A Chicago Sun-Times columnist who is comparing guns to child porn and pushing for more gun laws was previously denied a weapons purchase because of a domestic battery charge.
On June 8 Neil Steinberg used his personal blog to write about the value of free speech, then suggested speech has limitations.
In an effort to make his point he discussed child pornography, writing that “simply to possess” child pornography is a criminal act, and elaborated:
Why does child pornography merit such a unique level of suppression? I’ll give you a hint: it’s called “child pornography.” Children cannot consent to sexual acts with adults and are severely damaged by being forced to do so. Child pornography hurts children, so we fight it with all the legal might our nation can bring to bear, even if it infringes on fundamental freedoms.
He noted that free speech is an “essential” constitutional right but claims that it is limited by pornography laws and asked why people refuse to see limits on the Second Amendment.
Steinberg then went into a full-court press for gun control:
The far right have a twisted logic about gun laws that goes like this: the Second Amendment is such an absolute value that even the most common-sense restriction — don’t sell assault rifles to teenagers — is a step toward the bogeyman of total confiscation. Ban .50-caliber bullets, their thinking goes, and the black helicopters are on their way.
As they repeat that, over and over, remember: by their reasoning, child pornography should be legal, out of respect for the First Amendment, with the harm it causes children shrugged off.
On June 23, 2016, WDBO reported that Steinberg went to Maxons Shooters in Des Plaines, Illinois, “to show how easy it was to buy the same type of gun used in the [June 12, 2016,] Orlando terrorist attack.” But WDBO indicated that Steinberg did not get the gun because he did not pass a background check.
WDBO did not know of any conviction in Steinberg’s past, but they did point out that he faced “domestic battery charges related to an incident involving his wife.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.