A critical responsibility of our nation’s Commander in Chief is to uphold the constitutional rights of all citizens, regardless of age, race, socioeconomic status or background. This includes protecting our natural born right to self-defense guaranteed under the Second Amendment. Unfortunately for Americans today, President Biden is proposing more failed policies at the expense of Americans’ right to protect themselves and their families. His recent unveiling of a new regulation aimed at so-called “ghost guns” coupled with his nomination of anti-gun politician Steve Dettelbach as the next director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), are the latest examples of bad policymaking that targets law-abiding citizens, instead of criminals.
For starters, it is deeply troubling to see President Biden once again nominate someone with a demonstrated anti-gun record to serve as the new ATF Director. President Biden’s previous choice for ATF Director, David Chipman, was withdrawn after receiving bipartisan criticism from Senate Republicans and Democrats. Pro-self-defense groups, including the USCCA, were outspoken in opposition to Chipman, noting how his leadership could lead to the implementation of blanket gun control measures without consideration or understanding of Americans’ natural born right to self-defense. While less controversial than an anti-gun lobbyist like Chipman, Mr. Dettelbach’s nomination should still seem troublesome for concerned Americans.
This nomination is in the hands of Senate lawmakers in Washington to properly vet and closely examine Dettelbach’s stance on guns before voting on his nomination. So, where do people like us have the power? In the ballot box. And this midterm election will be more important than ever as millions of Americans demand to know what lawmakers will do to address rising crime rates nationwide. Especially as the last two years saw record numbers of first-time gun owners – with the number of gun owners seeking self-defense education and training at an all-time high – efforts by the Biden Administration to implement gun-control policies will continue to fall tone deaf.
There is no evidence that President Biden’s latest government regulation aimed at “ghost guns” will have any impact on reducing crime, and criminals by definition do not follow the law. In a recent letter to President Biden by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, the Senator called out the Administration’s lack of data on the use of “ghost guns.” In fact, using data reported by the White House in comparison with FBI data, only 0.36% of homicides between 2016 and 2020 were conducted with these types of guns. At the end of the day, the term “ghost gun” is made up by politicians who intend to conjure up images of uncontrollable firearms when in reality, it is nothing more than a firearm manufactured by a private citizen for his or her personal use.
Like many ineffective anti-gun laws though, this regulation is more about the appearance of doing something rather than taking concrete steps to help make communities safer and focusing on supporting those law-abiding Americans who choose to protect.
The reality of more anti-gun laws is that they are a political tactic used to limit responsible gun ownership by law-abiding citizens. Often, those who say they are working to eliminate “gun violence” are misrepresenting what, or in most cases who is committing the crime – it’s the person, not the tool.
Today, people across the nation responsibly use their firearm training and education to protect themselves or their loved ones from home invasions, carjackings, and other acts of violence brought on by criminals. A mom defended her children and her home from an intruder by shooting him in the chest. One Louisiana man came home to burglars in his house and, despite being shot by one of them, was able to grab his firearm and shot back, enabling police to find the intruder after he fled. In Pennsylvania, a woman and her boyfriend were getting into their car at a local park when a man started firing at them. Luckily, the woman was a law-abiding gun owner and was able to quickly defend them from any further harm. If it weren’t for one Chicago father’s firearm training, he wouldn’t have been able to defend him and his son when they were approached by a criminal outside a friend’s home who opened fire on them.
The reality is that crime will only continue to rise if law-abiding citizens’ ability to defend themselves is further restricted. It isn’t the tool that needs controlling; it’s about stopping criminals who perpetrate violent crimes with guns. Criminals have no respect for our laws. We challenge this Administration to start supporting Americans’ right to protect themselves instead of creating new regulations that cripple law-abiding gun owners. Elected officials must start listening to the millions of law-abiding gun owners and develop proposals that target violent criminals instead of responsibly armed Americans who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Mike Lowney is the chief strategy officer at Delta Defense and executive director and chairman of the Board for U.S Concealed Carry Association for Saving Lives Super PAC.