Why is the nation so low on ammunition? Does it have anything to do with gun control? Should we be asking? Should we be thinking about the Second Amendment? Why are Biden, Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and leading Democrats trying to limit gun buying and justify confiscation? This is the right time to ask. We must stay focused.
In the same month, top Democrats push to remake the Supreme Court, “packing” membership with four liberal justices, ending a century and a half of precedent – grabbing the Court, and in the process arguably destroying it, they are centralizing power in other ways.
One is a go-for-broke effort to upend the 2nd Amendment – starting with bills like H.R. 127, which conditions gun ownership on a government psychologist, pushes long prison sentences for unlicensed ownership, bans, and gun confiscation.
Last week Biden pushed his executive authority – again hammering gun rights. As if brazenly lying to second graders, he started with: “Nothing I am about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment.” You know, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain; this little shot will not hurt, if you make a face, it will freeze, and death by a thousand cuts is painless. Sure.
Biden then proceeded to tell us “no amendment is absolute,” you never could “own any weapon you wanted,” “certain people were not allowed to own,” and so it is “bizarre” to imagine the Democrats want to impair your Second Amendment rights. Are you kidding? If you are convinced – I have some swamp land for you and feel free to busy yourself on how the moon is made of green cheese.
Biden then demanded Justice stop Americans from making guns from kits, owning guns without serial numbers, using braces for handguns (which improve accuracy, God forbid). He pushed citizen informers, what he euphemistically called “community violence intervention,” and laws that require throwing red flags at worrisome neighbors, the sort that cut the grass too close to yours. See, e.g., https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-guns-remarks-executive-actions.
Notably, H.R. 127 pushes – in tandem with Biden’s non-worrisome clampdown – the idea that a neighbor should let the government know if they think you are depressed, have an addiction, or meet a list of other suspicious behaviors. See, e.g., https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/127/text.
While not the Soviet Union or Maoist China, these provisions sound frighteningly like Orwell, who reminded us – if we dare remember – the meaning of words, the ambit of freedom, and the power of elites are related. When meanings change and freedom shrinks, society changes. As he noted, “who controls the past controls the future … and who controls the present controls the past.”
Let us be clear: The Second Amendment was second for a reason because freedoms identified in the First – and throughout the Bill of Rights – required protection. Yes, citizens had a right to self-defense and defense of others – notably a provision included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and United Nations doctrine – but more: They had a right to protect themselves against a voracious government. That is why the Amendment exists.
Now to specifics. Americans should be on guard – to protect our God-given rights, distilled and embodied in our Constitution. We should be aware of the bold, frontal attack on these rights, including Biden’s and Harris’ – who tried to nobble gun manufacturers in California when she was a prosecutor.
We should be aware of the rising clamor in a Democrat-controlled Congress for facially unconstitutional legislation and crass manipulation of the Supreme Court – to declare this unconstitutional legislation constitutional. To these people, ends justify means. They crave the self-licking ice cream cone power.
But other threats require focus. Movement in the bushes cannot be ignored. When the “Band of Brothers,” Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th parachute regiment, 101st Airborne – defended freedom at Bastogne, they wrestled snow, cold, enemy artillery, working firearms. They also feared – lack of ammunition. A gun without ammunition is just a piece of metal. Enemies of freedom know that.
Worrisome then, especially in a time of riots, defunding police, increased legal ownership, and public unease – including by Democrat attacks on gun rights – is another fact. Ammunition for basic firearms, the sort people use for self-protection, like 9mm, is drying up. The reasons are many, and not necessarily nefarious – reduced production during the pandemic, more interest, needs of local law enforcement, but guns are not worth much without ammunition. And to be very clear – this is a real-time issue, right now, unfortunately, perhaps coincidentally, at this exact time. See, e.g., https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/great-ammo-shortage-2021-real-disaster-182523;
The main point is simple – and should be compelling. Each generation must make real the promise of this Republic, meaning of Constitutional process and Bill of Rights. If we do not stay real, they do not stay real. If we do not stay focused on text, context, what to protect, the picture gets blurry. Rights are lost when not defended. The Biden-Harris team, and anti-constitutional colleagues on the Hill, plainly do not respect the 2nd Amendment’s history, purpose, or import. That is why we must.