The progressive left is influencing Biden's current gun control stance.  Biden is playing politics with gun control.  In June 2022, USA Today reported as true that Biden said: "During my twelve and a half years as a member of this body [U.S. Congress], I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime."  Biden knows that focusing on gun control to control crime is a false narrative.

Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are the cause of rising crime, according to the progressive left.  The liberal politicians, big-city liberal mayors, and gun-hating activists who favor turning criminals loose and other crime-enhancing policies blame rising gun sales and increased numbers of concealed carry permits for the rising crime in their soft-on-crime cities.  More guns do not beget more gun crime.

Rabid gun-control advocates seek to infringe on citizens' constitutional right to use a gun.  Yet gun ownership has been proven by countless studies not to increase gun crimes.  Rather, defund-the-police efforts, lax bail laws, and soft sentencing are the reasons for increasing gun crime.  The left rabidly pushes the media to report on gun-related violence feeding this false narrative.

According to the Daily Signal, 27 of the top 30 crime-ridden cities are run by Democrats.  As the justice system becomes less interested in protecting citizens, more people are protecting themselves.  Senseless measures to ban guns result in more guns, not less.

Armed citizens save lives.  By having a gun to deter an intruder, you may have saved your own life, and possibly the lives of others, and often without even firing a shot.  According to a 2021 National Firearms Survey, defensively, approximately 82% of the time, gun owners don't fire their guns.

According to Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA-ILA, in the February 2023 issue of America's 1st Freedom, when right-to-carry laws were surging in the 1990 and 2000s, crime went down.  Yet progressives point to gun-carrying citizens as the reason for gun-related crime.  Criminals who want guns — for example, illegal computer-printed guns — will get them despite laws infringing on gun ownership and use.

Last Thanksgiving, on PBS News Hour, Biden said: "The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick.  Just sick."  Would Biden have said that to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky when he was handing out weapons to assist Ukraine's underprepared military to fight the Russians?  Biden is clearly a captive of the strident minority wing of the Democrat party and its desire to eventually ban all gun ownership.

Taking away law-abiding citizens' guns will not decrease crime for one simple reason: criminals will have guns.  They do not care about gun control laws.  If they want to kill or protect themselves from other criminals, they will get a gun.  They will get it on the black market.  At least with a traceable gun, there is an increased chance of catching the killer.

Advocating that guns are the reason for increasing crime is a distraction from failing crime control policies.  These policies are the reason crime has steadily risen: 1) a decrease in prosecuting violent crimes, 2) an increase in catch-and-release bail, 3) defunding cities' and towns' police forces, 4) an increase in early prison release, and 5) an increase in little or no jail time for violent offenders.  Those are the real reasons for increased violent gun related crimes, not law-abiding citizens' gun ownership.

The philosophy that the police and prisons are the reason for high crime is wrong and not the belief of mainstream America.  The left would love for everyone to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens result in high rates of gun-related crimes.  The left dictates Biden's gun policy agenda.

He passionately believes that he must obey this faction, above advocating for commonsense crime control laws.  It is unfortunate that Biden has let this misguided and dangerous belief permeate his Justice Department and his policies, endangering all Americans.

Image: Gage Skidmore.