President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have a
history of opposition to the exercise of our 2nd Amendment right to
keep and bear arms. After President
Biden’s election in 2020, Americans rushed to buy guns and ammunition for fear
they might become unavailable. The
result was a shortage of guns, ammunition and many other items associated with
shooting sports. It got so bad that
hunters had trouble finding the cartridges they needed to hunt with.
Recent events have influenced many voters to look favorably
on candidates for office who advocate for “reasonable” laws that they say will
help curb gun violence. There is little
agreement, however, between anti-gunners and gun rights advocates regarding the
meaning of “reasonable.”
Presidential Candidate Harris has emphasized that she is a
gun owner. This does not mitigate her
history of opposition to the private ownership of handguns and “assault weapons.” In 2019, she repeatedly said that she
supports mandatory gun buyback programs, which is a form of confiscation.
Candidate Harris will push for strict regulation of private
gun ownership if she is elected in November.
Other tactics have been used by anti-gunners before. To name a few, these include higher taxes on
guns and shooting products, increased vulnerability to litigation for
manufacturers and merchants, increased record keeping requirements and
inspections for licensed retailers and gun shows, restrictive regulation of the
import and export of firearms and ammunition, and restrictions on the type of
ammunition that may be sold to private citizens.
The bottom line is that this has contributed to
price increases that make participation in shooting sports prohibitively expensive
for some Americans. It's like cigarettes. If you don't want people to have them, make them so expensive they can't afford to buy them.
According to the economic law of demand, the more you sell
of a product, the more you can charge for it.
The past is a good predictor of the future. If past buying patterns continue, the sale of
guns, ammunition, and all things shooting will increase dramatically if Kamala
Harris is our next president.
Panic buying is counterproductive. It creates a scarcity of firearms,
ammunition, and everything from targets to cleaning supplies. It drives prices up, making it difficult
for average Americans to enjoy shooting sports and defend their homes and loved
ones.
Buy what you really need, but don’t hoard. Prepare yourself for what may not be
available in a few months, but don’t clear off everything on the shelf. Leave some for others.
To reiterate Lamp in a Corner’s long-held position, we
support legislation that will not infringe upon the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms and that will prohibit the
possession and use of deadly weapons* to criminals and people who are dangerous
to self or others. Effective laws that
would discourage the commission of violent crimes would provide for long
mandatory sentences without parole for crimes in which deadly weapons were
used, or use of a deadly weapon was threatened.
All such sentences must run consecutively, rather than concurrently.
These are the “gun control” laws that will work, and they
will not infringe on the constitutional right to gun ownership for honest US
citizens. Please vote for law-and-order
candidates who understand that our laws exist to protect and defend law-abiding
Americans and consequence criminal behavior.
* Examples of deadly weapons are edged weapons, bludgeons,
firearms, bows, explosive devices, and poison.
They are any weapon capable of inflicting death, disfigurement, the loss
or impairment of a limb or organ, disability, or serious risk of these injuries.
