Joe Biden is the President of the United States. In deference to the Presidency, every effort has been made to show respect to that office here. Like many law-abiding citizens, however, I felt that the president was being disrespectful and divisive when he said, “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick … Just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.” [1] It took some time before I could respond in a civil way.
With all due respect to the Presidency, some things need to be said in response to President Biden’s remarks. People are bored by statistics, but please be patient and consider these few facts.
Currently, the estimated population of the United States (US) is 333,335,999. [2] The estimated number of adults, age 18 years and older, in the US is 258,327,312. [3] The data on the number of privately owned guns in the US, and how many adult Americans own guns, varies from source to source. Current information from the BATF&E could not be located on their website in the time available to research this post. One source [4] provided the following:
· About 77,490,000 adult Americans own guns.
· An estimated 30 percent of the adults in the US own guns.
·
The
average American gun owner owns five guns.
· In March 2020, it was estimated that 393,437,000 firearms were privately owned in the US.
The NRA estimates that 20 percent (about 76,687,400) of privately owned firearms in the US are semiautomatics. [ 5] There appear to be about 20 million AR-15 type rifles in circulation in America at this writing. [6] The reader should be aware that rifles, pistols, and shotguns all come in semiautomatic models.
When President
Biden said that owning semiautomatic guns was “sick,” he disparaged the character of millions of Americans. That was arbitrary, capricious, and
fundamentally unfair. The remark was
unworthy of a President of the United States.
President Biden has been clear that he opposes private gun ownership, except in strictly regulated circumstances. You have to allow him one point - occasionally he slips the leash held by his “handlers” and says what he really thinks. However, we respectfully submit that on this matter he was wrong. Instead of condemning law-abiding Americans for exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms, perhaps it would help if President Biden asked why so many of his fellow Americans think they need guns.
There is almost always more than one reason why people do things, however, the most common reason people buy handguns is for defense. [7] Could it be that they like the peace of mind that comes from being able to defend themselves and others from opponents who are larger, stronger, or more numerous than themselves? Personally, I think one reason people want guns is because they do not trust the government to do its constitutional duty to keep them safe.
The Democratic administrations in our large cities fail to act to stop riots. They set criminals free without imposing consequences for their behavior. Criminal gangs commit violent crimes and push illegal drugs. Gangs control large sections of our cities. The police are disparaged, and threatened with punishment for doing their jobs. Funding is being denied to our police departments. Large groups of thieves rush into stores, take what they want, and leave. Nobody tries to stop them. Unrestricted migration is allowed on our border with Mexico, and criminals and terrorists comingle with the migrants. The cartels use migrants to mule drugs, and they subject migrants to sexual exploitation. Cyber criminals steal our money and sell our personal information. They are seldom caught and punished. People are threatened with violence if they speak out on social media or on our college campuses.
Still, President Biden saw fit to condemn American gun owners, saying that there is no redeeming social value in the legal ownership and use of semiautomatic firearms. Mr. President, the bad guys are armed to the teeth. Semiautomatic weapons keep us from being outgunned. What is so hard to understand about that?
In a related matter, yet another “assault weapons ban” (H.R. 1808) is currently being considered by Congress. President Biden supports it. You may read it at https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1808/text
Congress allowed the last assault weapons ban (1994-2004) to expire. Opinions vary about its effectiveness. The best that can be said is that the data seems to be interpreted differently, depending on the political position of the interpreter. It is reasonable to say that there was widespread public opposition to the law, and the evidence of its effectiveness was not strong enough to overcome it.
People cannot even agree about what an assault weapon is, and the attempts to do so in H.R 1808 show how difficult it is to reduce a definition to writing. Rather than make it difficult for honest people to defend themselves, I would like to see our government prosecute and incarcerate criminals. I want the government to provide harsh, lengthy prison sentences for criminals who use guns to commit crimes. Criminals convicted of violent crimes should be banned from possessing firearms, and given even longer prison terms if they do. After due process, persons diagnosed by licensed practitioners with disturbances of thought or feeling that make them an imminent danger to self or others should be prevented from possessing firearms. These things are common sense, and they do not infringe on the rights of those who obey the law.
We are all heartbroken when people kill other people, regardless of the means by which they do it. We all want the killing to stop. It has been my consistent position that I will support any law that will reduce the number of violent assaults and homicides committed with a gun – provided that it does not infringe on the constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms.
It is an inescapable fact that guns and ammunition are inert objects. Although they can make killing more efficient, by themselves they do not kill anyone. It takes a living, breathing human being to kill people. The bottom line is that the problem is with people. We do not need “assault weapons” bans when we can’t even agree about what an assault weapon is.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Liberals insist that people are basically good, so they want to ban guns. The Bible says:
“The heart is deceitful above
all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
(Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV)
There are six
things that the LORD hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers. (emphasis
added)
(Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV)
But realize this, that in the
last days difficult times will come. For
people will be lovers of self, lovers of money,
boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful,
unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips,
without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although
they have denied its power … (emphasis added)
(2Timothy 3:1-5 NASB) [8]
We need gun laws that do not infringe on the 2nd
Amendment rights of all sane, law-abiding Americans. Law-abiding citizens need to be able to
defend themselves on an equal footing with the criminals who want to victimize
them. Our people need leaders who
respect us and our rights.
