. There are minor variations but they’re basically all the same. Hucksters always need a new, uninitiated, crowd on which to ply a questionable trade.
Studying how people function leads to the ability to manipulate people for good or for ill. We tend to discount the good while focusing on the ill because we often don’t realize the former has happened. Grease, cylindrical objects and whatnot.
“When you do things right people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all”, while not always true, is actually a surprisingly ingenious statement about how we work as a species. Especially surprising to many people considering that it comes from a cartoon.
You sound like you feel the way I did 35 years ago, when I had to take out a 11.5% mortgage, and people 15 years older than me were sitting on 3% mortgages, buying RV’s and boats, and people 15 years older than that were taking early retirements off their defined benefit pensions. There will always be something to bitch about.
Some fringe self-defeating gun owners:
“Trump sucks, Trump sucks”
OK so do you want Harris or Booker? Or do you prefer you have “no right” to a firearm Biden”
Response: “Bbbut bump stocks…”
EXACTAMUNDO! Now if you can only get the trolls on these forums to see the light you may be next in line for POTUS. Maybe.
if it sounds good…say it…they won’t know the difference…and fact-checking not required
I live in California, so I’ve been following her career for years. The only thing she’s actually competent at is campaigning, but she’s pretty damn good at it (and it helps that she has the scruples of Tammany Hall). She’s basically been a disaster whenever she need to actually perform the duties of her current office. She gets around that by simply campaigning for higher office instead of doing the job she just landed. I’m not even sure what she would do if elected POTUS,because there would be no other electoral race to hide behind.
I worked for a large company and when we heard of someone getting promoted, the universal comment was ” looks like so and so must have screwed up “.
there’s something disturbingly “hilliarylike” about her…a total phony…..
It’s the voice.
Every sentence has a cadence and grating quality like she is scolding you.
Were as Clinton had the cackle every paragraph or so, Kamala-toe Harris has an annoying voice every sentence.
As usual the Left just keeps getting worse.
Is “Tone” more important than “Content”?
It is OK to talk shit as long it sounds harmonious and melodic?
And you vote?
Fvck you.
Like a dumb azz you snipe at your own side.
at least Tammany Hall politicians tried to do things for the people that voted for them
It seems like that is the career path for most politicians. As soon as you get the new mayor then their name gets dropped as a potential Presidential Candidate before they did anything. Even Trump starts talking re-election after 10 months in office. The first year: Point Fingers. The second year: Claim Success.
Third and fourth year: Campaigning for re-election. When will he actually do something great.
VP at best. If Joe thinks her hair smells good that is and she doesn’t mind a should rub real close.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-G1VGJBWcU&t=105s
Here is Kamala Harris back in June of 2008 discussing the recent Heller decision by the Supreme Court. At that time she was I believe district attorney of San Francisco. She mentions how this will impact public safety in San Francisco and how the NRA will use this to threaten lives across the country. Gavin Newsom who was mayor of San Francisco was there as well who is now Gov of CA.
She was a complete nut job then and is still nut job today…
Strong words from someone who never would have been made California AG if she hadn’t been schtupping Willie Brown.
The California Attorney General is a four year elected official not an assigned position. She became Attorney General because she won an ELECTION.
Willy doesn’t have that kind of influence on the voters.
Notice how she talks down to the audience.
Every phrase…
Has a pause after it…
So the slower people in the room…
Can understand what’s said…
And know…
That she has their safety in mind…
It makes no difference…
If their safety is actually…
Achieved…
It’s the intent that counts.
Harris is NOT ill-informed, she is well aware of all these facts. She is a gun grabber, California style. She is the worst type of gun grabber, she knows about them and wants to ban people from owning them. She is one that is targeting all semi auto rifles(then handguns), claiming they are “assault weapons”.
People like her want to blame the industry, blame everything else, just do not blame the person doing the crime. These people want to control our lives, lying to us that we are safer without personal protection.
Personal responsibility is part of being an adult. Sadly, many young adults are still childlike. This is not a reason to limit gun ownership, it is a reason to teach responsibility.
Beat me to it. She is smart enough to be well informed, but sufficiently lacking in scruples to lie when it serves here purpose. She “certified” that the technology to build semiautomatic hand guns with a microstampinig capability was “generally available” notwithstanding that the technology upon which she made that statement was still experimental and had never been tested in mass marketed handguns. The only reason that it was “generally available” was that she conspired with the inventor to waive the patent. The result was an ever diminishing pool of semiautomatic handguns available for legal purchase in California. The law was introduced and sold as a “crime fighting” bill as it would allow police to “trace” firearms used at a crime scene by the “unique identifier” that would be imprinted on spent casings from semiauto pistols. Instead she used it as a way to progressively ban pistols from the State. And it is working. No one knows exactly how many different guns are actually available, as the State counts each separate version of he same model hand gun as a separate firearm. So it would take someone going through the whole roster and deleting the duplicates and the revolvers in order to find out how many are left.
” sufficiently lacking in scruples ”
One could say that as she herself proved as she had no qualms of willingly being the receptacle for Willie Browns willie as her greatest claim to fame and getting where she wanted to be,there is another name for that.
Another name you say? …Hmmm, ‘Lying Whore’ comes to mind, is that what you meant?
Next I’ll bet they’ll say the AR15 was invented and imported to America by Putin, all of which was funded by Trump.
You mean they weren’t brought in by the KGB ? Oh my, it’s a conspiracy.. Eugene Stoner responsible for early development of the AR 15 rifle in 1954. Should we be looking into Russian inclusion. Hummmm, was he a Republican or DemoRat?
I might be going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that LEOs get shot with rifles far less than 21% of the time but that they’re far more lethal than handguns because not very many cops are wearing the kind of body armor that will stop a .308.
Yeah, I’m not so sure they’re out there wearing class IV body armor…even the tac teams are only wearing III/III+ and neither will stop a .308…
They will just not the AP that falls under level 4. Assuming ceramic for both.
But how many are getting shot with .308? I don’t think a lot of the gangstas are rocking M1s or AR-10s. I would bet 7.62×39, but not 7.62×51, AKs and the like roll deep in the hood. Would those vests stop that? I don’t know and I’m too lazy to look it up again.
A level IV plate will stop a 7.62×39…
Probably runs the gamut from 9mm carbines to .30-06 and up. It’s not just the gang bangers but the psychotic domestic abusers with grandpa’s .30-30, might be a couple of game wardens shot with hunting rifles. I’m thinking the soft armor they wear is up to .44 magnum (from a handgun). That should certainly stop a 9mm carbine but probably not 5.56 or 7.62×39. I’m to lazy to do a search as well though.
Yes, level IIIa will stop up to and including .44M, but it is NOT rifle rated, you have to move into a level III or higher for it to be rifle rated…level Iv will do up and including a .30-06AP, not that I’d ever want to be shot with that, but I know for a fact it will handle 7.62×39…trauma pads under the plates should be the order of the day, as they do lessen the impact felt…
“Ill-Informed Kamala Harris’s Race to the Anti-Gun Left”
Is she(are they) really “ill-informed”, OR do they just make shit up as they go along…???
It may a little of the former and a lot of the latter…
“Race to the anti-gun left”???
“Race to where she’s been sitting for years”?
She’s been a far left anti, at least as far back as taking the AG’s office in CA some years ago.
Harris has a snowballs chance in hell of becoming president. Accordingly, while she is a pesky bug on the wall that won’t stay in one place long enough to swat, I tend to ignore that twit.
“Harris has a snowballs chance in hell of becoming president.”
Yeah, about that –
The *exact* same thing was said about Trump.
She’s dangerous. Treat her with the same respect you would a rattlesnake…
I thought Trump had an excellent chance of becoming president. That’s when I realized how fu—ed up the mainstream media was. What I was seeing for myself and then watching what the media was saying didn’t add up. That was when I turned off fake news CNN and never watched it again.
Yes the twit is dangerous as is all those far left leaning folks. I do stand by my comment that she hasn’t a snowballs chance. Let’s just hope I’m right.
” Harris has a snowballs chance in hell of becoming president ”
Absolutely correct, at least for 2020. The fix is already in– Biden is the nominee.
You’ll laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHs7kRkVrFk
I think you misspelled “twit.”
I still think Kammy is kind of hot. Her dad is Mr. Harris you know.
Remember on Cecil and Beanie how Beanie had that little propeller on top of his head.
Why didn’t that thing ever spin around?
Guys, there is something many fail to understand. There is no changing their mind. Quit trying. Waste of time and effort. Concentrate on new recruits. The left is scared of numbers.
Especially the scarrrry, deadly measles numbers….right Gadsden?
Pg2, that was a childhood disease for me. Along with mumps and chicken pox. If I remember correctly rubella was more of a threat to the unborn than anyone else. We spend a lot of time, money and effort to make sure they’re born. Why not make sure they’re born healthy? When I joined the army they vaccinated me against the black plaque among other diseases I thought were eradicated. If you’re a member of the Flat Earth Society don’t bitch when you’re quarantined.
My dad was.
AOC for prez in 2024….kidding, but for amusement, if you haven’t seen mini AOC yet, search her on YouTube. Good stuff.
They’re not ill-informed. They know all these laws exist, especially someone like Kamala Harris, whose *job* was to know the law.
They’re lying for fun and profit through their fake-veneer teeth.
Unfortunately, she, as well as many others are simply enemies of the truth. Quite unfortunate.
If the world would finally wise-up and take narcissistic, would-be dictators at their word, the world might actually save itself a lot of trouble.
So true, but here we are with Trump, a spitting image to what you describe.
Off topic but what happened to the Question of the Day?
I have a good question. Is it counterintuitive to open carry a sub compact pistol.
I was eating out at Italian Oven for my wife’s birthday with her and her mother. A man one table over stood up and had a Smith & Wesson Shield on his hip.
I nudged my wife and gestured with my eyes toward the gun. She looked and said “that’s great!” I said no it isn’t. If you are going to open carry, carry a full size.
The shield is designed for concealment. You have just removed the most important advantage of a sub compact and ignored all the advantages of a full size gun.
She said I should not criticize a fellow gun carrier. My point is, once you join the armed citizenry, why not do what makes the most sense? Why limit capacity, accuracy, reliability, power for the ability to conceal and then open carry?
I would rather conceal a full size than open carry a sub compact.
Maybe its all the gun the man owns.
Doesn’t matter what he carries.
All that matters is that he is.
Then why didn’t he buy the full size version?
I was always taught that size doesn’t matter, it is all in how you use it.
Of course my teacher was a democrat.
Like almost all Libitards. What should she have any real knowledge of guns or actual laws.
She makes it up as she goes along.
Truth or fact doesn’t matter to a Dimwit.
Attacking “boomers”? What is a “boomer”. No mention if any LEOs were shot in self-defense. Harris is just like the rest in that they don’t give a damn about anyone’s safety obviously since a firearm aids in that condition. Wanting the ATF to approve of something they have no Right to do nor does the FBI as they have shown themselves to be anti-American.
Piss and moan to your representatives please, that is if they will take your call or read your letters…
My district’s house rep actually isn’t bad, but writing my senators just reduces their heating bill a bit……. or gets me blacklisted.
When Harris was DA in San Francisco she was notoriously soft on criminals. Though she did express the desire to send the police into gun owners homes to ensure their firearms were stored properly. She’s pure garbage and authoritarian to her core.
Why is it the folks with the shallowist grasp want the broadest, unilateral power n the most ham-handed non-solutions?
Oh, wait.
Nevermind.
Trying to reason with her supporters with facts is akin to trying to teach calculus to a Chihuahua. Both sides get frustrated, and one side barks a lot and urinates in public.
Does anybody recall who gave us the 1989 import ban of rifles “featuring “non-sporting” characteristics such as pistol grips, folding stocks, suppressors or threaded barrels designed to fit suppressors, and night vision scopes”?
Yes, it wasn’t any Democrat, it was G. H. W. Bush. By a executive order. Which can be overturned by another executive order by current President. But it won’t be. So, it’s not just bump stocks and unfulfilled promises about gun free zones.
This woman is where she is only because she was Willie Brown’s side-piece.
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