Joe Biden Promises to Enact Major Gun Grabs
Jose Nino
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Last week, reports surfaced about White House officials meeting up with a number of gun control groups in order to plan out how to introduce anti-Second Amendment legislation.
Democrats have a solid trifecta in D.C., which theoretically puts them much closer to passing gun control legislation than in years past.
According to the White House, President Joe Biden is “personally committed” to acting on an issue that has eluded Democrats in previous administrations. Several of the legislative items that Biden is looking to spearhead include an assault weapons ban, a high-capacity magazine ban, and universal background checks. The gun control groups who were present at this White House meeting included Brady, Giffords, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Moms Demand Action.
There will be considerable resistance towards any gun grab the Biden administration tries to pursue. Americans are resoundingly polarized on the gun control question according to the Gallup poll. The support for gun control in 2020 stood at 57%, which is the lowest level of support since 2016, when only 55% of Americans supported gun control.
However, it seems that the Biden administration will be pursuing gun control by any means necessary based on the meeting with the gun control organizations. Several methods such as executive orders are on the table for enacting gun control.
“I think everything is on the table. I think the White House is certainly supportive of Congress doing their part. I think there are things we’d like to see happen through legislation. … But certainly there is a role for executive action,” observed Adzi Vokhiwa, director of federal affairs at Giffords, a prominent civilian disarmament group.
This meeting came at a time when gun sales continue booming across America. This increase in sales is largely attributed to fears of the Biden administration passing strict gun control measures, Wuhan virus uncertainty, and the unrest that followed the George Floyd protests.
“This meeting provided more evidence that the Biden Administration is committed to being the strongest we’ve ever seen on gun safety,” remarked John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, of the meeting he had with Biden officials on February 10, 2021. “With Covid making gun violence worse and armed extremists literally holding our democracy at gunpoint, the time for action is now — and we fully expect to see it soon.”
Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, also published a statement praising the White House’s commitment to passing gun control after her meeting with Biden administration officials.
“We look forward to working with the administration to save lives and stop gun violence, and we’re confident that we will see executive and legislative action in the near future,” she said.
In his years in the Senate, Biden has a long track record of supporting gun control from his sponsorship of the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act to the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill, which helped establish the modern-day background check system at the federal level.
To pass these gun control measures, Democrats will need all of their 50 members and 10 Republican senators to break a filibuster. A previous bipartisan gun control bill put forward by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre ended up languishing after it only picked up 54 votes.
In 2019, BLP reported that the Democrat-controlled House was able to pass universal background check legislation but ended up going nowhere in the Senate due to Republican control.
America First nationalists must be ready for anything Democrats throw at them. Although the Democrat majority in Congress is rather slim, they will undoubtedly be working to flip a number of flimsy Republicans. Such scenarios demonstrate the need for strong external pressure from the grassroots to keep elected officials in check.
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