The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued official guidelines for industry closures that includes as essential: “Workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors and shooting ranges.”
This is big news for the gun industry, as anti-gun officials in some states and jurisdictions have purposely shut down gun stores and ranges for purely political reasons. They have advanced this anti-gun agenda even as more people are buying guns for personal defense during this national emergency.
This means that if your local gun store, shooting range or gun manufacturer is shut down during this pandemic, it isn’t because the federal government told them to close.
The DHS declaration came just a few days after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) literally laughed off a man’s concerns on camera that New Jersey’s shutdown of gun stores is making it more difficult for law-abiding people to protect themselves.
“If less guns reduce crime, will you give up your personal bodyguards?” the man asked Gov. Murphy. The man then said, “The poorest minorities living in the most-dangerous cities with the highest crime rates now have absolutely no way of buying a firearm…. You surround yourself with armed guards so clearly you understand the benefit of the Second Amendment…. At this very moment, how can a New Jersey resident who isn’t already a gun owner exercise their Second Amendment rights?”
Murphy replied that he believes “a safer society has fewer guns, not more guns. And the guns that do exist are in the hands of the right people—particularly trained members of law enforcement. Like the guy to my left who has a pistol on his hip….”
Other politicians who are opposed to our Second Amendment rights have also used this pandemic as an excuse to inhibit this freedom.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), for example, said, “Nobody is talking about taking away firearms, but there’s no reason why gun stores should be given this exception; in fact, arming more Americans in their homes at a time of rising tension and anxiety seems more dangerous than ever.”
Actually, a lot of people, including former Vice President Joe Biden, are talking about taking away Americans’ most-popular guns, and the basic reason gun stores should be given an exemption is that people do need the chance to protect themselves until help arrives.
Blumenthal’s comment above, meanwhile, is almost an exact quote from talking points put out by the gun-control group Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
It is actually even more critical that Americans have their Second Amendment-protected rights during local and national crisis; after all, at times like these, police departments can be overwhelmed with all that they do for us.
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