Lame Duck Dangers and Joe Biden  by Tom Reynolds

SCOPE warned that the “lame duck” period until the new Congress takes over in January could be very dangerous to our rights.  Joe Biden is trying to prove our point.

Proving that Thanksgiving is aptly called “Turkey Day”, on it, Biden told reporters that he would be working on new gun-control laws between now and when the Republicans take charge of the House in January.

“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick,” Biden said. “It has no, no socially redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers…I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.”

As most gun owners know, semi-automatic describes a broad array of guns that can fire one bullet with each squeeze of the trigger and reloads itself after each shot.  Almost a decade ago, the National Rifle Association estimated that half of all guns sold in the U.S. qualified as semi-automatic. That ratio would probably be higher today.   

The American people would seem to be letting Biden know their feelings by voting with their pocketbooks.  Black Friday was the 3rd highest Black Friday for NICS checks with 192,749.  The previous week wasn’t bad, either:

• Saturday, Nov. 20, 2022-102,376;

• Sunday, Nov. 21, 2022 - 57,665;

• Monday, Nov. 22, 2022 - 103,543;

• Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2022 - 109,895;

• Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2022 - 116,033;

• Thursday, Nov. 25, 2022 - 29,111;

• Friday, Nov. 26, 2022 - 192,749. 

Earlier this year, Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island filed the HR1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 Act, which passed the House on July 29th by a party-line 217-213 vote. Cicilline’s bill would ban the sale or possession of multiple different types of firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns as well as large capacity magazines.  The bill has currently been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee so it would normally die there and it would have to be reintroduced as a new bill in the new Congress in January.  However, given Biden’s threats, will he try to breathe life into it since the new House is unlikely to pass it if reintroduced?

Never letting a tragedy go to waste, Biden has tried to use some recent shootings to reinforce his call for an assault weapons ban.  But inconvenient facts would get into his way, (if the media were willing to do something other than be the left’s propaganda arm).  The perp behind the Walmart shooting and another who killed three football players at the University of Virginia reportedly used 9mm pistols, not the so-called assault weapons”.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky noted that, “Americans rejected Pelosi’s gun control schemes in the midterms, yet here is Biden saying he wants to ban modern firearms, and maligning most gun owners.”

Biden also said he would be working to strengthen federal Red Flag laws, ignoring that those laws run afoul of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendments.  That pesky Constitution is such a bummer for Biden!