Florida Democrats Want A Ban On Home-Built Firearms

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File

While last week’s elections have provided Democrats with plenty of evidence that the party’s full-tilt sprint to the Left isn’t playing well with voters, so far there doesn’t seem to be much public desire from party officials to rethink their positions on topics like gun control. As POLITICO’s David Siders reported a few days ago, Democrats are busy pointing fingers, but they seem less inclined to listen to what voters are telling them.

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In the days following Terry McAuliffe’s defeat in Virginia and Gov. Phil Murphy’s scare in New Jersey, progressive Democrats cast blame on moderates, and vice versa. Vice President Kamala Harris touted the party’s “great wins” outside Virginia, though it’s difficult to find many. President Joe Biden, despite his sagging public approval ratings, refrained from taking responsibility, though he said “we have to just produce results” for voters. When they did produce legislation, passing an infrastructure bill on Friday night, it was only after what Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) called a “clusterfuck.

“I would love to be able to tell you that I think we are going to do something different,” said Doug Rubin, a Democratic strategist who was a chief of staff to former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. “But I’m skeptical based on the past … We’ve seen these things happen before and, unfortunately, we default back to the way we always do things.”

When it comes to the Second Amendment, the way Democrats do things is by trying to restrict the right to keep and bear arms, and so far we haven’t seen any evidence that the Left’s Election Day debacle has led to any second thoughts about trying to win elections by calling for restrictions on a civil right. In fact, we’ve actually seen the opposite reaction, with Democrats doubling down on their gun-banning ideology. Case in point; two Florida lawmakers who are pushing to criminalize home-built firearms.

Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky of Parkland and Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky of Boca Raton filed twin bills (HB 527 and SB 872) Monday to prohibit the sale of undetectable or untraceable firearms known as “ghost guns.” Such guns are built — sometimes using 3D printers — with unfinished frames or receivers, the serialized piece of a pistol or rifle containing the operating parts of the firing mechanism regulated under federal law.

… Hunschofsky told Florida Politics the legislation originated in her office, and she was glad Polsky agreed to carry it in the Senate.

“This was the language we came up with, seeing what was working in other states,” she said. “We tried to work along the lines of what would help move the legislation along and conform it to what was going on in the other states.”

“With little support from the other side of the aisle, it’s incredibly hard” to pass any gun legislation, Polsky said.

“The Republican refrain is, ‘Let’s just enforce the laws that we have and we wouldn’t have problems,’” she said. “Ten, 20 years ago, there was no such thing as ghost guns that were assembled, purchased on the internet or … at a gun show or something with no background checks. These guns weren’t contemplated in the current laws.”

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While it’s true that 3D-printed firearms in particular have come a long way in the past decade, it’s simply false for Polsky to claim that home-built guns are a new and ominous development. People have been making their own firearms since before the U.S. was even a country, and while the technology has certainly advanced, that doesn’t mean that are rights should be correspondingly restricted. The way we communicate with each other is much different than it was in 1787 or 1791, but few people are seriously arguing that our First Amendment rights should be curtailed as a result.

Well, actually now that I think about there are those who would like to restrict the opinions of others from being widely disseminated. And just like with the gun control movement, I’d say the engine driving the war on free speech is the Democratic Party.

Unless Florida Republicans are ready to commit an act of political hari-kari in an election year, I don’t see the Democrats’ ban on home-built firearms going anywhere, at least at the state level. But the Biden administration is still quietly working to put its own regulations on so-called “ghost guns”, which means that even if there are Democrats savvy enough to avoid talking about banning guns on the campaign trail next year, their party’s leaders aren’t going to let them off that easy.

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