Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
In a sometimes bristling letter to Joe Biden, veteran U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has thrown down a gauntlet, advising the president, “It is disturbing to see Democrats refuse to take responsibility for the rising crime rate and find other people to blame, such as lawful firearms owners.”
Grassley, a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of the key people on Capitol Hill who pushed for an investigation of the Obama administration’s scandalous Operation Fast & Furious more than a decade ago, focused his four-page letter on so-called “ghost guns,” and the nomination of Steven Dettelbach to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Iowa Republican says in his letter, “I intend to fully review Mr. Dettelbach’s record, but even a cursory review of his statements about gun ownership demonstrate a lack of awareness of the circumstances surrounding legal gun acquisition, or outright favoritism of expansive gun control.”
Later in the letter, Grassley reminds Biden, “During his unsuccessful run for Ohio Attorney General in 2018, Mr. Dettelbach was endorsed by gun control advocate ‘Everytown for Gun Safety’ who stated that ‘Dettelbach is running on a platform’ that includes restricting firearm ownership and expanding background checks.”
With a well-earned reputation for doggedly pursuing facts, Grassley also notes in his letter, “The Administration’s focus on ghost guns places rhetoric over fact in combating the violent crime surge…” “Originally,” the senator recalls, “the Administration attempted to impress on the public the significance of ghost guns by using the number of 325 homicides or attempted homicides connected to ghost guns that were recovered by the ATF between 2016 and 2020. According to the FBI, there were 89,076 homicides in that time, to say nothing of the number of attempted murders. Therefore, less than 0.36% of homicides involved ghost guns. Now the White House has put forward have this 20,000 figure, which (1) does not distinguish between suspected and actual “ghost guns,” (2) does not explain whether the number refers to privately made firearms or includes others, for example guns with damaged or removed serial numbers, and (3) sets no context for the overall firearms seized, or how many crimes were committed using an actual privately made firearm. This is merely another attempt to use misleading statistics that lack context to rally support for failing Democrat policies.”
Grassley is the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Iowa history, so he knows a few things about the blame game. He is running for re-election this fall.
“I am…concerned,” he writes, “about the unprecedented 30% spike in murders that began as blue cities pulled their police forces off the streets in the summer of 2020. Democrats have recently attempted to shift the blame for the rise in violence in blue cities to not only lawful gun owners, but also conservative states. However, the data from 2020 shows that it is actually the Democrat-led cities within red states that are causing dramatic per capita murder rates.”
Biden came into office in 2021 with a sweeping gun control and prohibition agenda that included permanent renewal of the ban on so-called “assault weapons,” “universal background checks,” limits on the number of firearms one could purchase, licensing and registration. Grassley has been one of the people on Capitol Hill standing in Biden’s way.
It is perhaps not surprising that little to no attention has been afforded by the establishment media to Grassley’s letter, especially his criticism of Democrats for not accepting responsibility for rising crime in major cities and entire states that are Democrat strongholds. In his letter, the 88-year-old Senator offers some examples.
“When you remove Jackson, Mississippi’s homicides from Mississippi’s total,” Grassley notes, “the per capita murder rate drops from 10.6 homicides per 100,000 people to 6.3—below the national average of 6.5. Removing Louisville, Kentucky’s homicides cuts Kentucky’s murder rate nearly in half to 3.4. Removing blue St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri drops the homicide rate from 13 to 5.8.”
Portland, Oregon is another deep blue city, where KGW News noted, “Portland saw a record-high number of shootings in 2021 with more than 1,000 shootings. Of the nearly 90 homicides last year, fewer than half have been solved. At least 30 people have died of homicide so far in 2022 and there have been more than 100 injury shootings across the city. At this rate, 2022 is on pace to be Portland’s deadliest year on record.”
Seattle, Washington is also a Democrat stronghold, where—according to police department data—the first three months of this year saw 13 murders, compared to 9 for the same period in 2021.
Grassley’s assessment of Democrat reluctance to acknowledge their policies have at least been partly responsible for rising crime is underscored by a Fox News report about a Republican Florida prosecutor who is cracking down on repeat offenders “as big cities with Democratic district attorneys around the country, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, are witnessing crime spikes.”
State Attorney Melissa Nelson “made waves for finding new ways to prosecute known criminals, such as pursuing firearms charges in connection with guns flaunted in music videos. She has sought stiffer sentences for people convicted of gun crimes,” Fox News reported.
Instead of penalizing law-abiding gun owners for crimes they didn’t commit, Nelson’s strategy is to target actual criminals, something Democrats apparently haven’t figured out.