Over the last 18 months, Americans have taken their safety into their own hands, millions of them for the first time. The nationwide riots following the death of George Floyd, in conjunction with the pandemic, had more people asking how they can protect themselves and their loved ones.
Concerned Americans began purchasing firearms, which resulted in record numbers of new gun owners. Ammo remains scarce. And gun control advocates are pushing ahead full steam ahead.
When President Joe Biden was sworn into office, red states and cities began taking up a number of pro-gun bills – including Second Amendment sanctuaries and constitutional carry – trying to further the left’s radical gun control agenda.
But that hasn’t worked out very well so far. Constitutional carry is now legal in 21 states, with five states passing permitless carry laws so far this year.
That progress is thanks to a handful of pro-Second Amendment organizations, like the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Gun Owners of America (GOA), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), the National Rifle Association (NRA), as well as a host of state-based groups.
But none of those other gun rights orgs seem to matter much. The way the media see it, everything that happens with regard to firearms is either because (or in spite) of the NRA.
According to Bloomberg, the only reason the permitless carry push has been so successful is because the NRA is attempting to recover from their failed bankruptcy filing:
For the NRA, the state wins come at a time when its very existence is in doubt. Its revenue and program spending were down last year, and a federal judge rejected its bid to go through bankruptcy reorganization as part of a complex plan to move its charter to Texas. That’s left the group to defend itself against a fraud lawsuit in New York, where the nonprofit is chartered, and where Attorney General Letitia James is pushing to dissolve it.
But all that is a distant tempest to many of the NRA’s reported 5 million rank-and-file members, including those in Kansas’ Air Capital Gun Club. A few dozen of them assembled for breakfast at Spear’s Restaurant & Pie Shop in Wichita one Saturday in July and ran through an agenda that included marksmanship contest results, club finances, and a request from the Shriners to hold an event at their firing range. Asked by a reporter what he made of the NRA’s legal battles, a member responded with a puzzled shrug.
“There’s a feeling that there’s a constitutional right to have a firearm and there shouldn’t be a financial burden attached to it”
The argument doesn’t make make much sense. Constitutional carry is hardly a new phenomenon. It’s been around since 1903. Vermont was the first state to enact this type of legislation, originally dubbed “Vermont carry.” It took 20 other states a little more than 100 years to follow their lead, but it’s getting done, and in a big way.
State legislatures are taking up the idea of constitutional carry for a number of reasons, the biggest one being the seemingly “radical” idea that Americans shouldn’t have to ask the government for permission to utilize a right established in the Constitution. Their constituents, especially in red flyover states, have legitimate concerns about the federal government’s rejuvenated gun control agenda.
Democrats are trying to inch closer and closer to de facto gun registries that we all know can – and will – be utilized to facilitate confiscation one day. Biden’s fixation on “ghost guns” and wanting every single part of a kit serialized means the government can get a better picture of who owns what.
Have a home made firearm, but need a trigger replaced down the road? The government will know about it — or can — especially if it’s serialized and you have to go through an FFL to obtain it. Owning a firearm without the government’s knowledge, shy of breaking federal laws, would be a thing of the past, which sets the stage for eventual confiscation.
If you have a concealed carry permit, the government already knows that you own and carry a firearm. The same is true for new purchases (and, in some states, private transfers). Put all of that information together and what do you have? The makings of a registry.
Constitutional carry has everything to do with freedom, safety, and security, not to mention lowering the barriers to legally carrying a firearm. While Bloomberg-backed news outlets and gun control groups will attempt to make this al about the NRA, they fail to see the bigger picture, including the impact on average Americans’ lives.