For a while now, the boogieman anti-gunners have been pushing to restrict are so-called assault weapons. They don't like the way they look, the fact that they appear to be military weapons, and there is the more legitimate fact that many mass killers have also used them. They want them banned. So banned, in fact, that no one can get them, at least not without NFA paperwork.
But before that, the boogieman was handguns.
In fairness, handguns are used in the vast majority of so-called gun crimes and so-called gun violence incidents, but the anti-gunners have largely refocused, in part because handguns are the go-to weapon for people looking to defend themselves.
Yet an op-ed out of Texas, of all places, makes it clear that handguns aren't really off the agenda.
Over 47,000 people died from firearms in 2023, which is comparable to the total American deaths in Vietnam.
Nearly 60 percent of current firearm deaths are suicides. Firearms represent the leading cause of death among children and adolescents.
Rarely do we hear a call for thoughts and prayers or useful solutions to this preventable slaughter of our population.
Why are these tragedies not addressed? One reason is a 5-4 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia et al. v. Heller.
Of course, Heller reversed the District of Columbia's handgun ban, finding that not just is the Second Amendment an individual right, but that governments cannot ban firearms "in common use" for lawful purposes like self-defense, which is precisely what handguns are.
The author claims that this upset 200 years of precedence, but fails to mention any specific cases that somehow made it clear that banning entire categories of firearms was acceptable over those 200 years. That's probably because there's literally none. The Miller case is the closest, where the Supreme Court argued that a sawed-off shotgun had no militia use, and thus was bannable, but handguns most clearly would have such a use. So I fail to see where this precedence is.
Then he makes the whole militia argument that I debunked on Wednesday.
We then get to this:
Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent emphasized the necessity of protecting the populace against a rising wave of gun violence.
Moreover, the right of self-defense, while having a basis in common law, is not protected in the Constitution.
He argued a free state must have the right to protect the people against unrestricted gun violence.
Now, the right of self-defense is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but neither are things like the right to privacy, the separation of church and state, and a host of other things your average anti-gunner absolutely loves and will argue in defense of until they're blue in the face.
Don't try to say it's not protected simply because it's not specifically mentioned.
The author wraps up with this:
Ideally, handguns, also, should be carefully regulated. Regulation should limit availability, require training and justification for ownership.
We need a return to the sensible rules that made us safer.
I find it funny that the author has already counted suicides in his statistics as to why handguns are so dangerous, yet lawful gun owners who navigate whatever draconian rules this guy wants would still be able to use those to take their own lives. It seems that suicides are only pertinent when they can be leveraged to make a case for gun control. After that, they don't matter all that much.
However, let's also note that since Bruen, we've seen violent crime plummet. More guns on our streets, or even the perception of more guns on our streets, are sending the cockroaches scurrying for safer methods of crime. The bad guys are afraid of good guys with guns taking them out when they pop up out of the holes they live in.
Gun control didn't do that. The loosening of gun control laws, despite attempts at carry-killer laws in some states, is what started pushing the violent crime rate down.
Screeching that a Supreme Court decision nearly two decades old didn't go like you wanted isn't going to accomplish anything, other than give me a chance to make fun of you.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
Help us continue to report the truth about the Schumer Shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member