By Theresa Inacker
“Two weeks to flatten the curve.” This ubiquitous phrase has turned out to be quite possibly, the biggest ongoing lie our government has ever told. Two weeks to flatten the curve has become 160+ days of government lockdown in the blue gun control state of New Jersey.
What does this all mean for firearm owners? Experienced gun owners and newbies alike would do well to pay attention.
This continuous lockdown has become the government’s biggest “tell.” We have seen how similar decisions will be made and enforced in the future. And the government has seen how easily people have complied, and how the courts have failed to intervene against government overreach. This ups the ante for gun owners.
Are gun owners ever to believe that the next gun control measure put into place will be the final one? Biden and Harris are calling for the mandatory “buyback” of AR-15’s and other “assault weapons.” Are we to believe that’s where it ends? Of course not. It will never end.
Some of us have always understood that gun control is incremental, starting with magazine capacity limits and “save storage” mandates, onward to the ultimate leftist goal of complete civilian disarmament. For those of you who didn’t quite subscribe to that before the Covid-19 lockdowns, what do you say now?
One thing the government’s response to the pandemic has proven, is that it cannot be trusted at its word.
Governments in gun control states like New Jersey have continued to keep the lockdown in which indoor restaurants are verboten, completely closed since March, despite the fact that deaths from Covid-19 have dropped to about two per day (10 deaths over five days).
🔶COVID-19 UPDATE🔶 Today we are reporting 313 new cases, 188,817 total and 13 new deaths for a statewide total of 14,112.
🔸Of 13 deaths, 10 occurred across the previous 5 days
🔸414 hospitalizations – 221 COVID-19 positive ,193 PUI
🔸61 in critical care, 49% on ventilators pic.twitter.com/8ob4in8zPz— NJDOH (@NJDeptofHealth) August 21, 2020
When pressed for what basis is used to justify maintaining the lockdown, when asked for any scientific evidence, facts or reasoning, New Jersey Governor Murphy merely calls his subjects “knuckleheads” and tells them to move if they don’t like it.
Knucklehead [nuhk-uhl-hed]: A stupid, bumbling, inept person.
Example: A person exhibiting aggressive or willfully bad behavior that undermines public health is a knucklehead. pic.twitter.com/vijJxi150f
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 4, 2020
This reminds me of the arbitrary numbers chosen for rounds that are “allowed” in magazines. New Jersey dropped the limit from a 15 to 10 rounds in 2018 with absolutely no evidence that the 11th through 15th rounds were contributing to or worsening crime in any way. But we know that a factual basis — or any evidence — isn’t necessary when a tyrant wants his will enforced.
How many rounds are too many? What evidence is there to support that 11th round represents the deadly turning point? Doesn’t the 11th child matter when gun-grabbers waive the bloody shirt after a mass murder?
This is what gun owners need to know. If we do not elect politicians who support civilian gun ownership, we will be faced with a Hobson’s choice: give up our guns and become defenseless and less free, or become an outlaw who is prepared to defend that choice. Our votes have consequences. In turn, we will be faced with dire consequences ourselves.
Politicians have become emboldened by abusing executive powers, bypassing the legislative process using Covid as an excuse to achieve their political objectives. This threat is not limited to New Jersey. As a reward for his handling of the tyrannical lockdown — New Jersey has achieved the highest coronavirus death rate in the nation — Governor Murphy was asked to be co-chair of the Democrat National Convention. It seems they really like what he’s done.
This has set a dangerous precedent as far as the overreach of power is concerned. But it has also shown gun owners the trajectory. Choose wisely.
Theresa Inacker, an attorney and Second Amendment advocate, is a member of the US Supreme Court bar, the New Jersey delegate to The DC Project, and serves as the Communications Director for the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners.