The Second Amendment, Brandonized
Foggy Brains Biden is most certainly NOT a constitutional scholar...
David Harsanyi has a great article at the Federalist about Foggy Brain Biden’s repetition of lies and falsehoods disguised as an argument for gun control. Harsanyi notes:
“The president delivered the same ludicrous speech he’s been giving for at least a decade. And it contained one of my favorite arguments:
‘And so, we have to change — there’s a lot of things we can change, because the American people by and large agree you don’t need a weapon of war. I’m a Second Amendment guy. I taught it for four years, six years in law school. And guess what? It doesn’t say that you can own any weapon you want. It says there are certain weapons that you just can’t own. Even during when it was passed, you couldn’t own a cannon. You can’t own a machine gun. (Laughter.) No, I’m serious.
So, what’s the deal with the idea that it’s an absolute — you know, I love these guys who say the Second Amendment is — you know, the tree of liberty is water with the blood of patriots. Well, if want to do that, you want to work against the government, you need an F-16. You need something else than just an AR-15. Anyway.’
Virtually every word of this garbled nonsense is untrue.”
Full disclosure, I own guns. I’ve been shooting since I was ten years old. I am about as pro-2A as one can get and so far, none of my guns in or out of my control has shot anyone.
I was recently asked if I “couldn’t just agree” that AR-15’s should be banned because “weapons of war have no place on the street” and “nobody needs a thirty round magazine” and I said “No, not only will I never agree to such a thing, that agreement arising from government induced public fear is why a president claims the 2A “says there are weapons that you just can’t own” as if it were true.
The original National Firearms Act (NFA) enacted in 1934 wasn’t a gun ban, per se, it was crafted under the taxing authority of the federal government and imposed a tax on the making and transfer of firearms defined by the Act, as well as a special (occupational) tax on persons and entities engaged in the business of importing, manufacturing, and dealing in firearms covered under the NFA. The law also required the registration of all subject NFA firearms with the Secretary of the Treasury. Firearms subject to the 1934 Act included shotguns and rifles having barrels less than 18 inches in length, certain firearms described as “any other weapons,” machine guns, and firearm mufflers and silencers.
While the NFA was enacted by Congress as an exercise of its authority to tax, the NFA had a purpose unrelated to revenue collection – that was to curtail, if not prohibit, transactions in NFA firearms.
Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings called on Congress to enact stronger regulations on firearms in response to a high crime rate and cheap access to high powered weapons by criminals. Opponents objected to the measure on the grounds that it represented too much government intrusion, that it would ultimately aid criminals and that it was too far reaching and severe. So rather than go after the criminal, they went after their tools. Not having a constitutional method for an outright ban of firearms, they relied on the power to levy taxes and the federal government began the Texas Two Step around the Constitution.
They levied a $200 tax on the making and transfer of most NFA firearms, which was considered quite severe in 1934 dollars (roughly equivalent to four grand today) and adequate to facilitate the government’s purpose of discouraging or eliminating transactions in these firearms.
But neither machine guns nor suppressors (silencers are for movies) are NOT banned, nor have they ever been.
What Foggy Brains wants you to forget is that there never has been, nor can there ever be (as long as the 2A stands) a constitutional way to eliminate private ownership of firearms of any kind.
And just so we are clear, an achievement Biden claims as his, the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban was never directly challenged under the Second Amendment.
You might get blocked from owning a F-22 or F-35 for national security reasons, but you can get an M248 Squad Automatic Weapon as long as you pay the Federal Firearms License fees and the taxes. I guess you really don’t need F-16’s to defeat Biden since the Taliban did it with Soviet surplus AK’s and IEDs…and Biden abandoned helicopters, aircraft, heavy and light vehicles as well as thousands of long guns of all descriptions and the ammo to boot.
Contrary to what Foggy Joe says, even today if you want to own a cannon, go for it. You have always been able to own one.
Give them an inch and they will take a mile – and that is the process the National Firearms Act of 1934 began and why we have a president with a head full of cottage cheese who thinks he can create enough fear and panic to get people to ignore the Constitution once again.
Michael, you are insulting cottage cheese. Even horses would be insulted if you compared their defecation to what is inside the cranium of the entity that holds the office of President of the United States of America.