Rep. Andy Biggs Rips Democrat Gun Control Bill: They ‘Don't Believe in Second Amendment’

Supporters of the new Democrat-led gun control bill that will make it harder for Americans to protect themselves “don’t believe in the Second Amendment,” according to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who blasted Democrats for banning firearms instead of addressing societal issues stemming from “decades of progressive left-wing policies that have assaulted the American family and American Society.”

In a House session on gun control Wednesday, Biggs began by expressing his opposition to the Democrats’ latest gun control legislation.  

“Supporters of this bill do not want to protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights because they don’t care about Second Amendment rights,” he declared. 

Biggs, who served as chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, argued that central “societal issues” continue to go unaddressed as the focus remains on banning firearms.

“Instead of addressing the societal issues that have been caused by decades of progressive left-wing policies that have assaulted the American family and American society, they want to ban guns,” he said.

“They ignore the fact that many of the cities with the most restrictive gun control laws also have the highest levels of crime,” he added. “They simply do not acknowledge that they don’t believe in the Second Amendment.”

The congressman called to discuss the “many efforts” proposed by Republicans before calling out the overlooking of polls that don’t fit the Democrat narrative.

“I listened very carefully to the Majority Leader. He was enumerating through polls, but guess what? The majority of Americans believe schools would be safer if teachers were given options to carry a firearm. That comes from the latest Economist poll last week,” he said. 

“A similar Rasmussen poll [revealed] 62% are safer with an armed guard,” he added. 

He also noted how the state of Utah “allows teachers to carry [a] concealed weapon,” and as a result, “they not only have not had a mass shooting, they’ve never had a shooting since that law has been in place.”

Biggs then explained how former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said in his opinion in the seminal and landmark Heller case, that the very text of the Second Amendment implicitly recognizes the preexistence of the Second Amendment right, and declares only that it “shall not be infringed.”

“This is not a right granted by the Constitution, neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence,” Biggs said. “The Second Amendment simply declares that it shall not be infringed, but that’s exactly what your bills do.” 

He highlighted that Republicans have also called to “harden the schools,” while noting that “more than 90 percent” of $122 billion granted in COVID relief to K12 “remains unused.”

“You say, ‘Well, we don’t want to talk about doors,’ [but] what do we do? We hide behind doors because they work,” he said.

“You can harden schools and make them work. You can arm guards and make them work and make children safer,” he added. 

Acknowledging that “we all condemn the acts of violence that have occurred throughout our country,” Biggs insisted the solution “cannot be restricting Americans right to protect themselves.”

“Every day Americans use guns to protect themselves and their families,” he said. “This bill will make it harder for Americans to do this.”

“That is an inconvenient fact that my colleagues across the aisle simply can’t choose not to address,” he added.

Last week at mark up, Democrats “repeatedly claimed that good guys with guns do not stop bad guys with guns,” Biggs said, “But Congressman Massie read a long list of incidents of good guys using guns to stop bad guys — but that list was ignored.” 

He then provided two examples of such incidents.

One from last month whereby an attacker with an AR-15 allegedly shot at dozens of people attending a graduation party in Charleston, West Virginia, and was shot dead by a woman carrying a pistol for self-defense.

Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett said, “Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night.”

The other example involved Stephen Willeford, who halted an attack at a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017 after he used his AR-15 to intervene.

Biggs concluded by urging fellow lawmakers to “vote no” on the bill.

His remarks come in the wake of recent school gun violence and House Democrats passing a gun control package that contains six gun control measures.

On Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators announced a deal on gun control legislation, though the compromise excludes President Joe Biden’s “assault weapons” ban and a raised minimum age for rifle purchases.

The deal includes Republican priorities such as expanded mental health services and school safety and nods to Democratic priorities by adding expanded background checks for those under the age of 21, who will now have juvenile records screened before gun purchases.