(UnitedVoice.com) – President Joe Biden made gun control a central issue in his 2020 campaign. In 2022, he was able to get a bipartisan gun bill through Congress for the first time in decades. That wasn’t good enough for him and his fellow Democrats. They have continued pushing more and more gun control measures. After the Senate failed to pass a law recently, the president stepped in and asked states to do it instead.
Assault Weapons Ban
On December 6, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to pass universal background checks and an assault weapons ban. The push by the Left came about a week before December 14, the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The massacre left 20 first graders, six school employees, and the shooter’s mother dead.
The Hill reported that Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) objected to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) request for unanimous consent to pass the ban on semiautomatic rifles. The conservative senator argued Democrats were trying to ban semiautomatic rifles “because of the way they look.” He explained that the Second Amendment grants Americans the right to own guns, and every day, people in his state responsibly exercise that right.
“Democrats are demanding that the American people give up their liberty,” Barrasso bluntly stated.
Biden Administration’s Plea
Instead of respecting the Senate’s decision, President Joe Biden’s administration took a different approach. On December 13, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled an initiative to help states pass prohibitions on assault weapons, implement local programs to respond to and prevent gun violence, and pass universal background checks.
One hundred state legislators from 39 states attended an event at the White House where Harris announced the measure. She claimed the administration was fighting for what they believe is “reasonable and […] right.”
Harris told the crowd that she was “in favor of the Second Amendment,” which should be comforting since it’s included in the Constitution she took an oath to defend. Then, in the next sentence, she contradicted herself and said she is “also in favor of an assault weapons ban and “red flag laws.”
While the Biden administration pushes for an assault weapons ban, a federal judge has already ruled California’s law prohibiting the weapons is unconstitutional. In October, US District Judge Roger Benitez issued a ruling that determined the ban should be tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s DC v Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v Bruen decisions, both of which expanded gun rights.
Still, the Biden administration continues to push forward with the plan to circumvent Congress by going directly to the states.
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