In a February 9 email obtained by Breitbart News, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence warns supporters that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the NRA form a deadly combination against gun control.
Moreover, the email also warns that ATF Associate Deputy Director Ronald Turk’s much publicized criticism of the ongoing National Firearms Act regulation of silencers, import bans on “assault weapons,” and importation delays on M1 Garands only add to the uphill climb gun control faces during the Trump administration.
The email warns that Barack Obama’s attempt to disqualify thousands, if not millions, of Social Security beneficiaries from exercising Second Amendment rights is clearly in jeopardy. Of course, they do not frame it as if Obama were denying rights. Rather, they frame it as if he were keeping the mentally ill from possessing guns.
The email says:
With Sessions in charge as Attorney General, the Senate poised to vote on a bill that would make it easier for people with dangerous mental illnesses to obtain guns, the NRA calling on President Trump to ease up on “bad apple” gun dealers, and ATF chief operating officer Ronald Turk saying he doesn’t think the ATF should enforce already lax laws, it can feel like a daunting environment.
Only the Brady Campaign would describe fingerprint, photograph, and registration requirements–together with an eight-month waiting period and a $200 federal tax–as “lax laws.” Law-abiding Americans call it “infringement,” yet it is the process currently in place for acquiring a suppressor. The ATF’s Ronald Turk says the process is “archaic.”
The Brady Campaign’s suggestion that the NRA wants to take it easy on “bad apple” gun dealers is also interesting. The NRA does not want to do anything of the sort. However, they are fighting against an increase in regulation for Federal Firearms License holders (FFL) that will result in holding license holders liable if a person legally acquires a legally manufactured gun then misuses it.
Just under two weeks after the on-air attack that took the life of Virginia reporter Alison Parker, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) pushed to hold FFLs criminally liable for the misconduct of their customers, even though the customers of FFLs have to pass an FBI background check before being allowed to purchase a gun. In fact, Parker’s attacker passed a background check to acquire the handgun he used in the attack.
Laws like the one unsuccessfully pushed by Kaine are a classic form of backdoor gun control, serving to bankrupt and/or criminalize law-abiding dealers that could not otherwise be driven out of the business.
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.
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