Sen Chuck Schumer has never remotely tried to pass himself off as a supporter of the Second Amendment. In fact, I’m not even sure he’s familiar with the fact we have a constitution at all. He may have mentioned it a time or two, but I’ve never really seen much evidence that he actually knows definitively what’s in it or even that it’s anything more than a figure of speech.

No, Schumer is an opponent of gun rights.

As an opinion of the right to keep and bear arms, though, I don’t suppose anyone should be surprised that he’s called for this:

Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday pushed the federal government to give New York at least $1.5 billion to help get illegal guns off the streets.

The Democrat Senate majority leader said the new Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns, spearheaded by Gov. Kathy Hochul, will only work if the feds and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has the resources to “choke off crime.”

“The ABCs of beating back the scourge of gun violence depends on three federal letters: A, T and F,” he said at a press conference in Manhattan.

The task force with representation from more than 50 groups across New York and neighboring states was announced last Sunday, a day after two NYPD officers were shot with a stolen firearm and later died. The goal, politicians have said, is to take on gun trafficking and traffickers by jamming the pipeline, and the group will focus resources on data-sharing, crime gun tracing and intel gathering.

It should be noted that the ATF’s entire 2020 budget was only $1.4 billion.

So, in essence, it sounds like Schumer wants to double the ATF’s budget because New York has a “gun problem.” I’m sorry, but how is that the problem of the rest of the nation?

While it seems most cities are seeing an increase in violent crime, Schumer only seems to really care about what’s going on in New York. Granted, he’s from there and represents the state, so I expect a certain degree of bias there, but the problem is that he’s wanting to more or less double the ATF’s budget to take care of an issue that really only seems to impact his state.

Granted, at least some of that money will fund state and local law enforcement involved in this task force, but it’s still a whole lot of money being thrown around here.

Especially since catching people trafficking guns is ridiculously difficult until they try to sell them.

Besides, it would be a better use of that $1.5 billion to look into and address the root causes of violent crime. If you eliminate the demand for trafficked weapons, you eliminate anyone wanting to traffic weapons. The Law of Supply and Demand doesn’t just apply to lawful commerce, after all.

The problem for Schumer is that if the money went there, it would actually work, then his years of anti-Second Amendment rhetoric would be proven to be wrong. Do you know any politician who would willingly allow such a thing?

Of course, this is just Schumer talking. He can’t get this passed on his own and considering the makeup of the Senate, I double he can get this passed at all. Especially since it’s really a regional bill.

It doesn’t mean he won’t try, though.