In remarks reminiscent of the promises of a former president who assured Americans they could keep their doctors and health care plans, Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Eric Swalwell brought his gun control demagoguery to Debate Night No. 2, insisting, “Keep your pistols, keep your rifles, keep your shotguns, but we can take the most dangerous weapons from the most dangerous people.”
Near the end of Thursday evening’s “top tier” debate between candidates—an evening that saw front-runner Joe Biden pounded by Sen. Kamala Harris on the race issue—the question of guns was raised and several Democrats took the bait. Thursday night’s debate drew a larger audience than the Wednesday evening session with lower rung candidates.
Swalwell stuck to his gun control scenario of getting citizens to surrender their so-called “assault weapons” in a mandatory “buy-back” that amounted to forced surrender of firearms in exchange for payment. He talked about frightened children with rhetoric that would scare any youngster, explaining how—as reported by ABC News—“parents now send their kids to school remembering what they’re wearing ‘in case we have to identify them later.’” He hasn’t changed his focus since mid-April when Ammoland profiled his proposal.
Sen. Bernie Sanders chimed in, declaring that the United States is experiencing a “gun crisis” and vowing that he would ban the sale and distribution of “assault weapons.”
Harris declared she would “give the United States Congress 100 days to pull their act together, bring all these good ideas together and put a bill on my desk for signature, and if they do not, I will take executive action and I will put in place the most comprehensive background policy we’ve had.”
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, citing his military service in Afghanistan, remarked, “As somebody who trained on weapons of war, I can tell you that there are weapons that have absolutely no place in American cities or neighborhoods in peacetime. Ever.”
Biden’s contribution was little more than a cliché, “If more guns made us safer, we would be the safest country on Earth.”
The former vice president also insisted that “smart gun” technology should become mandatory.
“We should have smart guns,” Biden stated. “No gun should be able to be sold unless your biometric measure could pull that trigger. It’s within our right to do that; we can do that. Our enemy is the gun manufacturers, not the NRA — the gun manufacturers.”
It was an extension of the anti-gun-rights rhetoric during the first evening debate in Miami between the “lower tier” candidates, which suggested to rights activists burning up social media that none of the candidates understands that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental right rather than a regulated government privilege.
It amounted to more regulations, more restrictions and more demonization of firearms. And it rang hollow with Second Amendment activists.
The election is 16 months over the horizon. Between now and then, all of these Democrats will be traveling the country trying to sell themselves, and their programs. When it comes to selling gun control, they will soon discover that rights activists from Kotzebue to Key Biscayne aren’t buying.
