Sorry Joe, There Is No Consensus

In a statement released yesterday on the eight anniversary of the Newtown murders, presumed President-Elect Joe Biden said, in part:

But in this collective pain, you’ve helped usher in a collective and growing purpose. You’ve helped us forge a consensus that gun violence is a national health crisis and we need to address its total cost to fully heal families, communities, and our nation.

Eight years later, there have been plenty of thoughts and prayers, but we know that is not enough. Together with you and millions of our fellow Americans of every background all across our nation, we will fight to end this scourge on our society and enact common sense reforms that are supported by a majority of Americans and that will save countless lives.

Having gone to a Quaker college where the concept of consensus is a real thing, there is no such consensus that “gun violence” (sic) is a “national health crisis”. The only consensus that I see is that those that who wish to restrict our freedoms have decided that declaring it a “national health crisis” will allow them free rein.

Biden’s statement notes that “more than 30,000 people die from gun violence across America.” This is a misleading number as it conflates death by suicide with that of homicide. Suicide is a mental health issue and one that I see groups like the NSSF and Second Amendment Foundation have taken seriously. Other groups like Walk The Talk America were founded by gun people – not the Brady Campaign, CSGV, or Everytown.

So-called “gun violence” (sic) is actually the criminal misuse of a firearm. Even in the Newtown murders, it started with the killer’s murder of his own mother who had legally purchased her firearms and had gone through background checks. Matricide or the murder of one’s own mother is already against the law everywhere.

What Biden’s statement actually says is that his administration is seriously intent on imposing more and more gun control. Whether it is done by Executive Order, the recharacterization of existing regulations, or by the passage of new laws, they are going to try and we need to be ready to oppose it.