With Donald Trump headed to the White House, after having suggested that national concealed carry reciprocity is a good idea, gun prohibitionists are promising to fight this expansion of self-defense rights “tooth and nail.”
That is how the Wall Street Journal described a promise from Peter Ambler, executive director of the anti-gun Americans for Responsible Solutions. He lamented to the WSJ that national reciprocity — essentially the same thing that drivers in all 50 states enjoy when they tour the country — “allows people that have permits from states with the weakest standards possible to carry [weapons] in the streets of any U.S. city.”
So far, nobody has explained precisely why this is such a horrible idea, beyond the level of emotional fear mongering.
In a February 2015 report, the Crime Prevention Research Center compared conviction rates of concealed carry permit holders to police officers. Armed private citizens have a lower rate.
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The WSJ noted that Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal has promised that he and his Democrat colleagues in the Senate will make sure that national concealed carry is “dead on arrival.” Whether he realizes it, Blumenthal unintentionally just reinforced the nation’s impression that Democrats are the party of gun control.
But this really isn’t gun “control” anyone is talking about. Ultimately, it is gun prohibition, and perhaps nobody spelled that out any better than Ben Cohen, writing at the American Thinker. Here’s how he put it:
“For the most passionate advocates of gun control, the ultimate goal was never an assault weapons ban or universal background checks. For them, the ultimate goal was a system that included very high barriers to gun ownership, along with major restrictions on the type of weapon one could own. The overarching goal of such regulations would be to reduce the number of gun owners and the number of guns in private hands.”
There is no small amount of irony in the fact that Sunday’s Seattle Times ran a piece about Democrats in Washington State. Despite thed party’s retention of the Governor’s office and other offices, the newspaper seemed distressed that they didn’t do better, and indeed lost a few seats that they thought secure. Ask Hillary Clinton about that.
Readers have been giving the newspaper and Democrats a pretty thorough reaming.
The WSJ said Republicans “and some Democrats say some form of national reciprocity will likely become law in the next Congress.”
For people like Alan Gottlieb with the Second Amendment Foundation, who has called on Trump to “make the Second Amendment great again,” it’s one step in the right direction.
Related:
Justice Alito hints that SCOTUS may look at guns again
Trump Win Stings Liberals; Seattle Newspaper Pushes More Gun Control
Gun advocate Gottlieb to Trump: ‘Make Second Amendment great again’
