Opinion By Joe Bartozzi
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Last week, from the Democratic primary debate stage, former Vice President Joe Biden said we were the enemy.
“Our enemy is the gun manufacturers, not the NRA, the gun manufacturers,” Biden said.
Not a single candidate on stage that night, or the night before, condemned the remark. Their silence is tacit agreement. Not a single candidate had the courage to name the violent criminals as the problem or the fortitude to stand up to those who prey upon the vulnerable in our society. Instead, they are blaming us as an industry and the law-abiding gun owners we serve.
This is what we’re up against in the coming election season. It’s indicative of how much the landscape has changed and the lengths elected officials will go to score points.
Firearms Industry is America
National Shooting Sports Foundation®’s members need to know what their trade association is up against and what we’re doing. It’s going to be a struggle and there’s no room for anyone to be on the sidelines. We will need all member companies to be engaged and ensure our industry is able to conduct the lawful business of providing firearms to the more than 100 million law-abiding American gun owners in every state for legal use, including recreational shooting, hunting and self-defense.
Every Democratic candidate is now gunning for an industry that supports 312,000 jobs earning $15.7 billion in wages and has a total economic impact over $52 billion. The firearms industry is an integral economic contributor, having paid more than $6.8 billion in total taxes in 2019 alone.
The firearms industry is the fabric of America. These are American jobs in every corner of the nation. Our industry is the “Arsenal of Democracy,” a phrase coined by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, supplying the firearms that our armed forces and brave men and women of law enforcement use to protect our nation and keep our communities safe.
Confiscation Rhetoric
Candidates on the stage, including former Vice President Biden, agreed with the far-fetched notion of mass confiscation of firearms, a plan first proposed by Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). Biden said, “I would buy back those weapons.” That plan would use the tax dollars paid by law-abiding gun owners to confiscate the more than 16 million modern sporting rifles in private ownership today under threat of criminal penalty for noncompliance.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) defended firearms confiscation as legal. “That’s not confiscation,” she said. “You would give them the offer to buy back the gun,” without reference to criminal penalties.
But we already have a template of what it looks like when a government would make criminals of lawful citizens because they don’t like the guns they own. New Zealand is attempting confiscation now and just 37 of the 1.2 million semiautomatic firearms were surrendered because gun owners there don’t trust the government to protect them or pay them fair market value.
Failed Technology
Biden’s firearms industry animus went further. He would bar all firearms sales, except those equipped with “biometric” authorized-user technology.
“No gun should be able to be sold unless your biometric measure could pull that trigger,” he explained.
Here’s what most forget. NSSF was at the table with Vice President Biden when he sought these answers before. He was named by President Barack Obama in 2012 to lead a gun control task force that proposed 23 executive actions, including exploring “gun safety technologies.” The National Institutes of Justice studied the technology to “unlock” guns and after investing $12.6 million for research over 15 years, “none were successful.”
In fact, a recent survey found just five percent of gun buyers would consider buying a “smart-gun.” A further 70 percent said they would never consider it for fear of failure when it’s needed most. A gun, especially when used defend lives, must work as intended without fail or flaw. This technology doesn’t exist.
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s President and CEO Steve Sanetti met with Vice President Biden who singled out NSSF’s Project Childsafe® program that has distributed over 38 million gun safety kits including gun locks through 15,000 police agencies in every U.S. state and territory.
He said then, “You guys are doing a lot of good things, including the gun lock thing, and this isn’t just Joe Biden blowing smoke. I mean it.”
National Shooting Sports Foundation in Action
We know now today’s reality is every Democratic candidate views firearms ownership as unacceptable. The lines are clearly drawn.
NSSF is ready. We refuse to stand by while politicians smear the very industry that provides the means to exercise the freedoms. The firearms industry is among the most- highly-regulated industries and we won’t be a convenient punching bag for misleading talking points.
We are aggressively pushing back in the media. We are not ceding an inch of ground whether that’s on the national debate stage or special sessions called by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to push his gun control agenda that’s already been rejected by the state’s General Assembly.
We are also informing our members of what the candidates are saying through our #GUNVOTE voter education program. Anyone is able to follow the updates on Twitter and Facebook to learn about the issues, stay informed and know how to register to vote. Get involved. Don’t risk your rights.
Lastly, NSSF’s Political Action Committee is engaged. We are working to support candidates for office who appreciate our industry, value our contributions to our communities and respect Second Amendment rights.
It will take all of us. Members need to get involved. Subscribe to NSSF’s alerts, get plugged in with the PAC and read up on what the candidates are saying through #GUNVOTE. Invite your family and friends. Our livelihood and our way of life depend on it.
About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 13,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, visit nssf.org.
The constitution is the law of the land. If a person, company or country does not agree then they are the enemy of AMERICA. That includes biden, pig-losi and the rest of them. This country was founded on our ancestors desire to be free to worship and live as we want and not as a bunch of wantabe socialists or communists want.
So now it’s not only the implement that’s to blame and not the criminal, it’s also the MANUFACTURER of the weapon that’s guilty! Will they also blame GM if a drunk kills someone while driving a Chevy?
Back during WW2, Japan and Germany had plans to invade the west coast and east coast. But they were afraid of “all those Americans owning guns would fight them off”
Nowadays, these same democrats and gun banning cults would welcome them as their saviors and get down on their knees and kiss their asses!!
Shame on any Gun Owner who votes Democrat.
demonicrats ARE domestic terrorisists
@Bob Koceja & Chief, Some will view your comments as political and mean spirited, but, if you remove all of the chaff of the democrat’s anti-2nd Amendment narrative, people start to see what is real and what is not. After all, it is our firearms manufacturers who provide a product to satisfy a demand by citizens who refuse to give in and submit to the will of liberal and leftist to slowly and methodically give up our rights and freedoms. Give in once, and that will not be enough for them, because they will demand more submission. It seems that… Read more »
those devils rats are only after one goal,which to destroy AMERICA. its through disarming the people and destroying freedom a little at a time the constitution to them means nothing! it’s guarantee’s are obstacles in the devils rats doctrine. they are an ugly cancer spreading the country.
By any sane, rational, reasonable, logical, legal, or practical definition, Socialist ARE “domestic enemies” of the US.
Problematically, there are no prosecutors with the character or courage to indict a sitting member of Congress. At the very least, breaking the oath of office (to protect/defend the Constitution) is federal-level felony perjury…
Rise up folks, get out there and vote because if the democrats regain power you will get the knock on the door with the confiscation police ready to take everything you have. After they have your guns then you have no defense for them taking everything else they’d like to have.
They must NEVER AGAIN GET INTO OFFICE,(of any kind).
Wow, I never thought I’d agree with Creepy Joe, but in this case, he’s absolutely right. I, along with every other gun owner and 2nd Amendment supporter, are, and should be the enemy of Biden and every other Democrat and liberal. If you own guns and your not their enemy, you need to just turn in your guns and start wearing panties.
Carry On…
I can’t help but wish that the DC Fourth fireworks display kicks off the war that must begin in order to clean house all the way to the Mexican border.
Maybe not chicken shit. It would be hard for any industry to resist Big Gov’s deep pockets. If the gun industry is serious they will have to sacrifice and stand up for the 2A . Waiting and hoping on a particular candidate or party to win an election will not save our freedom. If the Constitution (law) means anything then we had better get busy acting like it. We should not be having this conversation in our Constitutional Republic. Corrupt politicians won’t do anything without a price included. If a company chooses to stand for the 2A , then we… Read more »
The gun industry should start taking some action itself by not doing business with States and local Governments that infringe on the peoples 2A rights, At least by holding them to the same edicts that they impose on the people or, outright refusing to do business with them. Some gun manufacturers have moved to friendlier locations but that is not enough.
Yeah, that’s a good idea. The manufacturers and retailers should start making a stand along side of us and begin resisting EVERYTHING not 2A as it is written. Their silence is compliance to their own destruction. They’re either in this scrap on the front lines or picked apart behind the scenes. Hang together or hang separately the choice is theirs to make. Personally, I think they are chicken shit scared to stand opposed to unlawful gun laws due to being the front lines of those laws by gov mandate. Like attorneys they are bound to ignore the Constitution.
I think manufacturers need to stop selling certain guns and magazines into states where law-abiding citizens are penalized due to the politicians hating guns. As an example in NJ, where mags are limited to 10 rounds, every manufacturer should not sell normal capacity mags or firearms with them into the state for police with a severe penalty for dealers who do not obey. Also if say NFA items are not legal in a state, no manufacturer of those types of items can sell into the state for police use. Starve them out – not like the police are the main… Read more »
Do a little research and you’ll find many firearms and ammunition mfrs who will not sell to residents and– especially–law enforcement agencies in states such as California and New York.
Time to stockpile ammo.
Trump needs to stop blocking Russian arms imports as well.
@conrad, Yes, stockpile ammunition, supplies, and agricultural chemicals. And make lists of betrayers in government, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary.
@wildbill. Done did all 3. For now reside in mexikommieforniastan. Looking to get out soon, but we now have our new ammo law. So, stocked up. But, we now have the option of going to Needles, Ca. Sanctuary 2nd A city. Already know whom the traitors in this 3rd world country in the USA.
all anti-2A types are traitorous enemies of America