On April 12, President Joe Biden nominated David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Chipman -- the king of confiscation -- is a supporter of California's laws banning the sale or ownership of so-called assault weapons. For those of us who support the Second Amendment, confirming him to lead ATF is like asking a vampire to guard the local blood bank.
Don't surrender! On June 4, Judge Roger T. Benitez, appointed to the federal bench in the Southern District of California by President George W. Bush, offered hope for common sense to prevail. In his 94-page opinion in the case, Miller v. Bonta, Judge Benitez ruled, "the State of California makes it a crime to have an AR-15 type rifle. Therefore, this Court declares the California statutes to be unconstitutional."
To ensure California's leftist governor, Gavin Newsom, his new attorney general, Rob Bonta, and Biden all get the message, Benitez took a well-aimed shot at those who describe AR-15 rifles as "assault weapons." His point: "these prohibited guns, like all guns, can be used for ill or good. They could just as well be called home defense rifles or anti-crime guns."
Hopefully, by the time this case is finally adjudicated in the Supreme Court, a majority of the justices will agree with Benitez about politicians who enact "gun policies" to protect us from harm by infringing on the rights of all Americans: "There is only one (gun) policy enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Guns and ammunition in the hands of criminals, tyrants and terrorists are dangerous; guns in the hands of law-abiding responsible citizens are better."
Sadly, the far-left in the U.S. and their "big media allies" have an obsessive focus on restricting gun ownership while ignoring sociocultural factors fueling gun violence. Their approach: limit firearm availability; defund the police but arm criminals.
Those who want to solve a problem begin by identifying its root cause. Then they do what is necessary to eliminate this cause. Organizations dedicated to eliminating drunk driving don't campaign to take cars from law-abiding drivers. Instead, they focus on reducing the number of lawbreakers who drink and drive, rather than on those who obey the law.
Warren Farrell, author of "The Boy Crisis," identified an important factor contributing to mass shootings -- fatherlessness. According to Farrell, 98% of mass shooters are men and most of them are "dad-deprived." Serious problem-solvers would zero in on this factor to make a major dent in gun violence. But "progressives" avoid even talking about fatherless households and allow welfare to become a way of life instead of a temporary safety net. The result: increasing fatherlessness.
There are numerous studies pointing to abortion as "desensitizing people to the value of human life." Yet, leftist politicians refuse to consider their promotion of abortion may be contributing to all kinds of violence in America.
Shortly after Joe Biden took office, Dianne Feinstein introduced her "Assault Weapons Ban of 2021" in the Senate. Her progressive colleague, David Cicilline introduced a companion bill in the House. The two bills propose banning more than 200 kinds of so-called assault weapons.
In April 2021, Biden announced several executive orders aimed at "gun control." He made clear they were just the start of a coming frontal attack on the Second Amendment.
If Benitz's ruling gets a fair hearing in the Supreme Court, all that could be moot. If not, criminals will ignore the "Biden bans" and continue killing innocent, newly disarmed Americans. If we really want to reduce gun violence, our elected leaders must put politics aside, identify the sociocultural factors contributing to it and focus on eliminating them.
This approach won't make the nightly news. But it will allow the "progressive left" to contribute to actually reducing gun violence.
Oliver L. North is a combat-decorated U.S. Marine, No.1 bestselling author, and founder and CEO of Fidelis Publishing LLC and Fidelis Media LLC. Find out more about him at www.olivernorth.com. David L. Goetsch is a Marine Corps veteran, member of the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame, professor of business, Christian counselor and author of 76 books. Find out more about him at www.david-goetsch.com.