It seems Joe Biden plans to appoint Beta O’Rourke, the Irish jalapeno, as “gun czar.” Excerpt:
Democrats now have single-party control of the federal government. President Joe Biden styled himself as the most moderate candidate his party had to offer. And still, during the campaign he promised to put Beto O’Rourke – the man who blurted out “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s” in charge of his administration’s gun policies.
Whether or not President Biden and gun czar Beto aim for a program of national gun confiscation, we should expect some sort of major crackdown against the Second Amendment and against our other liberties. The congressmen who ducked, covered, and cowered – in now iconic photos – when protestors entered Capitol Hill will almost certainly draw the wrong conclusions. They will not – like Congresswoman Lauren Boebert – realize that their safety is fundamentally in their own hands and therefore carry arms and fight for the right of all Americans to do so.
No, they will act based on an intensified fear and perhaps even loathing of their fellow citizens after seeing what some of them proved capable of. The left will attack the First and Second Amendment at the same time, arguing that the free flow of information is dangerous in a country where citizens are armed and can take up action against perceived tyranny.
For discussion, I’d like to home in on one particular statement, and give some thoughts that derive from a discussion among my best online buds over at Glibertarians, a great site that has somehow, so far, escaped being “deplatformed.” The statement:
Whether or not President Biden and gun czar Beto aim for a program of national gun confiscation, we should expect some sort of major crackdown against the Second Amendment and against our other liberties.
Now, plenty of gun owners worry – rightly – about an outright ban and confiscation, including jackbooted thugs showing up at your door with a list of firearms they know or suspect you own. But such a scenario would almost certainly be disastrous; with 200 million gun owners in the country, if only one percent of those folks resist with force, with the guns the government is trying to confiscate, then there is a two-million-strong rebellion in place.
The first steps are likely to be far more insidious:
The Biden campaign promised to “hold gun manufacturers accountable.” Certainly, car manufacturers are – and should be – accountable when a defect that they knew about gets people killed. But we don’t hold Toyota accountable when someone drives drunk and kills a pedestrian. If we did, then Toyota wouldn’t exist.
That’s exactly what the Democrats are hoping to do with gun companies like Remington. They want to blame them and fine them for every time a gun crime is committed. If they did that, then gun companies would have almost no choice but to go out of existence. And – believe me – there is really a clear path to this actually happening.
The thing is this: Most gun companies aren’t really big companies. Such a policy of lawsuit-enabling, and a round of suits funded by well-heeled Democrat supporters (let’s very quietly mention the name ‘Soros’ here) may well drive most or all of those companies out of business.
Next, let’s say they put in a big tax. Not on guns, not even on ammo – let’s say they just tax primers. Primers are a huge bottleneck. They aren’t something the typical gun owner can easily reproduce, and they are absolutely essential. Without primers, your AR-15 – or your Belgian Auto-5 – is just an expensive club.
Finally, a “violence tax.” This may be the last straw. Say you’re in your place of employment, and the sweet little lady who runs HR drops by your desk to tell you that the Imperial government has just instituted a “violence prevention tax” that will take, oh, 20% of the income of anyone who has ever been the subject of the instant background check required for a gun purchase – which tax applies unless you surrender or dispose of all firearms that the government most assuredly has a record of your owning.
This isn’t a case of government thugs showing up at your door with a confiscation order. And you can’t open fire on the little old HR lady who brought you cookies last week. If things come to this juncture, you have very few if any good options.
And if you think for a moment that this likely course of action is not being considered, then you’ve got another think coming, and I think the Biden Administration may well be about to disabuse you of that notion.