Opinion
Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- As uncertainty about the COVID-19 outbreak continues to swirl, it is clear that anti-gun extremists and elected officials will use fear of the unknown to advance their agenda to undermine our firearms freedom. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take them long to try and quietly pass and implement gun control schemes while Americans are focused on ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of themselves and their families.
Last week, an ordinance has passed in Champaign, IL, to empower the mayor to “[o]rder the discontinuance of selling, distributing, dispensing or giving away of … firearms or ammunition of any character whatsoever.” This action must be swiftly opposed and NRA members in the area have been alerted and are responding to the threat.
The ordinance in Champaign serves as a warning bell to law-abiding gun owners nationwide. We must be on high alert for any attempts to destroy the Second Amendment in jurisdictions throughout the country.
We don’t have to guess that when emotions are running high, some politicians will exploit the situation to overstep their bounds. We know this. We’ve seen it time and time again, including in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, more recently in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and even in a North Carolina city in the face of unusually harsh winter weather. This is hardly an exhaustive list of such abuses.
This is exactly why the NRA has supported legislation to prevent government officials from using their “emergency powers” as a pretext for disarming the citizenry.
In 2006, then-Congressman Bobby Jindal (R-LA) led the fight to protect America’s gun owners against these abuses by introducing H.R. 5013 in the House, a final version of which was signed by President George W. Bush in October of that year. Now codified at 42 U.S.C. § 5207, the law prohibits persons acting under color of federal law, receiving federal funds, or acting at the direction of a federal employee from seizing or authorizing the seizure of lawfully-possessed firearms during a state of emergency.
The majority of U.S. states now have similar laws to prevent state and local officials from using the exercise of their “emergency powers” as a pretext to infringe the right to keep and bear arms. And even in the absence of such laws, the Second Amendment still applies by its own force.
That’s why we are asking gun owners to be alert to any attempt to leverage the fear and uncertainty around the COVID-19 outbreak to assail Second Amendment rights. If you learn of any such attempt, please contact us immediately at nra.org, ILA-Contact@nrahq.
We will continue to monitor the situation in Champaign, as well as the rest of the nation and alert our members accordingly.
Now, more than ever, it is essential for Americans to work together to successfully resolve the current crisis that faces the country. Every person can play a part by keeping a cool head, staying informed with reliable sources of information, and following directives in your locality about hygiene and social distancing.
Rest assured that your NRA will do its part, too, by remaining vigilant against opportunistic actions against your rights and freedoms during this difficult time.
About:
While widely recognized today as a major political force and as America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights, the NRA has, since its inception, been the premier firearms education organization in the world. Visit: www.nra.org
The queen of Champaign has spoken! All subjects of the kingdom of Champaign shall hear and obey her majesty! Lest ye be dealt with mightily by her royal guard!
Yep and I am a Trannie……..NOT.
Just when you thought there was only 1 putler,lol
COVID-19 The perfect time for a power grab? (SICK!) What is next Marshall Law? Firearm seizures? National Guard taking to our neighborhood streets? FEAR OF WHAT IS RIGHT! What are you afraid of? I will tell what I fear, the erosion of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights without due process in which the foundations of this country have existed upon for over two centuries. The re-interpretation, and the re-defining of these original documents is a perverted insult to the legal citizens of the United States. Many U.S. Families, including mine, since the inception of these documents have shed… Read more »
No “ATTEMPTED SEIZURES”, want to start a revolution?,FINE start it, we will clean out D.C. and get this train back on track.
I am past the point of their SO called NO LAWS bullshit.(as are millions of other gun owners)
If it doesn’t jibe with the CONSTITUTION AND THE BOR”S STFU.
Criminals will always find a gap in your defense. Watching politicians, makes a person understand how criminals think. This is nothing short of a criminal enterprise in conspiring to deprive citizens of their rights. They think that now is the time to bring their hammers and sickles down on a free people and call it a day. They’re the ones that wear the little beanies with helicopter blades on the top….Just sayin’..
Screw them they DO NOT have the power or authority to DO ANY OF THIS.
See the US Constitution assholes.
So a little fear mongering to increase donations, Guess Wayne needs a new Suit; this is standard language in ALL emergency Declarations From the Feds all the way down to Cities Towns. Quit Pearl Clutching!
Found the unamerican scum troll. ^^^
This is a bad ordinance BUT, at this point NRA and others should not give the impression that these provisions have been implemented. They have not nor has this Liberal Administration given any indication that it intends to (yet).
So true. fear mongering
I am not worried about the Virus at all,and I am older, the .gov slobs are the problem as are the MSM main job to SCARE the sheeple to death.
Propaganda, WE ALL know the GOVERNMENT is our worst enemy, they are like monkeys screwing footballs.
Like a group of old women in a gossip group.
Maybe if enough gun owners would visit the mayors office and encourage him it is against the Second Amendment and they will not comply it would convince him. MAYBE MORE NEED TO TAKE A STAND, YA THINK?
And when the time comes TAKE ACTION.
The “Firearms ” part of the Ordinance ( read it online ) is in violation of 42 USC 5207 ( if the City gets Federal funding for anything ..almost always a fact …and of course violates the Constitution too ) …and most of the Ordinance violates Due Process and Habeas Corpus …and the Property Seizure part of the Ordinance is why we have the Third Amendment ( real estate seizure by title is allowed per Ordinance ) …. Such “laws” that suspend our inherent Constitutional Rights are supposedly only allowed when there is a real disaster/emergency …. not a media… Read more »