On June 2nd the White House released President Biden’s remarks on the recent shooting in Uvalde, TX where a deranged young man ended the lives of 19 elementary students and 2 teachers while police stood outside and failed to protect the innocent. It wasn’t until an off-duty border patrol agent whose child attended the elementary school was able to negotiate his way past the police blockade that the shooter was killed and the rest of the victims were able to be saved.
In typical midterm election fashion, Biden rallied the call for further gun control, using another tragedy to attempt to garner votes while the Democratic Party does nothing to address the root causes of public safety in schools. When facing an active shooter situation, there are only two options: neutralizing the threat, whether through negotiation and de-escalation or some other method, or the righteous use of force. When the government fails to do that, it is up to the citizenry — us — to step in and provide a solution. That is what the off-duty officer whose child was in danger did by stepping in and using his weapon to save countless other innocent lives.
The President mentioned federal red flag laws, making gun manufacturers liable for what users do with guns, banning high-capacity magazines, and the classic ban on “ghost guns” — little more than buzzwords and unconstitutional policies that are divorced from reality. Many states currently have red flag laws which allow the police to confiscate your guns without trial (laws which the Libertarian Party seeks to repeal). Authorizing the Federal government to raid anyone’s house and confiscate their firearms is an extreme risk, and we have more than enough examples of indefensible police violence to point to as evidence of this. Gun grabbers have gone after “high capacity” magazines which are in fact standard capacity as a blatant attempt to ban guns de facto by banning magazines. The now infamous “ghost guns” Americans have been making for hundreds of years are just home-made firearms without serial numbers and are rarely used in crimes.
Biden ironically claimed the firearms industry alone has a “shield” of protection from legal liability. However, just recently Biden instituted a federal vaccine mandate and there was no legal recourse in the event of an individual experiencing an adverse reaction. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry has successfully lobbied the government for protections from many types of lawsuits for common products.
Furthermore, the top gun owner in America, the US Federal Government, trafficked weapons illegally across the Southern border to cartels under Operation Fast & Furious, which were later used in murders. Would the families of those victims be able to sue firearms manufacturers — or would the government be liable for those actions?
The reason why Americans own guns goes beyond the Second Amendment. Libertarians believe the right to possess and train with firearms and their various accessories is a cornerstone of freedom and the last right of self-defense from enemies, both foreign and domestic.
