For a press conference detailing all Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) would like to do to gun owners, Swalwell needed just the right backdrop. He needed something his progressive base could sneer at as they “virtue signal” to each other. So, he showed up at the NRA’s headquarters in Fairfax, Va., to unveil his anti-Second Amendment wish list.
Swalwell wants:
- To “ban and buy back every single ‘assault weapon.’” He doesn’t say what he thinks the definition of “assault weapon” is, but he clearly wants to confiscate all of the millions of firearms now legally owned that might fit into however this political term is defined.
- To require Americans to get licenses from the federal government before they can buy any firearm. He compares this proposed requirement to the need for people to obtain a driver’s license before they can drive an auto. While this comparison ignores the difference between a constitutionally protected right and a legal privilege, you don’t need a license to own a car, just to drive it in public. Which happens to be the same way that firearms are regulated in the majority of states.
- To require a 48-hour, cooling-off period between the time a person purchases a firearm and the time they can take possession of it.
- To mandate “universal” background checks for firearm and ammunition purchases; of course, it won’t be “universal” because by definition criminals don’t follow the law.
- To require that gun owners get liability insurance before they buy, trade or otherwise get their hands on a firearm. He doesn’t explain why this is necessary, but only seems to favor it because it’ll act as another barrier to allowing the poor to legally use their rights. In his press conference, he did say he would like the option to sue insurance companies that gave a person liability insurance if the person commits a crime; therefore, by driving out insurers (companies might not want to take the risk) he could ban gun ownership.
- To create a national firearm registry that requires all purchases, transfers and donations of firearms to be registered with the government. He acts as if this anti-gun fantasy hasn’t been tried and failed for multiple reasons, most recently in Canada.
- To prohibit individuals from purchasing more than one handgun in any 30-day period. He doesn’t even touch on the fact that most criminals who use guns didn’t legally purchase their guns.
- To ban the online sale of ammunition. He doesn’t say if this would include brass, powder and more.
- To ban and buy back “large-capacity” magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition and suppressors. He doesn’t appear to understand or care that many firearms, including many of the pistols police officers and normal Americans own, come standard with magazines larger than this arbitrary max of 10 rounds. He doesn’t understand or care that suppressors, like mufflers on cars, are designed to protect our hearing; he only knows they are politically incorrect according to the mainstream media.
- To prohibit individuals from buying ammunition in quantities exceeding 200 rounds per caliber or gauge. No, he doesn’t seem to realize how many people load their own or that many shooting sports enthusiasts buy in bulk to save a little money.
- To repeal the Protection for Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. He wants gun manufacturers and dealers to be held liable for whatever criminals do with legal products.
- To prohibit states from arming teachers. He wants to do this even though so-called “gun-free zones” have often been the targets of armed criminals. He even thinks this is a good idea when it is abundantly clear that it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun.
Swalwell’s list of restrictions, bans and prohibitions on American freedoms might bring Swalwell to the head of the progressive mob now marching on your Second Amendment rights, but his list also takes the anti-Second Amendment movement to a place that is so obviously absurd, un-American and downright stupid that only the most-indoctrinated anti-gun advocates will applaud him for it.
During his press-conference in front the NRA’s headquarters, Swalwell continuously lied. He said, for example, that The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act protects manufacturers from liability for a “design default.” Has he even read the legislation? The Act specifically does not do that.
Most-Revealing Anti-Gun Statement of the Week
“There’s nothing that we propose here today that is at odds with what [the NRA] claims they stand for.” –Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) made this claim as he stood in front of the NRA’s headquarters in Virginia. Politicians who want to take away our freedom often say things like they are for the Second Amendment, but this statement is so clearly untrue it’s hard to know where to start to refute it. The thing is, he refuted it all by himself. Swalwell also said, “We’re not just here to stand up to the NRA ... we’re here to beat the NRA.”
Pro-Freedom Quote of the Week
“This is confiscation without representation. What you’re proposing is not about guns, it’s about control.” –A person who attended a public meeting on Virginia’s gun laws said this to Brian Moran, Virginia’s secretary of public safety, reported The Roanoke Times.(Frank Miniter is the author of Spies in Congress—Inside the Democrats’ Covered-Up Cyber Scandal. His latest book, The Ultimate Man’s Survival Guide to the Workplace, will be out this summer.)
