By Larry Keane
Memories are short in Washington, D.C. That is, at least, when it’s convenient for a presidential bid.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) visited New Hampshire voters last week, trying to make her mark in a crowded Democratic primary field. As a tactic, she decided to demonize firearms manufacturers. We’re not going to stay quiet.
Facts be damned. The junior senator from New York went full bore, leveling unfounded accusations, issuing factually nonsensical indictments and using the familiar buzz words of revisionist history that ring bells for those politicians seeking to burnish their gun-control bona fides with voters they can confuse.
And Now for Something Completely False
“Unfortunately, because the gun manufacturers only care about gun sales, they oppose the common sense reform that can save lives,” Sen. Gillibrand told her audience. “They want to oppose universal background checks because they want to sell an assault rifle to a teenager in a Walmart or to someone on a terror watch list or to someone who is gravely mentally ill with a violent background or to someone with a criminal conviction for a violent crime.”
All of this is patently false.
Sen. Gillibrand was one of 78 co-sponsors of the Fix NICS legislation that overwhelmingly passed the Senate and President Trump signed into law. The federal legislation was modeled on the National Shooting Sports Foundation® initiative of the same name that worked to get states to submit all disqualifying criminal and adjudicated mental health records into the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS). Let’s be clear: the same gun industry she has chosen to attack to try to attract Democratic primary voters was getting laws changed in 16 states before Congress even took up the matter.
Sen. Gillibrand signed her name to the bill – and voted for – legislation brought by the very manufacturers she claims want to sell guns to everyone. She knows better.
Maybe Sen. Gillibrand has conveniently forgotten that the firearms industry was the originator of the point-of-sale instant background check, to ensure that only those who could be legally entrusted to possess a gun could buy them.
The senator also should know that so-called universal background checks are aimed at private gun sales, not the sales by retailers to private citizens that are already subject to background checks. The truth is she wants to make illegal the transfer of firearms between private parties. The firearms industry, however, cannot support making a criminal of an individual selling a friend a keepsake firearm or lending a shotgun for a duck hunt.
Trafficking in Untruth
The senator’s end-run on the truth didn’t stop there, though.
“They want to sell those things, no matter what, to anybody,” Sen. Gillibrand continued. “It is why they will not do common sense things like have an anti-trafficking law. In a state like New York, our number one problem is guns used in crimes get trafficked from out of state right into the hands of gang members. They will not support an anti-federal gun trafficking law.”
The senator should have a staffer call ATF or the Department of Justice. Federal laws now on the books already cover those offenses. We bring to the Senator’s attention this case from less than a year ago involving the arrests of three individuals attempting to move 40 guns from Virginia to, you guessed it, her state of New York. The guns were recovered on the street.
Moreover, Department of Justice surveys shows guns used in crimes are obtained through theft and the black market. It’s another reason her quest for a universal background check bill is ill-conceived. Criminals aren’t stopping for background checks when they steal dozens of guns at a time in smash-and-grab thefts.
Those thefts are trending down, the rapid response and continuing cooperation between federal and regional law enforcement assisted by a highly cooperative industry making that possible. Operation Secure Store®, a partnership between ATF and the firearms industry to help retailers improve security and reduce thefts from their stores, is contributing to this effort.
No Co-sponsorship for FFL Protection Act
More can be done. Sen. Gillibrand had a chance in the last Congress to co-sponsor the Federal Firearms Licensee Protection Act, S. 1854, introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). It would have set a minimum sentence of three years for burglaries of firearms retailers and five years for robberies. The firearms industry supported this legislation because we know stolen guns move onward for use in other crimes. This legislation is still a priority for the firearms industry, but not for Sen. Gillibrand, apparently. She’s yet to agree to sign on to a bill that would take and keep gun traffickers off the street.
At one time, Sen. Gillibrand supported gun manufacturers. A decade ago, she announced she kept “two guns under her bed.” While not the wisest storage option, she was aligning herself with law-abiding gun owners. That changed for her when faced with political headwinds and rising ambitions. More recently, she said she’s embarrassed by her previous stance.
While memories are short in Washington D.C., the rest of America remembers.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel at National Shooting Sports Foundation
“On the Campaign Trail and in Her Record, Sen. Gillibrand’s Rhetoric Does Not Align With the Facts”
Statements from the left, rarely, if ever, align with the truth, ESPECIALLY when it comes to guns, much less anything else…
Point of fact, remember “If you like your doctor, you can keep them”…???
Liberals are just out for themselves(as a collective(as in communism)), as the rest of us be damned…
“While memories are short in Washington D.C., the rest of America remembers.”
Not so sure about that. I think most of America has a pretty short memory.
Hey, lady, your number crime problem in NY is criminals, not guns. Ban them and the drug smugglers will start smuggling guns and since they have access to fully automatic weapons guess what the criminals will ask for.
They more or less have banned guns, and they are being smuggled. No future tense about it, it’s an ongoing demonstration of what demonstrably doesn’t work.
Yeah, but that’s never stopped em from enacting more feel good laws , it’s for our own good dont ya know?
Well, for politicians in general, demonrats always, if their lips are moving they are lying. A fact easy to prove. No matter, from what I hear the world is going to end in 12 years so none of this bravo sierra makes any difference anyway!
tl;dr version:
Democrats lie, especially about guns and the 2nd Amendment.
Remember to vote for this lying broad in the democrat primaries next year so that she can be Crazy Joe’s running mate. They would make a great ticket….hehehehe.
And here I thought it was going to be Booker and Harris–if they could ever agree on who got to be on top.
The problem is getting the word out to the criminals! They seem to have been left out……..
KG is another lily white liar from upstate NY who lied to get elected and now lies to minorities about her concerns for them. She fancies herself Hillary 2 and thinks she has more support than she really does.
The money will tell the tale like it always does.
As for her evolved positions on guns they are no different than the rest of the DNC which is all in on disarming the country, somehow. This election more than the last 2 will set the record straight about whether most of the country wants to be like OZ, UK and soon NZ in trusting their safety to 911.
Well if she is anything like her probable grandpa corning a bunch of shady corporate dealings to disrupt working and middle class to the benefit of the state would be expected. Plus wasn’t she “progun” when she represented east of the Hudson a decade or so ago?
What do ” facts” have to do with anything a democrat candidate says?
Let me start by I did not read the article.
Gillibrand is a lying biach.
Typical libitard politician. She will lie and say whatever she thinks one wants to hear. When she was in congress she backed all sorts of gun support bills. As Clintons appointed replacement
She turned 101% antigun libitard to get elected to her temporary seat. She cant be trusted one bit by anyside. Shes just an empty seat in the senate. Doing whatever the DNC tells her to do.
BRAVO SIERRA. -30-
If such prospective firearm purchasers are so incredibly dangerous that we do not trust them to purchase firearms, why do we trust them to operate 3,000 pound missiles (cars), to possess incendiary bombs (gasoline and matches), and to possess chemical weapons (bleach and ammonia)?
Here is a novel idea:
(1) Keep blatantly violent and dangerous people — the people who have harmed someone — locked away from society.
(2) Do NOT prohibit effective self-defense firearms so that people can protect themselves from violent and dangerous people who government has not yet imprisoned.
This.
And here’s the “almost short enough to be a soundbite” version:
“Anyone too dangerous to be walking around with a gun is ALSO too dangerous to be walking around WITHOUT a gun!”
^^^^^^Very Key Point !!!!!!! ^^^^^^
But but but doncha know that if we keep gunz away from EVERYBODY no one will have anything to be afraid of????
If you’ll notice, she’s just not very bright.
A post-graduate degree doesn’t make you an intellectual. Intellect makes you an intellectual.
At the risk of being redundant, if their lips are moving…….they’re freakin lyin!
She is getting bad advice and direction. No one can articulate what she brings to the debate beyond a few talking points.
Politicians are the lowest form of life in the galaxy and it wouldn’t be a good idea to hold your breath waiting for one to tell the truth about anything.
This woman is morally repugnant. And for the sexually liberated out there, morality has ALMOST nothing to do with a sex act. She is a liar. A hypocrite and an opportunist. And I wonder just how many people will look the other way and vote for her?
She has her guns. Her entire family has guns. She is from as very nice area in New York State.
She is an intolerant bigot who believes certain people can’t be trusted with their civil rights.
Facts don’t matter to these people, and neither does “safety”. Their sole purpose is to undermine gun-culture and demonize all gun owners. Their ultimate goal is to destroy all American and Western values and our way of life. Leftism is a mind virus. History will soon repeat itself.
Gillibrand is Hillary Mk 2. Same demographic, same shitty positions, rubs elbows in the exact same NYC social scene.
She may be AOC’s sister!!
I’d rather vote for an albino orangutan…
Gillibrand is a vapid shell of a person. She doesn’t really have an principles. This is demonstrated through her complete abandonment of previous stances and opinions. Before she was a senator, she had to play the part of a moderate, as her constituency wouldn’t have accepted the current incarnation of her. I think she even had an A rating from the NRA. As she now has figured out how to cement her grip on power – by appealing to the radical left wing NYC electorate – she has become a full throated Socialist. But it wouldn’t be that way if she were living in a different part of the country. Had she managed to get herself elected to public office in a “red state”, she’d be a pro-2A conservative Christian.
Basically what I’m saying is, she doesn’t believe most of what she’s saying. She doesn’t care. Her dogma and ethos aren’t any deeper than adapting to and adopting any stance that keeps her in power. Many politicians start with some sort of ideology in the beginning, and become vile creatures as time wears on. Gillibrand has been a chameleon from the very start.
I’ll say it again, she gets her script and her marching orders not from the DNC, straight from the Bloomberg, Clinton cartel. And she was pro 2A before she anti 2A. You insult the chameleon.
A politician who lies? I think I feel a case of the vapors coming on!
“In archaic usage, the vapours (or vapors) is a reference to certain mental or physical states, such as hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, lightheadedness, fainting, flush, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings, or PMS, where a sufferer lost mental focus.”
Gillibrand = Scarborough!!!! Both uninformed dunces spreading lies.
Democrat motto: “Never let facts get in the way of a good story”
They will stop at NOTHING to get their way, including telling boldfaced LIES…the healthcare act should have taught us that.
Leftard Marxist candidates Truth Does Not Align With the Facts as they are Anti Constitution and Anti American,thus not worthy candidates,any of them and that includes RINO’s.
With Kirsten being a Democrat that infers that truth and facts carry no relevance.
The truth of the matter is,this is Gun Confiscation for the Un NWO,under the old Soviet Style govt.Universal means what? That All Nations on earth for the Antichrist to make Israel,and the USA heal.Gillibran is a devil worshipping Babylon Whore.
Now do trump.
The STUPID is strong with this one……We already have background checks, The problem is that some slip through the cracks. No matter how many laws you have and even if they stopped making more, There will ALWAYS be guns in the bad guys hands if they want one, That or they will use another type of weapon.
When all the deadly drugs are totally gone from America’s streets, I’ll believe guns might disappear someday. I’d say it is MUCH less likely.
It’s OK. She’s a Democrat. I won’t vote for her under any circumstances.