On May 3 gun control proponent Gabby Giffords joined Democrat lawmakers on Capitol Hill in pledging to fight efforts to nationalize concealed carry for law-abiding citizens.
By opposing national reciprocity, Giffords and lawmakers like Senator Chris Murphy (D) are literally working against citizens who have received some level of firearm education and/or training, and have undergone background checks for their permits. This comes even as Giffords’ gun control group is demanding background checks as a way to know who should and should not be able to own a gun.
According to Newsweek, Giffords spoke at a press conference Wednesday, saying, “Stopping gun violence takes courage. We must never stop fighting.… The nation’s counting on you.” She took up a campaign for background checks just two years after an attacker shot her with a gun he acquired via a background check.
Senator Murphy also spoke on Wednesday, admitting that Democrats are in a tough spot and will be on defense in the gun debate under President Trump. He stressed that fighting national reciprocity is the focus now, and explained that Democrats plan to fight deregulation of suppressors for law-abiding citizens as well.
He said, “The NRA expects something from their endorsement of Donald Trump,” but suggested that while the NRA is fighting for the Second Amendment on the federal level Democrats will be fighting against it where they can on the state level.
Murphy has been fighting against law-abiding citizens’ right to keep and bear arms for years. On August 6, 2013, Breitbart News reported Murphy’s contention that the right to keep and bear arms is “not a God-given right.”
His entire statement: “The Second Amendment is not an absolute right, not a God-given right. It has always had conditions upon it like the First Amendment has.”
With such claims, Murphy is essentially arguing that Americans’ right to keep and bear arms is granted by government — a position which Thomas Jefferson and his fellow Founding Fathers rejected in 1776. Writing in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson said:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
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.