AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
As violent crime continues to devastate many major American cities and even spread into the suburbs, the Biden administration is returning to a familiar Democratic scapegoat to escape blame for the tragic consequences of the progressive left’s failed criminal justice “reforms” and support for the Defund the Police movement. Who are they saying is to blame? Well, gun owners, of course.
At a Rose Garden event on Monday, President Biden announced Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S. Attorney from Ohio, as his new nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) as well as new restrictions on so-called “ghost guns.” Both moves were part of a coordinated effort by the White House this week to appear to be doing something about the wave of violent crime sweeping the nation, which Americans now rank as their number three concern, just behind the economy and inflation.
But as Republican lawmakers and many conservatives have argued, the Biden administration’s anti-Second Amendment crusade has little hope of doing anything to curb violent crime, and these latest measures appear to be nothing more than a tactic to placate radical gun control advocates after Biden promised “significant reform” to gun laws throughout his 2020 campaign.
Although other items on Biden’s progressive agenda have gotten most of the attention in recent months, pro-Second Amendment groups have warned that the administration has silently been working to restrict gun rights since Biden took office. The nomination of David Chipman, Biden’s first choice to lead the ATF in April of 2021, had to be withdrawn amid bipartisan opposition to his prior work for far-left gun control groups and concerns from ATF officials that Chipman was a “rabid partisan” who holds hostile views toward the Second Amendment and gun owners.
The defeat of Chipman’s nomination was a major setback for Biden’s gun control agenda, but appears to not have deterred the White House from advancing another strong opponent of gun rights to fill the post. While he was running for Ohio Attorney General in 2018, Dettelbach expressed support for universal background checks and an outright ban on so-called “assault weapons,” two positions that immediately put him on the far left of gun control debates. Pro-gun groups have warned that Dettelbach is a “rinse and repeat” from Chipman, while Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana called Dettelbach a “gun-grabbing radical that will put Montanans’ Second Amendment rights in jeopardy.”
Dettelbach’s nomination was also announced in coordination with the release of a new Justice Department rule on “ghost guns,” Democrats’ term for privately made firearms that are more difficult for the government to track. Progressives have long pushed for such action, even as Republicans warn that Democrat soft-on-crime policies, not guns, are the real threat to public safety. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) slammed the new rule as a “distraction from the reality that the explosion of crime in blue cities is directly attributable to those same cities implementing de-policing, installing progressive prosecutors, and enacting disastrous bail reform policies.”
The tragic shooting incident that unfolded in New York City earlier this week seems to support Grassley’s assertion. Because Frank James, the individual responsible for wounding 23 people with a handgun in a subway car, purchased the weapon legally, the official media narrative has been, as it is with nearly all mass shootings, that guns are too easy to obtain.
But this explanation misses a major part of the story. James was only able to buy a gun legally because of liberal “sentencing reform,” which allowed him to evade a felony conviction for one of the many violent crimes he had previously committed. The New York City subway shooting case thus appears to be one more example of left-wing criminal justice “reform” policies allowing dangerous criminals both to escape jail time and avoid laws designed specifically to keep people like James from acquiring guns.
If recent history is any indication, Democrats’ pursuit of more extreme gun control measures as an answer for crime is also unlikely to help them in November’s midterm elections, as the White House clearly hopes. While education issues took center stage in Virginia’s gubernatorial race last year, for example, gun owners in the state also turned out in force to oppose Terry McAuliffe’s promise to further restrict Second Amendment rights in the state. Moreover, studies suggest that more Blacks and Latinos – historically key Democratic voting blocs – are becoming gun owners than ever before.
But even with clear evidence that law-abiding Americans like their Second Amendment freedoms and have no intention of wavering, any change in direction from the Biden administration appears unlikely. Just as the Democratic Party remains beholden to a small minority of progressive activists on energy, economic, and social issues, fringe anti-gun groups appear to have the White House by the nose when it comes to gun policy.
At the same time, Democrats have backed themselves into a corner by declaring that policies like ending cash bail, outright refusing to prosecute some crimes, and “diverting” law enforcement funding are the only way to end alleged “systemic racism” in the criminal justice system. Thus, they are left with few, if any, options to address violent crime – and that’s something voters won’t forgive.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_
Blaming guns for the crime problem is like blaming Toyota for drunk drivers.
It’s not the legal gun owners. It’s the ones who are getting guns on the street that are the ones committing the crimes.
you better believe that 99% of the guns used in these violent crimes – were stolen guns! It also behooves the legal gun owners to protect their guns from thieves!
This fool is a liar and a mental midget.
Biden will find any way to blame someone or something other than himself. That’s the demoncrat way. To blame guns for rising crimes is stupid. He’s using guns because his agenda is to take guns away from us.
The quicker people realize that Biden and the rest of the demoncrats are total failures the quicker we can get qualified leaders.
loser biden!
So, Defund the Police and not processing criminals but releasing them back onto the streets, or better yet, not even arresting them knowing they won’t be charged….all Biden and the progressive democratic agenda and policies, have nothing to do with this? Only morons believe t his and should not be voting. Liberalism has caused all of our country’s problems and it is just escalating. They are bankrupting our country and demoralizing it at every turn and they continue to lie. Our cities with the most strict gun laws are those that have the highest crime. Does Biden really believe this? No, he just hopes that enough uninformed and ignorant people do. He also wants everyone to believe Putin raising oil prices has caused the hike in gas prices?
Come on Man!
Joe your a mislead individual.
How on God’s Green Earth did you get Elected to Office.
The Awnser: You Cheated!
Biden not my President!
I wonder if anyone has checked the stats of automobile deaths in comparison to gun deaths. Should we ban autos? Or any other causes of deaths. The only reason I see for the government to want to ban guns is that those guns are the only deterrent to them taking over in a dictatorship.
How did this guy get to be presidente any ways?
Blaming gun manufacturers is like blaming ice cream makers for weight gain… I can’t believe anyone except Communist would support such ideas. I’m glad the Socialist party know as Democrats have picked BETO to run for Governor of Texas. He has make it clear for years to disarm Americans. We will see how that works for them here in Texas…
every election it is the same old hot button items – guns , abortions, war , abortion and kkk
we not only have major gun violence in this country but thousands of thug illegals coming in here. how can supporters of biden – the party of dumbness – think this is a good thing.
Since when did the guns become “robotized”??? How about blaming the person holding the gun committing the crime!!!!
Let’s Go Brandon!
I doubt the oval office vegetable ever heard of the traitors his handlers advance to head up govt agencies
Biden has lived in the protective bubble of Washington politicians for so long he doesn’t know much, if anything about the outside world. “Nasty” Nancy is the same, remember when she picked up the AR15 a couple of years ago to make a point on the floor of Congress during a gun control legislation push? She had her finger on the trigger.
FJB!
What an idiot.
THEY DON’T CARE!!! November is on its way and they have little time to get their agenda completed. We have to make sure they don’t repeat how they got MCIjoe and Hee-Haw in there in the first place.
He perpetrates a crime string this country has never seen before from forcing experimental shots on people via coercion, to ruining large portions of our economy, having soldiers killed and civilians abandoned with his disgraceful chaotic flight from Afghanistan, ruining the country with astronomical debt and inflation, and he wants to inflict more unconstitutional harm and injury to law abiding gun owners who have jumped through every unconstitutional, supreme legality of our country violating hoop by declaring firearms and equipment they legally purchased to now be illegal and ban them. That’s rich! Maybe this “resident” of the White House should first of be reminded that he is to execute existing laws, and that legislation is completely, and utterly outside of his authority. Next he and his son should have their “extracurricular business dealings” with communist China, and Ukraine, as well as the occurrences around the 2020 election investigated by state, not federal law enforcement which seems to be his party’s enforcement arm.
DemonRat Communists need to be BANNED from America.
Everything they do is anti-America..
Time to end their Reign of Terror.
Biden is a moron. No….that’s a slap in the face to true Morons. He has no business being in the White House or in the United States. He and his crony minions have run this Country into the ground, and will continue to do so until which time the US (US citizens….not Illegals), oust him and all his selected dissidents.
Fixed elections has Schiff for for consequences. When Little Joey does not go off script blubbering senile nonsense as he often does, out Puppet-In-Chief can only regurgitate what his mysterious “they” who are always hiding in the shadows tell him to say. I refer to the “they” Little Joey referred to when he said “They won’t let me got to Ukraine” to meet with a president I wish we could trade him for. Three times I’ve heard Little Joey say there are people we can’t ever see that “I don’t want to get in trouble with.” Uh, hey, ain’t the POTUS the top executive of our Executive Branch? His underlings are supposed to answer to him~~not the other way around. Best I can tell from Little Joey’s policies and the writers of his teleprompter scripts, his handlers are bossy little Marxist haters of our Republic and its Constitution, our free market economy and just plain most of us. They who are Little Joey’s “they” should all be tried for treason.
doe ray me fa q biden
What a damn idiot…………not criminals (who will get guns/weapons) no matter what.
And this stupidity is living in the White House. This country is in worse trouble than
ever, with this kind of ignorance ………
doe ray me fa q bi den
Elections are coming. VOTE them OUT.
Biden is either pretending that the American people are stupid or he actually believes it. Biden has stirred up the boiling pot of racial tensions and hate by repeatedly claiming that America is systemically racist.. He blames police for being violent and racist, He supports policies that have defunded the police and their ability to maintain law and order. Instead of being respectful and thankful to the police in this country, Biden usually talks about the police as if they are not doing enough to promote good community and psychological relations with the minorities in the many violent cities which are headed by weak, dysfunctional mayors. The very cities that have the strongest gun laws on the books are frequently the most violent and saturated with serious crime.
any move to try and get the guns out of hands of gang members and criminals would be deemed racist since they all are mostly black and hispanic
If you wish to blame someone then blame the people who become multimillionaires by shooting, killing, murdering and enticing our children to do the same – HOLLYWOOD!
Biden, in his 40+ years as a professional politician, has done nothing, zero, to benefit America. He’s always been a moron but now he’s getting worse since his dementia took hold. His keepers instruct him to do/say anything that will benefit their agenda of forming the one world government and getting America to join. America has many enemies and the worst are within our borders.
moron
I need to sell my car because some idiot who was drunk crashed his into someone and killed them!
We must fight hard to keep the second amendment. The day the guns are prohibited is the day the government will crush our freedoms. The founders knew of this threat and wanted the people in control and not the government. Years ago I read in an article in an interview with a leading advisor in the former Soviet Union why the USSR never invaded the United States. The response was that the Soviets were afraid of our citizens because of our freedom to own guns.
Believe it. Yea sure, you betcha.
Hey jb, is h still the smartest guy you know?
Sums it up pretty well, me thinks.
I have spring chores to get to and have wasted all time this requires.
Thanx for reading, have a lovely day.
We do not have a gun problem in this country. We have an anger/hate/mental health problem that the Dems are faster than ever.
This guy is a clown and a deep state asset that was placed into the White House! Time to remove this fake administration!! #MAGA #FJB
The communists shift tactics so as to confuse inattentive people regarding their real objectives. In 1968, they banned so called saturday night specials from importation. They succeeded in part because many gun owners didnt care about those cheap imports. The next wave of gun control focused on scary black rifles. Again, many hunters thought, “well, who needs those “. They persist today in trying to outlaw black rifles in spite of the fact that ALL RIFLES account for a small fraction of homicides. They’re not yet bold enough to try blanket bans or so called buybacks because they know many dems own guns for protection and those numbers have swelled considerably in the past two years. The main point is to give them NOTHING, because they will never stop willingly until we emulate the UK or AUSTRALIA. Should they ever succeed in packing SCOTUS the first thing on their agenda would be to declare the second amendment an 18th century anachronism.
Blaming guns on gun violence is like blaming dollar bills for inflation
Biden is both a twit, and unprincipled at the same time: that is, he has moronic (as classically used, to mean an evil idiot) handlers using him, so of course he blames the hammer for the blow, or the knife for the cut, or the car for the accident… Nothing will fix this until his removal along with his evil crew of clowns.
Responsible, legal gun owners are standing in the way of us becoming Shanghai. You know, the place where people are literally starving to death locked in their apartments in a stupid and cruel “covid” lockdown.
I like Clint’s question of Biden: How do you get that much Stupid in one head?
It just angers me when Democrats employ the tactic of strategic blame. As Democrat-governed jurisdictions reprieve criminal sentences of criminals and effect early releases, they blame it on the Second Amendment. Biden can’t step down from the presidency soon enough.
My opinion – this all seems to fit into Biden’s plan. Probably the darkest and most accurate piece, even announced by Biden himself, is the formation of “The New World Order, it’s coming”, and United Nations control of humanity via world wide socialist control. Biden said he wants America to lead such a world in the future. Put it all together and see the evil that’s being unleashed on the world. Jesus Christ may be returning sooner than some think. Is this the reason Biden is trying to get gun control and disarm Americans? He needs it to appease the UN. Biden is also using Global Warming as a critical distraction and to show the UN that America wants into of all of this. Add to that that our President doesn’t even respect the sovereignty of our own country, by his blatant disregard for protecting our southern border and taking no action to stop the crisis he’s caused. Unvaccinated illegals, thugs, criminals, terrorists, drug couriers, human trafficking, etc., are out of control. Biden picked up where Obama left off – doing everything they can to weaken and destroy America. He plans to, disarm us with gun grabbing EO’s, use them to declare Martial Law, continue trampling our Constitution, Rights and Rule of Law, continue exterminating the unborn, infecting the minds of K-3 school children, supporting immorality, demanding our reliance on foreign energy, etc., all with the goal of getting us all under control, and in compliance with his his devious plans. Wake up America – the rabbit hole is spinning.
Yes, we do have a problem with guns in this country. The problem is that we do not have enough of them.
The Democrats pathology behind all the anti 2nd Amendments bills they are foolishly pushing is never-ending…The laws currently on the books where firearms are concerned simply are NOT being enforced in the first place, i.e. Defund The Police, now there is a beauty. Well placed George Soro’s DA’s in every major Democrat city should be an eye opener with the ” no cash bail ” policies letting these criminals walk scot free with clean records, hence the so-called legally bought firearms by criminals playbook…
The idiocy on full display by all of these anti-gun lawmakers will eventually come back to bite them in the near future. Their days are numbered, especially that of the current senile potus whom is clearly suffering from cognizant deficient issues…
Bill… :~)
There once was a NYC Transit cop who instituted a “broken windows” approach to policing on the subways. He not only reduced subway crime, he caught criminals with outstanding arrest warrants and felons carrying illegal firearms. No new laws, just enforcing the ones already on the books. Compare that to Obama’s DOJ and Eric Holder who prosecuted (or is that prostituted) maybe 25 federal gun cases in 8 years. Fox, Newsmax, OANN and conservative talk show hosts need to get the word out, because the LameStream Media are losing viewers at a prodigious rate and are getting their news from other sources. Biden and the Dims need to have their feet held to the fire to forestall a possible comeback in November.
And Putin is the reason for gas prices going up.