Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on Wednesday made an appearance on "The View." Naturally, the discussion turned to his desire for gun control, especially after last week's tragic shooting in Virginia Beach. When asked what could be done to keep this from happening again, Swalwell reiterated his desire for an "assault weapons" ban and buyback program.
"First, ban and buyback every assault weapon in America. I’m the only candidate calling for that. That will go a long way. Kids are sitting paralyzed with fear in their classrooms today and you can’t measure that," Swalwell explained. "We can measure the deaths and the loss and we mourn the dead, but the fear that a kid has in their classroom today, you can’t measure that."
Whoopi Goldberg did, however, remind Swalwell of one important tidbit: the Virginia Beach shooter was an average guy and he carried his attack out with "regular guns" – a handgun – and not an AR-15.
What's ironic is Swalwell citied Chicago's shootings this past weekend
"Southside Chicago this weekend. 50 shootings. 50 people were shot. 10 people killed. That's different than the church shootings and the school shootings. Those are blocks that we've failed to invest in. People don't have hope," he said.
According to Swalwell, if Chicago had "jobs and healthcare not just liquor stores and payday lenders on the streets" then the city would be safer.
Swalwell must not know that Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation and yet the city has some of the highest crime. The two are more connected than he's aware of or would like to admit.
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There are so many things wrong with Swalwell's assumptions regarding an "assault weapons" buyback program.
1) Anti-gunners can never really explain what an "assault weapon" is. Basically, if it's big, black, scary and goes PEW PEW then it's very "assaulty."
2) What makes him think that gun owners are willingly going to turn over their firearms? Surely he's heard of MOLON LABE before. And trust me, that's not just a phrase. It's a mindset and a lifestyle. Patriotic Americans will fight for their right to keep and bear arms, not because it's about having a specific gun but because our Founding Fathers warned us about a government becoming too tyrannical. And they wanted people to stand up to those types of governments. That can't be done if the public is disarmed.
3) Let's call this what it is. It's a road to firearm confiscation. Every time we give anti-gunners an inch they take a mile. It happened with background checks. It happened with the Assault Weapons Ban. And it's happening again on a grander scale. They phrase this as a "well, you don't really need that gun" or "it's just this one thing we want to get rid of." It's a slippery slope that leads to an out right ban on all firearms.
As Larry Keane at the National Shooting Sports Foundation said: "It is a clarion call to all voters, not just gun voters. The danger isn’t law-abiding gun owners. It’s politicians who pervert the Constitution to serve their political ambitions and warped vision that citizens serve the government instead of the values of our Founding Fathers that deemed the government is designed to serve its citizens."
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