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Biden Administration: We Support the Second Amendment … and We Want to Confiscate Your Guns

Monday, October 30, 2023

Biden Administration: We Support the Second Amendment … and We Want to Confiscate Your Guns

To say the Biden Administration speaks with a forked tongue on the Second Amendment is an understatement. But translating the ultimate message is easy: They want your guns, and they will say or do whatever is necessary to get them.

On Thursday, Kamala Harris – the nominal head of the White House’s recently-launched Office of Gun Violence Prevention – issued a statement on the unfolding events in Lewiston, Me. It was a classic example of doublespeak and dishonesty.

Harris said, “Let us … continue to speak truth about the moment we are in.” Then, in the next sentence, she said something that was demonstrably untrue: “Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in our nation.” We have debunked this claim on multiple occasions. It has also been exposed by mainstream fact checkers as requiring the exclusion of infants and the inclusion of young adults to be true (which is why “children” is sometimes replaced with the more accurate but still misleading “children and teens”).

But she didn’t stop there. Harris went on to say, “It is a false choice to suggest we must choose between either upholding the Second Amendment or passing reasonable gun safety laws to save lives.” She then gave several examples of what she considered “reasonable gun safety laws,” including “universal” background checks, “red flag” firearm confiscation laws, “high-capacity” magazine bans, and bans on semiautomatic long guns.

First, these laws do not uphold the Second Amendment. While none of them have been scrutinized by the U.S. Supreme Court, various iterations of at least three out of the four have been ruled unconstitutional under that provision by various lower courts. There is certainly no consensus that they are constitutionally permissible.

Nor has it been convincingly established that any of them “save lives.” A long-running and well-funded effort by the RAND Corporation to review the effects of gun control on violent crime and homicide has determined that the evidence of the four laws’ efficacy is generally “inconclusive,” with only “limited” evidence to support limiting magazine capacity.

But even if one could conceive of a world in which some version of the policies could pass constitutional muster and have some marginal effect on public safety, that is not the world imagined by the Biden Administration. Instead, they seek the most extreme version of these laws yet attempted, a legal regime that would be totally at odds with the text, history, and tradition of the U.S. Constitution.

Harris made that clear the next day, in remarks at a state luncheon whose guests included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia. Again, Harris used the occasion to exploit the tragic situation in Lewiston, basically repeating her script from the previous day. But then she added: “And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated” (emphasis added).

We have discussed the Australian experience with gun control many times, as it is a regime that has been promoted as a template for America by such gun control stalwarts as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Yet that template means making armed self-defense (which the U.S. Supreme Court has declared the “core” of the Second Amendment) illegal and instituting a “needs-based” firearm licensing system (also invalidated by U.S. Supreme Court precedent). These principals were enforced in Australia through retroactively banning and compelling the surrender of lawfully obtained guns, including handguns and semiautomatic long guns.

There is certainly nothing “reasonable” about recharacterizing peaceable citizens as criminals based merely on possession of guns and magazines lawfully obtained and never misused, nor about threatening them with imprisonment if they don’t turn that property over to the government.

But, make no mistake, that is what is involved in Australian style gun control, a regime arising from a country that has no constitutional protection for the right to keep and bear arms and that treats armed self-defense as a crime. Moreover, the RAND Corp. determined “in total, evidence is weak for an effect of the [Australian gun control regime] on firearm homicides.”

The Biden Administration, in short, is promoting draconian, un-American policies with unproven benefits for public safety.

However they try to couch it, that message and that goal should be rejected by the American people.

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North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans know the President Donald Trump-led Republican Party has a better plan than their Democratic Party opponents on crime and gun control.

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

Last Monday, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce published a final rule that reversed a crackdown on the commercial export of firearms from the U.S. to other countries.

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

The 36th Legislature of the US Virgin Islands is continuing to advance sweeping gun control measures through the legislative process.

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation—announced the filing of another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

There’s an old saying that rings especially true to Second Amendment supporters: If you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed.

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NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.