Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services by a 50-49 vote Thursday.
Becerra’s tenure as the California attorney general was rife with anti-Second Amendment actions, as he spent years defending California’s overly burdensome gun-control laws in the courts, including the state’s arbitrary ban on standard-capacity magazines and some of the worst “red-flag” gun-confiscation laws in the nation.
On the magazine ban, specifically, he sought to ban what he mislabeled as “large-capacity” magazines, despite the fact that 10-round magazines are, in fact, standard capacity. Although a three-judge panel ruled that the ban was unconstitutional, Becerra continued to push his anti-gun agenda, and filed a petition for an en banc hearing.
“Predictably, California’s attorney general wants to override our recent victory in the Ninth Circuit, where the arbitrary ban against standard-capacity magazines was correctly declared unconstitutional. Notice the hypocrisy: Like ammunition for self-defense, Attorney General Becerra wants as many judges as possible when it serves himself,” said Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
It gets worse with Becerra. In a 2019 court filing, he was quoted arguing that AR-type rifles are “not in common use for lawful purposes like self-defense,” despite the fact that it is estimated nearly 20 million of these rifles are owned by American citizens.
“Assault rifles may be banned because they are, like the M-16, ‘weapons that are most useful in military service,’” Becerra wrote in Rupp v. Becerra, a case that challenged California’s prohibition of semi-automatic rifles simply on cosmetics.
And, predictably, he voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) while a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; a law President Joe Biden has made clear he wants to repeal. In fact, Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, recently reiterated this very desire. As such, Becerra is a perfect pick for a president who seeks to attack firearms manufacturers and also doesn’t grasp Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Becerra joins a growing number of other anti-freedom members in Biden’s cabinet, including the recently confirmed Merrick Garland and Deb Haaland, neither of whom are a friend of the Second Amendment.
America’s 1st Freedom will continue to keep you up to date on the growing number of anti-Second Amendment officials joining the current administration.
