How calls for a Second Amendment repeal could easily backfire for gun control advocates – The Dems biggest weakness is their tendency to overreach . . .
It’s not just that repealing the Second Amendment is impossible and unnecessary, though. Suggesting that we repeal the Second Amendment also gives significant fodder to those who claim that contemporary gun reform proposals are a thinly veiled first step toward complete disarmament — and toward the government coming for their guns. Even those who support meaningful gun reform proposals may think twice if they believe that such proposals are merely a prelude to all-out repeal.
Thus, by framing the debate in terms of absolute repeal, Justice Stevens’s Times piece may therefore have the complete opposite of its intended effect — implying that common-sense reform proposals wouldn’t be constitutional today and satisfying the narrative that many gun rights supporters have been using to oppose those proposals on policy grounds. There are lots of plausible ideas worth pursuing when it comes to contemporary debates over gun control; repealing the Second Amendment just isn’t one of them.
‘Nobody is saying ban all guns’ pic.twitter.com/RS6NyD0nN9
— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) March 27, 2018
Today, The Left Has Finally Given Up Their “No One Wants To Take Your Guns” Nonsense – The mask is well and truly off . . .
There are so many things to be said about the left’s fawning over the recent piece in the New York Times by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, but the thing that stands out the most is one simple fact.
That the left is so happily foaming at the mouth about the piece that they may have failed to notice it rips back a veil they’ve kept over the face of their gun control arguments since I can remember.
Yes, they do want to take your guns away. Not just a few guns, or restrictions on magazine sizes, age requirements for purchase, or bans on accessories. They want to ban all of them. All of the guns.
It’s a fact many already knew. For ages, we’ve seen picket sign after speech calling for the banning of firearms and the repeal of the 2nd Amendment.
U.S. Investigates Florida ‘Kalashnikov’ Factory With Ties to Putin Allies – Knock, knock comrades . . .
U.S. prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into a Florida factory that makes shotguns modeled after the iconic AK-47 assault rifle and is run by executives with ties to top allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Miami is seeking records related to Kalashnikov USA’s 2015 request for state and local tax breaks, according to a grand jury subpoena sent to the city of Pompano Beach, Florida this week. Federal prosecutors are investigating the business practices of RWC Group LLC, which owns Kalashnikov USA’s plant in Pompano Beach, a person familiar with the investigation said.
It’s unclear which business practices are under investigation, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Miami declined to confirm or deny any probe. Representatives for the company didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment, but a top executive for RWC Group and Kalashnikov USA has said the manufacturer is doing nothing wrong.
One in five Americans wants the Second Amendment to be repealed, national survey finds – Please, Democrats, run on repealing the Second Amendment this fall . . .
But public-opinion polling shows that it would take a lot of persuading to bring the public around to that view. In February, for instance, the Economist and YouGov asked Americans whether they supported a repeal of the Second Amendment. Twenty-one percent said they favored such a proposal, compared with 60 percent in opposition.
The poll does, however, show surprisingly robust support for Second Amendment repeal (39 percent) among Democrats (by contrast, 8 percent of Republicans would support a full repeal). Black Americans (30 percent) and Northeasterners (28 percent) also showed relatively high levels of support.
Huh. Network news coverage for 40 kids. That’s a lot of exposure for a bunch of teenage Tide Pod eaters. Wonder why.
Justice John Paul Stevens Is Wrong About the Second Amendment, Again – A consistent record of short-changing civil rights in favor of big government . . .
In his 2008 dissent in District of Columbia v. Heller, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens insisted that the Second Amendment offers zero protection for what he called the “right to possess and use guns for nonmilitary purposes like hunting and personal self-defense.”
Writing in today’s New York Times, the retired justice reiterates that losing view. “For over 200 years after the adoption of the Second Amendment,” Stevens maintains, “it was uniformly understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation.” To clear the path for sweeping gun control restrictions now, Stevens advises, activists should turn their energies towards passing a “constitutional amendment” that would overturn Heller and “get rid of the Second Amendment.”
One problem with Stevens’ position is that he is dead wrong about the legal history. His preferred reading of the Second Amendment has never been “uniformly understood.”
I’ll say it – assault weapons aren’t the problem. Handguns are the problem. By all means, ban AR-15s and the like, but handguns kill far more people. The solution is to repeal and replace the Second Amendment. Make gun ownership a privilege, not a right.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) March 25, 2018
Comedian Michael Ian Black: Private Gun Ownership Is ‘Slavery By Another Name’ – Again, please keep this up, Democrats. Oh please oh please oh please . . .
First off, kudos to Black for making his argument explicit: he wants total gun confiscation. That’s what John Paul Stevens, former Supreme Court Justice, would like as well. Typically, those on the hard Left simply lie about their actual agenda, and call for “reasonable gun control legislation” without specifying exactly what that would be. Black, however, has his eyes on the prize.
But the most astonishing argument here is that private gun ownership is akin to slavery — presumably because my gun will magically kill you on its own, thus making your life subject to my whim. This is factually idiotic.
It is also ahistorical. Slaveowners loved nothing better than a disarmed slave population. In fact, keeping black Americans disarmed was one of the explicit purposes of the Dred Scott decision. And as historian David Kopel writes, Jim Crow laws attempted to keep black Americans without recourse to self-defense:
When Do You Talk About Gun Ownership in a Relationship? – Drop her like a hot spent cartridge . . .
The sooner you talk about this in a relationship the better. Honestly, it sounds like you’ve already had an opportunity to be open about this and you didn’t take it. That’s a mistake, NAG. I understand the hesitation to tell her—it’s not exactly a first date ice breaker for most people—but there are some things you seriously need to consider here before you go hiding this any longer.
First off, you’re not giving her any benefit of the doubt. You’re assuming that disagreeing about this one issue means you can’t eventually find some middle ground, or simply “agree to disagree.” Yes, guns are a very hot topic right now, and she once said she wants to “take your guns,” but did you ever stop to think that maybe you can educate her and possibly convince her to rethink her stance to something less extreme?
Gun-Control Movement May Be Headed Nowhere – Realism starting to set in?
After a massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999, journalists thought they saw a groundswell of public support for new regulations on gun ownership.
Frank Bruni, then a reporter for the New York Times, marveled that “the earth has finally moved.” He explained that the National Rifle Association had lost clout. In the Washington Post, Roberto Suro reported that polling had shifted in favor of gun control. Cities were filing lawsuits to hold gun makers responsible for gun deaths.
Some Republicans started to waver in their opposition to regulation. Elizabeth Dole launched her presidential campaign by calling for new restrictions on guns. Republicans who remained opposed to gun control, the New York Times editorialized, were “out of touch with the tides of public concern.” In the Senate, Vice President Al Gore cast a tie-breaking vote for tighter regulations, declaring it “a turning point for our country.”
It wasn’t, as we all know now.
I love guns. I love knowing how to protect myself. I take time and enjoy learning more each day about weapons and rights. I am a proud American woman who isn’t giving up my right to bear arms. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it! pic.twitter.com/w6FGAMFLer
— KAYA (@KayaJones) March 27, 2018