U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- President Joe Biden is not backing away from his crusade to ban so-called “assault weapons” and told reporters during a Thanksgiving Day presser he will push the issue during Congress’ “lame duck” session between now and January, when Republicans take control of the U.S. House, according to Fox News.
Biden and his family were in Nantucket for Turkey Day. As reported by CBS News, Biden brought up both the Virginia Walmart shooting and the Club Q attack in Colorado as reasons to ban semi-auto rifles, although the Virginia killer—identified as a store employee—committed his attack with a pistol, according to Fox News.
A perennial anti-gunner since first coming to Washington, D.C. a half-century ago, Biden was quoted stating, “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”
Biden famously was quoted during a July 2021 Townhall telecast stating he wants to ban not only semi-auto rifles, but 9mm pistols. The video snip of his remark has become the cornerstone of advertising by the Second Amendment Foundation.
A report in The Hill acknowledged it will be tough for Biden to pass any gun control package after Republicans take over in the House in January.
Apparently lost on Democrats is the fact that more talk about gun control and gun bans has invariably been followed by increased gun sales. Add to that the growing number of private citizens who are carrying defensive sidearms for their personal safety and it may translate to any gun control legislation being dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, even during the current “lame duck” session.
The Guardian on Friday reminded readers of a recent report that an estimated 6 million Americans were carrying guns daily back in 2019. Now, three years later, as reported recently by Ammoland, the number is much higher. This year, more than 22 million Americans are licensed to carry across the states, and thanks to “Constitutional Carry” laws adopted in 25 states, it is likely more citizens are carrying without permits.
Still, Biden and Democrats want to ban guns, perhaps as “trophy legislation,” according to many critics in the Second Amendment community.
Biden’s vow to “try to get rid of assault weapons” seems like a political bridge too far, however. It depends upon how far the House and Senate are willing to go while Democrats still run the show. Fox News reported, “At the moment, the odds appear long.”
That assessment might also apply to the Virginia Legislature, where Democrats in the House of Delegates are talking about more gun control legislation in January, according to WRIC News. Democrats announced Wednesday they will introduce bills to ban so-called ghost guns and add restrictions on magazine capacity. Their session begins Jan. 11, 2023.
At the same time, the restrictive gun control measure passed earlier this month in Oregon is already facing one federal lawsuit on constitutional grounds, and others are on the way. The measure will reportedly take effect early in December, and law enforcement agencies have indicated they will not be able to provide a training program required in the initiative in order for would-be gun buyers to get a permit just to allow them to purchase a firearm.
According to the Portland Oregonian and OregonLive, the number of people waiting for background checks in the Beaver State has doubled since passage of Measure 114. There is a backlog of applications, which will likely not be handled before the measure kicks in Dec. 8. Many in the firearms community—led by the Oregon Firearms Federation—are concerned small gun shops could face financial hardship due to the measure.
In the unlikely event Biden and Capitol Hill Democrats might push through gun ban legislation, it will almost certainly be met with multiple federal lawsuits from several groups. Such a ban could force federal courts to fast-track those legal actions.
At the state level, watch for anti-gunners to use the next few weeks to announced bills aimed at accomplishing what Democrats in Congress may be unable to. Gun rights activists in Washington state, for example, are bracing for a fight over semi-autos.
And there will be efforts to overturn state preemption laws, which prevent anti-gun municipal governments from enacting their own gun control ordinances.
This is a particularly prickly subject in Washington, where earlier this year, that state’s preemption statute was upheld unanimously by the liberal state Supreme Court to strike down a gun storage requirement in the City of Edmonds. A similar ordinance, adopted in Seattle, also is the subject of a lawsuit by SAF and the National Rifle Association, but the Edmonds ruling appears to have nullified that law as well. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has been on a crusade to repeal the state’s 35-year-old preemption statute since he took office in January.
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
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