On Monday’s first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Pro-Second Amendment advocates were blowing the whistle on the Democratic Party Platform.
“Tim Walz lied when he said, ‘No one wants to take your guns,’ and that could not be made more clear by this DNC platform, which is loaded with blatantly unconstitutional policies that won’t do anything to stop crime or make America safer,” Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America (GOA) told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Johnston said his organization just hosted its inaugural convention in Knoxville and members were abuzz about the choices in this fall’s presidential election.
“It’s clear based on the response from thousands of our members that they’re fired up heading into this election—gun owners know the Second Amendment is on the ballot,” he said. “We will continue to push back on this DNC agenda through campaign action, lobbying efforts, and if necessary, legal challenges in defense of Americans’ Second Amendment rights. We cannot afford to compromise.”
One look at the so-called “Gun Safety” subhead of the official Democrat Party Platform document—which, incidentally, has nothing to do with gun safety—tells gun owners all they need to know about where that party stands on Second Amendment rights. In fact, it’s basically a wish list of proposals anti-gun groups have been pushing for years.
“Democrats will establish universal background checks, a step supported by the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners,” the platform states. “We will once again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We will require safe storage for guns.”
Of course, most gun owners do not support so-called “universal” background checks, since only lawful gun owners will comply with the law and criminals will continue to get their guns however they want. However, if Democrat pollsters ask the question just right, they can make it seem like the “vast majority of Americans” want such a law.
The platform continues: “Democrats will end the gun industry’s immunity from liability, so gunmakers can no longer escape accountability. We will pass a national red flag law to prevent tragedies by keeping weapons out of dangerous hands.”
As TTAG readers know, gun companies do not have blanket immunity as President Joe Biden and others like to say. The Protection of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act (PLCAA) actually just protects them from frivolous lawsuits for the illegal use of their legally produced, lawfully sold products. Additionally, nearly all red-flag laws passed to date lack sufficient protection for gun owners’ right to due process.
“We will increase funding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) for enforcement and prosecution, and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for firearm background checks,” the platform concludes. “And, because the gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis, we will fund gun violence research across the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as community violence interventions.”
Increasing funding for either of those rogue agencies is a poor decision, and it’s likely that former President Donald Trump, if he were to win, would do just the opposite, which would be a positive step for lawful gun owners. Additionally, gun violence isn’t a “public health crisis,” it’s a violent criminal. Since the Democratic party is typically soft on crime, they have to blame violence on something other than the criminals that they rely on for votes.
In the end, the Democrat Party Platform is a lose-lose proposition for gun owners, regardless of which party they embrace. We can only hope they don’t get another chance to bring all those restrictions to fruition.
Read the full article here
