Given his stated support for red flag laws and “strong background checks,” many who support gun rights are getting understandably nervous that the President will go wobbly on gun control, striking a deal with Congressional Democrats.
It should be plain to him and anyone else who’s paying attention that if he does, he won’t get any credit from his political opposition for any ground given. Instead, caving in would only embolden the civilian disarmament industrial complex to press for still more.
Prominent voices are warning Trump that if he gives in to calls for even more restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms, he’ll suffer the same fate as George Bush I after violating his “read my lips” pledge. We can only hope that the President and his advisors are paying attention.
We know from experience that when Congress, state legislatures, or city councils react quickly and emotionally to devastating events, such laws usually bring tremendous negative consequences, sometimes totally undermining their stated purpose.
Many of the post-9/11 laws were overreaches that didn’t enhance national security. After a mass shooting in San Francisco in 1994, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (a former San Fran mayor) introduced an “assault weapons” ban. The bill was based on nothing, and during its ten years as law it did nothing to reduce gun violence.
Democrats are pushing again for more gun controls, and we can expect them to be just as ineffectual, while also trampling on the natural right to self-defense and the constitutional right to bear arms.
“Assault weapon” bans are foolish because they usually regulate guns according to their appearance, a cosmetic matter. Under the 1994 law, a legal pistol could become an illegal “assault weapon” if it was capable of being fitted with a flash suppressor.
The phrase “assault weapon” is intended to draw a distinction between weapons used for sport or self-defense on one hand, and those used for assault. But almost every potential assault weapon is already a highly valued defense weapon. The much-reviled AR-15 is the most popular gun in America. The millions of AR-15s in the U.S. are not owned in significant numbers by future shooters or by drug gangs, but overwhelmingly by law-abiding people who wish to defend their families or hunt large game.
– Washington Examiner editorial, Don’t do ‘anything’ about gun violence