Tipsheet

Anti-Gun Media: We Never Said We Wanted To Repeal The Second Amendment...Uh, Yes You Did

Did we take the red pill or the blue pill? Did we fall down the rabbit hole or not? What does a scanner see? The liberal news media has convinced themselves and their allies that no one is advocating the repeal of the Second Amendment; they just wrote several op-eds about it. This is all part of fever dream conservatives are suffering in the wake of the tragic Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February; the Left has made this diagnosis through their computer screens. No one wants to strip gun rights. It’s all a dream—sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Fortunately, the Right is not that dumb. We know what common sense gun control laws are—and we know the end game. It is the end of the Second Amendment. It is confiscation. Expanded background checks are the precursor to a national registry. Banning so-called assault weapons gets the scary ones out of the way. Magazine limits seriously prohibits the ownership and sale of firearms since a lot of handguns and rifles, with the exception of carry guns, bolt-action hunting rifles, revolvers, and 1911s, carry more than 10 rounds. It’s a graduated chipping away of gun rights. It may not say explicitly its true nature, but it’s there. The March for Our Lives event explicitly showcased this, when the give an inch, they’ll take a mile. Still, the liberal news media is trying to convince us that the abolition of the Second Amendment is not part of the conversation (via CNN):

Democrats, generally, want tighter gun laws, there is no doubt. So do a growing number of Republicans. And as we documented, there is bipartisan support in opinion polls for things like banning bump stocks, limiting high-capacity magazines and even putting restrictions on guns like the AR-15. But it's hard to find polling on the idea of repealing the Second Amendment, which should tell you something. It hasn't really been a part of the national conversation.

That CNN posted on March 28, but just a day prior The Washington Post reported on a poll about abolishing the Second Amendment:

In his op-ed, [former Justice John Paul] Stevens praises the work of the March for Our Lives organizers and urges the group to “seek more effective and more lasting reform” via a “repeal of the Second Amendment.” He calls the Second Amendment a “relic of the 18th century,” concerned more with the balance of power between the states and the federal government than with individual gun rights.

But public-opinion polling shows that it would take a lot of persuading to bring the public around to that view. In February, for instance, the Economist and YouGov asked Americans whether they supported a repeal of the Second Amendment. Twenty-one percent said they favored such a proposal, compared with 60 percent in opposition.


Commentary’s Noah Rothman partially detailed the repeal crowd’s past history, along with their denial that the Bill of Rights is on the chopping block:

Did you hear? They’re talking about repealing the Second Amendment. It started with former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley. And it sure does seem like those calls prompted skeptics of American gun culture to echo their remarks. Turley and Stevens were joined this week by op-ed writers in the pages of Esquire and the Seattle Times. Democratic candidates for federal office have even enlisted in the ranks of those calling for an amendment to curtail the freedoms in the Bill of Rights. Of course, this is just the most mainstream invocation of anti-Second Amendment themes that have been expressed unashamedly for years, from liberal activists like Michael Moore to conservative opinion writers at the New York Times. Those calling for the repeal of the right to bear arms today are only echoing similar calls made years ago in venues ranging from Rolling Stone, MSNBC, and Vanity Fair to the Jesuit publication America Magazine.

Are you sitting down? You might be surprised to learn that none of this occurred. It’s only your vivid or, some might go so far as to say, fevered imagination. Rest assured, CNN host Chris Cuomo insists that “no one” is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment. And even if they are, as Justice Stevens most certainly is, he’s a “boogeyman” who commands no influence or respect. Apparently, to suggest that anyone is calling for such extremist measures, and not universally beloved “common-sense” restrictions on firearms ownership, amounts to swatting at phantoms. Cuomo retreated into a familiar, well-fortified rhetorical trench—a place where other liberals can be found whenever basic firearm-ownership rights are called into question. Essentially, his contention boils down to this: You didn’t hear what you thought you heard.

We know this game. In Oregon, a church group is compiling signatures for a ballot initiative that would virtually ban gun ownership in the state. If we give them an inch, they will take a mile. The tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman in Parkland, Florida was preventable; state, federal, and local authorities failed to enforce the laws that could have stopped shooter Nikolas Cruz from committing this heinous act, even from buying the rifle. No one chose to do anything. They anti-gun Left are a viral disease. They’re a recurring form of shingles. You may not see them all the time, but you’ll know when they come and say ‘hey.’ The battle continues—and in the fight to save our Bill of Rights, it’s not extreme to say ‘hell no’ to every one of their demands.