Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A top official with the billionaire-backed Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying group admitted to The Hill that Joe Biden’s presidency is a “dream come true” for gun prohibitionists while it will be “the worst nightmare” for gun owners and organizations representing their interests.
Rob Wilcox, deputy director of policy and strategy at Everytown—the anti-gun-rights group set up by Michael Bloomberg—is quoted by The Hill stating, “Simply put, a Biden presidency is the gun lobby’s worst nightmare. But it’s a dream come true for anyone who cares about gun safety in America.”
It’s a statement deliberately overlooking the fact that gun rights organizations—most notably the National Rifle Association and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—have traditionally advocated safe firearms use by private citizens. NRA has a network of thousands of volunteer firearms instructors, and another group, the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) also has instructors.
Likewise, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is a trade association rather than an organization of individual citizens, is a strong proponent of gun safety and has sponsored programs designed to acquaint new shooters with safe firearms handling.
The Hill article also said Nico Bocour, government affairs director for the Giffords gun control group “predicted that America will see some gun reform measures within Biden’s first 100 days in office.”
But The Hill story, Second Amendment advocates would argue, perpetuates the misconception that these groups are about “safety” and “reform,” when those two terms translate to “control” if not outright “prohibition.”
A grassroots group in Washington State produces a T-Shirt bearing the message “Gun Control is Not Gun Safety.”
The Wilcox admission comes on the heels of a declaration by anti-gun Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that he plans to make gun control a “top priority” now that he is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But according to the Washington Free Beacon, “Democrats enjoy a slim majority in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast tie-breaking votes, a partisan split that makes sweeping, new gun-control legislation difficult to pass. Durbin’s control of the Judiciary Committee, however, will allow him to shape America’s legal landscape.
Durbin’s remarks prompted CCRKBA to respond Monday with a shot across the Senator’s bow.
“Joe Biden has been in office less than two weeks,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and he is presiding over an effort by his party to literally crush rights guaranteed and protected by the Bill of Rights. Dick Durbin would not be making such a promise if he wasn’t certain the White House was giving him free rein to erode the Second Amendment into something we won’t recognize.”
Gottlieb said Durbin’s “hostility toward the Second Amendment is well known to the gun rights community.”
“Democrats led by Durbin have been salivating over the damage they might do to the Second Amendment since the November election,” the veteran gun rights advocate observed. “They have made no secret of their intentions, and now Dick Durbin has essentially confirmed the threat to our right to keep and bear arms is genuine.”
As reported earlier by Ammoland News, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is already busy with a piece of legislation Gottlieb and others in the Second Amendment community are calling “extreme.”
Her H.R. 127 would require licensing of gun owners, mandatory training, psychological evaluations to determine someone’s suitability to own a firearm, retroactive gun registration and separate licensing for modern sporting rifles. Successful licensees must show they have an insurance policy which will cost $800.
Additionally, Jackson Lee’s bill would require the owner of any firearm to supply the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the make, model and serial number of every gun he or she owns, including guns they may have owned for years. They would also have to report the identity of any person to whom, and any period of time during which, the firearm will be loaned to that individual.
This is the “gun control overreach” to which CCRKBA alludes in its statement to the press.
“All this means is that Durbin and his fellow Democrats are pulling out all the stops,” Gottlieb said. “After years of waiting, they believe this is the right moment to destroy the right to keep and bear arms in the guise of ‘gun safety,’ so a right belonging to all citizens becomes a privilege enjoyed by a few. Durbin’s priority is to enact Draconian gun control laws. Our priority as citizens must be to stop him.”
That could be a tall order. However, in recent weeks, CCRKBA’s sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, has been actively recruiting grassroots activists to join the “2nd Amendment First Responder” program. The advertising effort has so far been hugely successful, and it is continuing this week on more than a dozen networks.