Is it me, or does it seem like we’ve had an oddly high number of “mass shootings” over the past few months? Honestly, I don’t remember there being mass shootings in the U.S. for a while. Maybe we were all pre-occupied with the coronavirus, or maybe the news didn’t highlight the cases because they knew that sweeping federal gun laws were not an option under the previous Congress.
Whatever it was, I’ve noticed an odd uptick in nationally publicized “gun violence” over the past few months.
So, to start, I’ll give you a little history lesson, a little refresher (I’m going to start sounding like a broken record here soon).
The Constitution gives Congress explicit enumerated powers in Article 1, Section 8, powers that define for Congress the only topics about which they can make law. Any and every other topics not mentioned is subsequently left to the states.
That list of powers is vastly limited and deals with only a few broad topics that should be federal rather than state. Nowhere in that list of powers is government given any power to make laws that in anyway regulate or hinder one’s use of firearms. Nowhere.
So, the federal government literally has no right, whatsoever, per their job description, to make any law or declare any executive order that would even enter the realm of regulating an individuals’ right to defend himself with a gun. Think of it as private property. Government is created to protect our private property, which means that government violates its very reason for existence if it makes a law that takes away from or violates that private property.
This means that even small or incremental regulations of private property are just as unconstitutional as large regulations of private property. Small, incremental regulatory laws over guns are just as arbitrary and just as far outside the specific job description of the federal government as any broad, sweeping gun regulations would be.
This is really critical for Americans to process and digest. Our policy positions should not be determined by our party affiliation or our emotional response to an issue. The fact that we hate guns, feel upset about the violent gun crime we see or perhaps love guns should have nothing to do with the relevant question at hand.
Would a federal gun law, mandate or executive order be outside of the confines of the Constitutionally enumerated powers that our federal government has?
This is the only question that matters.
(And this goes both ways friends. Recently, Governor DeSantis of Florida issued an executive order banning vaccine passports.
This means that he, as part of the Florida government, issued a decree that private businesses can’t choose to run their businesses a certain way–choosing to use a vaccine passport or not. Now, I don’t know the Florida Constitution. Perhaps this type of government regulation of private business is acceptable under Florida’s Constitution. The point is this: it doesn’t really matter what the topic is, if the government does something outside of their Constitutional confines, it’s wrong. Take this from someone who does not approve of vaccine passports. My opinion, feelings, emotions and the like, really don’t matter.)
So, according to NBC, “Biden directed the DOJ to issue a report on firearms trafficking, which hasn’t been done since 2000. He will also announce support for programs aimed at “reducing gun violence in urban communities through tools other than incarceration,” according to a fact sheet shared by the White House.”
Further, Biden said this of his desire for Congress to pass other laws restricting firearms, “The idea is just bizarre to suggest some of the things we are recommending is contrary to the Constitution…”
Now, aside from that comment being a bit comical, the point I’m trying to make is that it does not matter what we feel, what we think or what we reason about gun laws. They ARE NOT Constitutional.
We need to be able to acknowledge this reality objectively about ANY law that is unconstitutional. Yes, many of use likely feel strongly about protecting guns and gun rights, but could you, with the same intensity, chastise the federal government should the federal government ban businesses from using vaccine passports?
Because friends, the federal government has no Constitutional authority to tell private businesses that they cannot use vaccine passports. The topic is not the issue, violating the Constitution is.
Get that?
We can’t expect government to follow the Constitution on issues we feel strongly about, (aka: gun rights) and then demand or applaud them for violating the Constitution when dealing with a different issue that we want government regulation for. We damage the protections of our “gun rights” and many others when we accept unconstitutional government behavior in other instances.
We have to stop focusing so hard on the topics and our emotional reactions to them and start focusing on what actually matters.
The unconstitutional, unlimited, arbitrary government mess we’re in now is a result of emotional, feelings based demands from the citizenry and a government that was more than willing to acquiesce.
What Biden is doing now should come as no surprise. Yes, he’s the one the doing it, but the blame lies squarely at the feet of the American citizenry… and until we step up, put aside our emotions, feelings and thinking, and actually ask the only question that matters, this dangerously unconstitutional behavior in only going to get worse.
The Liberty Belle
The first thing that comes to mind about the left is they are much better organized than the right. They built from the bottom up. By this I mean they have groups at the local levels that they can call out for a demonstration on a minutes notice. These groups don’t necessarily have to have anything in common with what is being protested because they realize these other groups will work hand in hand and come out when they are in need.
Another thing they are apt at is they are very patient and are willing to get legislation through by increments where the right wants the bill to go through as is or not at all. Pass part of the bill now and we can always come back and pass another part through at a later date is how they look at it. I’m not arguing strictly gun control but abortion, healthcare or whatever. Whether its constitutional or not this is simply how they operate. If that fails they can always depend on watching (and helping along) right wing organizations blow themselves up like the N.R.A. or GOP.
Nancy Pelosi once said something to the effect: Pass the bill and we’ll read it after it passes
The left looks at it as it’s not about abusing situations to them but about knowing when to push the boundaries that will satisfy your constituents wishes and by satisfying them they will in turn satisfy yours. You will never hear the left tell their constituents to “Stay out of politics”