U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Just because you don’t hear about a law doesn’t mean it is not a threat. In fact, some laws go under the radar and can not only violate the Second Amendment but also be problematic on First Amendment grounds as well. It takes a special kind of anti-freedom lawmaker to do that. But Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) has done just that with HR 2708, the Disarm Hate Act.
Think of this bill as a First Amendment version of the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment, which made having a misdemeanor conviction involving domestic violence enough to make someone a prohibited person under 18 USC 922(g)(9). According to a release from his office, this is to close a supposed “loophole” in gun laws.
“This bill closes the Hate Crimes Loophole and makes it much harder for someone to give voice to their hatred in a volley of gunfire. It’s just common sense. If you’ve been convicted of a hate crime, you don’t get to buy a gun. Full stop,” Cicilline said in the release. Who decides, though, what constitutes a “hate crime?” Cicilline doesn’t say, and neither does the legislation.
The trap being set here is just as nasty as the one Lautenberg sprang in 1996. The prohibition in the Disarm Hate Act applies to any such conviction, and thus, someone’s long-forgotten scuffle from ten or fifteen years ago that was resolved with a plea bargain to a misdemeanor that didn’t even involve jail time can turn them into a prohibited person facing a ten-year prison sentence if this law is enacted. That is an injustice in the form of a new penalty imposed long after trial and sentencing with no due process at all.
The other issue with the Lautenberg Amendment and the Disarm Hate Act is that they address some serious problems the wrong way. If domestic violence and hate crimes warrant stripping away someone’s Second Amendment rights, then they should be made felonies with appropriate prison terms. Another option, much more Constitutionally sound, would be to use the provisions of 18 USC 924(c) to enhance prison sentences for those who misuse firearms in cases of domestic violence or hate crimes. Instead, what we see here is the same flaw with the “red flag” laws pushed in some quarters: They just seek to disarm people – using whatever excuse they can find.
The legislation has 185 cosponsors, including Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Eric Swalwell. Worse, it was marked up in the House Judiciary Committee last year and passed by a 23-15 vote. It could come up to the floor of the House of Representatives at any time. Presently, the Senate is run by Second Amendment champions like Mitch McConnell, and this bill may not pass, but one can never tell.
Second Amendment supporters should take the time to contact their Representative and Senators and politely, but firmly, urge them to oppose this legislation. If your Representative is a cosponsor, express your disappointment. Let them know that they can address hate crimes without attacking the Second Amendment.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Thank You for the information, Harold!
Why is @Grigori being thumbed down? Yes this is Harold, but he’s providing useful info, not preaching, not selling NRA, and not telling us what to do. Better yet, while the article feels light, he avoided his tendency (which I share) to drone on for far too long.
It would be great if we could all move past the apparent ‘hang-up’ of fretting more over the writer than the content of the article.
I’m personally thankful that there are articles to read, both good and bad, compared to only articles that have been restricted because we don’t like the writer, don’t like the group, or don’t like the content.
Those restrictions are coming! Let’s work together to see that it doesn’t happen. We’re all in this together, and we all have the ability to contribute in one way or another.
Not really. Does it matter?
Yes it matters and we’re not focusing on the individual, but rather the content of his character as well as the content of his articles. If you’re not new here then you know that Harold has a LONG track record of excusing tyranny, shilling for the vichy NRA and blindly supporting ‘Radioactive’ Wayne LaPierre, promoting RINOs and other assorted rights-violating politicians, telling readers what to think & do, advocating for compromise if not outright capitulation, writing provable lies and treating the readership like ignoramuses with his retorts in subsequent articles, the list goes on and on and on!! There are… Read more »
@OV – Yes it should matter. Any group not accepting new members will wither and die. If new members are beaten for commenting, they are not likely to stick around. That is the opposite of spreading knowledge so that voters can be better informed as to why to vote away grabbers. I would prefer potential newbies be welcomed and treated well. Not that you were harsh – but I see that tendency in some who post here.
I would prefer Harold write light, short articles than see him write long articles that excuse tyranny, support compromise, backstop appeasers, shill for the vichy NRA and write provable lies. We all need to give Little Harold the carrot-and-stick treatment and applaud the good articles he writes but blast him when he reverts to his old form. The fact that he KEEPS reverting to form doesn’t give me hope, however.
Will, I agree. Harold needs to be gone. The fact that he’s desperately trying to toe the line and not outrage all of us constitutionalists tells me that his relationship with Ammoland must not be ironclad. It’s telling that he would attempt to change his tune. Also, the petition is now nearly at 70 signatures. We need to keep sharing the hell out of this on social media with our fellow gun owners, because I know for a FACT that there are lots more people who READ Ammoland but never comment here. And I suspect that they get a bad… Read more »
@wjd – Of course he monitors our comments!! This is proven by the fact that several of his articles mention points of criticism that were brought up and discussed in the comments section!! Little Quisling Harold has retorted to myself, The Revelator, and a couple others on more than a couple occasions!! Fact of the matter is, he knows EXACTLY what he’s saying (peddling), and his articles reflect the fact he’s a fake 2A supporter, a fake conservative (if he can even be pegged as one), and is only doing this for the paycheck!!! I’ve done a deep dive on… Read more »
Hard agree.
Yep, Hippy Harold and the salivating scientists are never right.
@OV – It’s possible, but I’ll wait till the jury comes in.
Perhaps he could write for Field & Stream. Half the articles and writers there give the worst advise i’ve ever seen.
One of the few things I remember from civics class way back in elementary school, is that one cannot be punished for something that was not against the law at the time of the act. Retroactive addition of major punishment for previous minor crimes certainly seems to cross that line. Rule of law requires that acts are treated under law as it existed at the time – otherwise we live in anarchy regardless of how large and intrusive our police state becomes.
It is called an “ex post facto” law and violates the constitutional provisions against it. But hey…since when are “they” following the pesky constitution any more?
If there is one constant in the actions of Leftists, they have no respect for the rule of law and will use ‘lawfare’ to punish their opponents unjustly. Prohibitions against Ex Post Facto laws, Bills of Attainder, overly vague laws, laws that violate the rights of the people, none of it means squat to Commiecrats. Their sole objective is to gain absolute power over you and maintain it. If that means injecting anarchy into the mix, they won’t care, they’ll do it consequences be damned. Leftists are the reason why the Constitution was written to limit abuses of power (such… Read more »
The democrat party has evolved into the hate crime of the century. Everything they do is out of hatred of the United States of America.
@Vern, Yep, they have destroyed the Iowa Caucus and hardly tried. No winner and no one cares. So much for the Iowa Caucus that brought so much extra income into Iowa once every four years.
They would have looked much better with the black stripes added to their costumes.
Vern, that’s PURE TRUTH!!
Anybody else order their “Nancy Pelosi Sucks!” pen yet?
Gleefully checking my mailbox each day waiting for it to arrive. 🙂
Finally a good clean article that is pro-2A and not compromising in any way or pandering to the NRA. Let’s see if Harold can keep this up. But We cannot stop at merely voicing our concerns and our objections. If public officials violate their oath to uphold the Constitution, they need to be held to account one way or another. David Codrea points out a GOOD elected official in the person of Thomas Massie. Codrea says; “As an aside, Massie continues to prove himself to be the real deal, a politi…correction, a citizen representative who actually had his rating downgraded… Read more »
I agree, for all the reasons I mentioned elsewhere.. as the Bible says in Proverbs 26:11, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Little Quisling Harold will revert to his true form soon enough.
Everyone needs to sign & share the petition… REALLY share the hell out of it!
https://chng.it/Sjs8VzLz
By the way, Saving the picture from above. The tomahawk really sets it off.
What we need is a law stating that if you submit a bill, let’s say for political sake, and it doesn’t pass, that the supporters of that bill are jailed without pay for thirty days. We could even call it “The Skin In The Game” bill. It would be my bet that all these frivolous “laws” would quickly come to a halt because, you know: YOU WOULD HAVE TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE IN THEM TO WANT TO SEE THEM THROUGH!
Well done Harold. Another back door attack on the 2nd Amendment and blatently racist. Sadly, hate crimes, at least based upon the charges brought by prosecutors across the nation, seem to be only committed by straight, white males. The numbers don’t lie. If you are a woman, LGBT (or whatever the initials are today) or any other race/color than white/caucasian, the odds of you being prosecuted for a “hate crime” are infinitesimal.
“Hate crime laws” are blatantly unconstitutional. They presume to attach greater penalties in the law for identical crimes where no bias is presumed or considered. “Hate crimes” against whites by blacks happen with greater frequency than “hate crimes” by whites against blacks. Yet the majority of cases prosecuted involve the latter and purposely omit the former. This isn’t equal justice under the law, it’s racist as hell and establishes in stare decisis the false notion that whites are racist, but minorities aren’t. Truth is, “hate crimes” and “hate speech” are ginned-up concepts that the Left has created to DIVIDE “evil… Read more »
If I had this son-of-a-bitch in my cross hairs at this exact moment…he would be the thing on fire.
Still it is amusing when these commietards vent their anger against the wrong targets… Not that I find innocent people being victimized amusing, just the incompetence, ignorance and thoughtlessness of the Left. The guy who owns the limo company wasn’t even a Trump supporter. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/limo-torched-in-dc-protests-belongs-to-muslim-immigrant-may-cost-70-000-in-damages But time and again it’s the Left we see immediately turn to violence when they don’t get what they want, and they don’t care what damage they do or who they hurt. And the fact that we have tens of millions of scumbag leftists in America only ensures we will inevitably see another civil war…because… Read more »
@WF, Yes, really poor target accusation procedures.
Yep, just helping to restore order, since the police could not do it!
For people – you know who you are – with so much hatred for Harold, why do you bother reading his articles and commenting on them? Why not just ignore them and him? Who appointed you clowns as the purveyors of what articles and authors are worthy or unworthy of our attention? So much pretentiousness and arrogance on your part it isn’t funny. And don’t forget to sign Will Flatt’s stupid little petition. He’s linked it further down. Just a few dozen more moronic “1st Amendment defender” signatures (oh, the irony) and the Ammoland editors will consign Harold and his… Read more »
@Moe Mensale For people who hate other people expressing their freedom of speech and association through the use of petitions- you know who you are- I find it somewhat funny that such individuals don’t practice what they preach. Moe, You are a lying hypocrite. I called you out a few days ago for the same type of hypocrisy, yet here you are telling people that if they don’t like what they read to just ignore it.. Something you strangely seem unable to do concerning @wjd Flatt’s comments which does amount to the same behavior you are criticizing. Hmmmm… Funny, someone… Read more »
@wjd That’s why I called him out for hypocrisy. I also understand that those who try to misrepresent or lie about a situation do two things without fail. They either display cowardice and cannot provide a legitimate response back, or they try to destroy the messenger personally. I get the feeling that Moe is a new handle for someone who has been here before, because he has certainly learned quickly at the very least not to get into a verbal debate with anyone who has a modicum of sense to set aside opinions in a debate. Over the years I… Read more »
Green Watch Dog perhaps?
@BigJim No, GWD had a different M.O. Consider this, Harold has had only a handful of “yes men”(strike that, make it boys instead. They ain’t men.) which generally show up only when he writes an article. If you remember old western movies there was always that one guy in league with the bad guys out in the crowd waiting for the villain to speak, then working to rile the crowd up against the hero. That is what these “yes boys” are here to do. Given what we know so far, these “yes boys” are likely the same individual or group,… Read more »