Now that the midterm election has come and gone, it’s time to start looking ahead to the coming legislative sessions and what they will mean for our right to keep and bear arms. President Joe Biden (D) has been on the stump pushing his anti-Second Amendment agenda once more, but one noteworthy anti-gun senator doesn’t think he has the votes to bring it to fruition.
“I’m glad that President Biden is gonna be pushing us to take a vote on an assault weapons ban,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on CNN. “The House has already passed it. It’s sitting in front of the Senate. Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not, but let’s see if we can try to get that number is close to 60 as possible.
“If we don’t have the votes, then we’ll talk to [Sen. Chuck] Schumer and maybe come back next year, with maybe an additional senator, and see if we can do better,” he said.
Murphy has never made a secret of his anti-Second Amendment views. Earlier this year, in fact, he said he wants to ban popular semi-automatic rifles.
While the Connecticut senator recognizes that getting 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the U.S. Senate is unlikely, he doesn’t hide his end goal.
Murphy also claimed that “nobody’s talking about taking those weapons away from individuals, we’re just talking about stopping new sales.” This contention from Murphy is dishonest; after all, as history has shown, bans are only one step from confiscation.
Biden, meanwhile, has recently reiterated his desire to ban these rifles despite the fact that more than 24 million of them are in circulation throughout the country. “By the way, I'm going to get an assault weapons ban,” Biden told Jake Tapper during an Oct. 11 CNN interview. “Before this is over, I’m going to get that again. Not a joke, and watch.”
And, on Thanksgiving Day, Biden was at it again: “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Just sick,” Biden said during a press event. “I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.” Finally, he also said that semi-automatic firearms have “no social redeeming value. Zero. None.”
Semi-automatic firearms are actually what most Americans chose when they purchase guns for self-defense.
Though Murphy recognizes that such a ban on semi-automatic rifles is unlikely to pass, the struggle for our freedom is clearly ongoing.
