By Paul Lathrop | Contributing Editor
During an exchange with Utah Senator Mike Lee, President Biden’s pick for Attorney General made comments that shed light on what to expect from the Biden Administration regarding Second Amendment rights.
On Tuesday, Judge Merrick Garland answered questions in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his appointment when this exchange happened.
Utah Senator Mike Lee asked Garland about his opinion on the meaning of the Second Amendment and whether the Second Amendment “includes the right to carry operable firearms in public for self-defense.”
“My view is totally controlled by the Heller opinion,” Garland replied, “and in that case, justice Scalia held that there was an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. In the subsequent McDonald case, the court said that that was a fundamental right which applied to the states as well. It is a right, as Justice Scalia said in the opinion, like all rights, that is subject to some limitations.”
Merrick Garland
Senator Lee then asked Mr. Garland whether he supported universal background checks.
“I do think that it’s very important that we be careful that people who are entitled to have guns get the background check that allows them to have them,” Garland answered, ”and that those who are not entitled and we are concerned about because they are threats because they are felons, or for whatever reason are barred by the law, that there is an opportunity to determine that they not be given a gun.”
“Do you support banning certain types of firearms?” Lee inquired.
“Well. as I am sure you know, the President is a strong supporter of gun control and has been an advocate all his life, professional life on this question.” Garland responded, “The role of the Justice Department is to advance the policy program of the administration as long as it is consistent with the law. As I said, so far, we have a little indication from the supreme court as to what this means, but we don’t have a complete indication. Where there is room under the law for the President’s policies to be pursued, then I think the president is entitled to pursue them.”
“What about policies that would support holding firearms manufacturers liable for damage caused by people using firearms they produce to commit a crime?” the Senator pressed.
“I don’t have a. I believe the president may have a position on this question,” Garland haltingly answered, “I have not thought myself deeply about this. I don’t think it raises a Second Amendment issue itself, the question of the liability protection, um, but I have not addressed this in any way, and I need to think about this considerably more.”
Glaringly obvious is that Garland at no point expressed his own opinion. He only expressed the opinions of others.
For example, he gave his perceived idea of what Biden would want when Lee asked him if he would support banning certain types of firearms. He then gave Scalia’s opinion when referring to the Heller case.
In sidestepping all the questions that Lee asked, Garland appears to many grassroots gun rights activists to be just a “yes man” for the Biden administration, doing whatever they ask no matter what they ask.
