Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan: Ban AK-47s, Expand Background Checks, Don’t Believe the NRA

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan says AK-47s should be banned, background checks should be expanded, and the NRA’s concerns over certain politicians should not be believed.

McKagan expounded on his gun control positions in his inaugural column for Vice blog Noisey. The column focused on “things happening right now,” with the stated goal of bringing “a bunch of us back to a place where we can talk and hopefully—in a small way—start to make this country and world, a much better place for us all.”

He described himself as an “armchair historian,” opined on various subjects, then pushed gun control:

So let’s do some tweaking. Background checks for all gun sales? Hell yes, right? What’s the argument against that? Banning AK-47’s and the like? Probably a damn good idea, right? Who needs them? I’m just a regular guy, neither “pro” nor “anti” gun…and I understand and respect the right to bear arms, but do some of you actually think we maintain this right still for the sole purpose of the “in case” of our own government somehow taking over (as opposed to fighting off the English imperialistic monarchy in 1775). This all seems as basic to me, as banning sales of guns here for people who are on the no-fly list. Is there something I am missing here?

Actually, there are quite a few things McKagan is missing. First, Founding Father James Madison made clear that the reason Americans own guns is to repel tyranny. He did this in Federalist 46, a document armchair historians ought to read. Secondly, the no-fly list is notoriously inaccurate and is based on the accusation of a crime rather than a conviction for a crime. So using the list violates due process rights of Americans and opens the door to placing allegations on par with verdicts. Third, background checks already exist and they do not stop latent criminals from acquiring guns.

In fact, here is a list of recent attackers and alleged attackers who acquired their guns via background checks:

• the New York bombing suspect (September 19)
• the Orlando attacker (June 12)
• the UCLA gunman (June 1)
• the San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
• the Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
• the Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
• Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015)
• the Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
• the Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
• the alleged Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015)
• the Muhammad Carton Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
• the Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
• the Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
• the Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
• the Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
• the D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
• the Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012)
• Gabby Giffords’ attacker (January 8, 2011)
• the Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009)
• the Virginia Tech attacker (April 16, 2007), and many others.

Moreover, Paris has expanded background checks and they also had 130 innocents gunned down on November 13, 2015 and 12 gunned down on January 7, 2015.

But McKagan wasn’t done. He also encouraged gun owners to “ignore” emails from the NRA and said it is not realistic to believe politicians can actually take away guns:

If you are a gun owner in this country and you actually think somebody is gonna come to your house and take your gun away…uh….maybe you shouldn’t be a gun owner (just my two cents). Educate yourselves on the Amendments and the Constitution to which they were added. An actual repeal of an Amendment would have to pass thru two-thirds of both Legislative bodies, and then have be ratified by two-thirds of the 50 states. It’ll never be repealed simply because there is NO WAY 38 states will vote against guns.

When you read McKagan’s argument which attempts to show politicians cannot take away guns, keep in mind that it is part of the same article in which he supports politicians banning whole categories of guns–“AK-47s and the like.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.