A report in The Hill revealed so-called “gun violence prevention advocates”—known to Second Amendment activists as gun prohibitionists—are “feeling disappointed” that Joe Biden, having served nearly one full year in office, has not made any progress on gun control.
They are reportedly upset with his tepid reaction to the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan and the fact that gun control lobbyist David Chipman was withdrawn from consideration to head the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, where he formerly worked as an agent.
The story quoted Zeenat Yahya, deputy policy director at March for Our Lives: “I think the biggest thing to highlight here is that the president has been a friend to the gun violence prevention (GVP) movement this year and we’re thankful, but frankly, he hasn’t really been a leader… We’re definitely surprised. We were really hopeful and he made a lot of promises. We are thankful for some of the actions the president has already taken but there is so much more he can do that’s a comprehensive top-to-bottom approach.”
That Biden didn’t do much on gun control should not be surprising. The Delaware Democrat has had his hands full with COVID-19 mandates, the economy and his own tanking popularity polls.
And, he’s been in office during a year in which, according to data from the FBI National Instant Check System and a study recently revealed by The Guardian, more than 5 million adults became first-time gun owners between January 2020 and April 2021. In the past eight months since April, the pattern hasn’t changed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the 1,200-word report in The Hill didn’t quote a single Second Amendment advocate. It did garner nearly 11,000 comments by Monday morning, however.
Coincidentally, The Hill report came on the heels of an at-gunpoint carjacking involving Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat. Predictably, at a news conference Dec. 23, Scanlon said she would “continue to push” for what she termed “common sense gun safety measures,” which include “background checks” and “doing away with ghost guns,” according to Newsweek.
There is no evidence the people who stole her car used so-called “ghost guns” in that incident, and it is common knowledge that criminals do not submit to background checks to obtain firearms. It was noted that police arrested five suspects in that case, all but one being a juvenile. In the Newsweek report, there was no mention of enforcing or enacting laws to punish individuals, even juveniles, who commit armed carjackings.
There was one thing in The Hill report worth noting. Fred Guttenberg, senior advisor to the Brady PAC—a gun prohibition lobbying group—and father to one of the victims at the 2018 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, told the newspaper, “We are closer than we’ve ever been to passing legislation. My fear is that we’re also closer than we’ve ever been to permanently losing the chance to do so. 2022 is so critical on this issue.”
It seemed like an ominous forecast of a massive Democrat loss in next November’s mid-term elections. If that happens, Biden will become a lame duck unable to push any of his agenda, especially on guns.
