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IPFS News Link • Political Parties

Republicans Still Don't Get It on Gun Control

• Laurence M. Vance - on Gun Control

As night follows day, so cries for more gun control follow another deadly shooting. But once again, it is not just Democrats, liberals, progressives howling for more or stricter gun-control laws, it is Republicans and conservatives as well.

Republicans just don't get it on gun control. I pointed this out five years ago a few months after the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

President Trump pledged to ban bump stocks, with or without Congress:

By the way, bump stocks—we're writing that out. I'm writing that out myself. I don't care if Congress does it or not. I'm writing it out myself, okay? You put it into the machine gun category—which is what it is—it becomes, essentially, a machine gun, and nobody is going to be able to—it's going to very hard to get them. So we're writing out bump stocks.

He also called for an increase in the minimum age to purchase certain guns, but then backed down from the idea. In a meeting with lawmakers at the White House, the president again called for an age increase, along with stronger background checks and the suggestion that law enforcement authorities should have the power to seize guns from people without first going to court. Said Trump: "I like taking the guns early. Take the guns first, go through due process second." But then he apparently backed down from that.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who calls himself "a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment," and has previously filed legislation banning bump stocks, supports raising the minimum age to buy semi-automatic weapons like the one used in the Florida school shooting.

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced plans to ban bump stock and raise the minimum age for purchasing a firearm in Florida to 21.

Florida legislators are considering plans to raise the minimum age, ban bump stocks, and institute a three-day waiting period for gun purchases to allow for "adequate" background checks.

Republicans still don't get it on gun control.

Republicans still don't recognize that the Constitution nowhere authorizes the federal government to have anything to do with guns or gun control.


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