U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who heads up the gun control group bearing her name, is spinning tales and vilifying the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) to advance President Joe Biden’s shared gun grab visions.
Giffords penned an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer calling for nationwide universal background checks on all firearm transfers. She claims this is what America needs but couldn’t be more wrong. America doesn’t need more background checks. America needs better background checks. That’s exactly what NSSF has been fighting for since 2013.
NSSF’s FixNICS campaign is focused on improving the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) so the background check system works as it was intended. The firearm industry spearheaded this initiative and changed laws in 16 states and in Congress to ensure all disqualifying adjudicated mental health and criminal records are submitted to the FBI. Since NSSF started this effort, submission of disqualifying records to the FBI increased 270 percent, from about 1.7 million in 2012 to over 6.14 million in 2021.
Pennsylvania, where Giffords is stumping for gun control, is one of the most improved states because of the firearm industry’s efforts, not Giffords’ gun control. In 2012, Pennsylvania submitted just one disqualifying mental health record to the FBI. The firearm industry changed that. Today, 944,974 records are submitted.
Still, Giffords demands Congress act to push for universal background checks without clarifying that the murderer, who took six innocent lives and wounded Giffords, passed the very background check she demands. She overlooks that the background checks her attacker passed didn’t account for his noted drug abuse, his violent outbursts, or declining state of mental health. Better laws were needed to stop the likes of her attacker, not more laws that would infringe on the rights of those who obey the law.
Gun Control Lies
Giffords’ troubles with the truth don’t end there. She claims that 90 percent of surveyed gun owners support universal background checks. That’s not the entire story. The fact is the most recent attempt for universal background checks in Congress, H.R. 8, was rammed through without even debate and passed on near-party lines. Colion Noir, attorney, and Second Amendment advocate took apart this myth over the vague wording and what the question leaves out. What is never asked is if Americans agree with being put on a national gun registry – a watchlist – simply for exercising Constitutional rights.
Giffords wasn’t done though. She claimed unlicensed gun dealers are selling guns wholesale in America. She’s dancing with words to confuse readers. There are licensed firearm retailers and private sellers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) regulates firearm retailers. Private parties are able to sell firearms within the laws of their states, some of which require background checks before transferring a firearm. Anyone else selling guns for profit without a license has an entirely different category. That’s criminal. The firearm industry wants criminals locked up.
Giffords blasted Members of Congress for failing to pass any meaningful legislation to improve public safety when it comes to firearms. Again, this is false. Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed into law, the FIX NICS Act in 2018, named for NSSF’s program, because it demanded what NSSF has pushed for since 2013. It compels federal agencies and incentivizes states to submit all disqualifying mental health records. It passed with broad bipartisan support, with 78 U.S. Senators co-sponsoring the law. That was the firearm industry-leading that effort for real change and real safety. Giffords was on the sidelines.
Losing Gambit
None of Giffords lambasting the firearm industry is a surprise. She’s grown increasingly frustrated with NSSF because the firearm industry has consistently and routinely shined a light on her half-truths and extremist gun control spin. That’s evident even now. NSSF is leading the opposition to her and antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s hand-selected puppet David Chipman, whom President Joe Biden nominated to lead the ATF. NSSF ran television advertising for the very first time to inform senators and their voters of Chipman’s gun control ambitions.
The biggest opponent to David Chipman’s nomination for ATF Director?
It’s not gun owners—it’s the gun industry.
Chipman’s confirmation is literally a matter of life or death—but to the NSSF, it’s about their ability to sell more weapons. https://t.co/RzLlatyBsA
— Giffords (@GiffordsCourage) July 23, 2021
This is the man who couldn’t define “assault weapons” when asked under oath but wants to ban them. If he couldn’t, he has openly advocated in Congressional testimony to twist the National Firearms Act to reclassify the semiautomatic Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) and require all owners to register them and pay a tax – all 20 million-plus in circulation. This is the same Chipman who denigrated gun buyers as “Tiger King” and zombie apocalypse preppers and lied about helicopters being shot down at the stand-off at Waco, Texas.
Giffords calls NSSF extremist, but it’s clear she’s got an axe to grind. She also knows that Americans are embracing their Second Amendment rights in record numbers. Over 21 million background checks were conducted in 2020 for the sale of a gun. In 2021, that number is topping 11 million so far. She ignores that background checks are being conducted for the sale of firearms at retail and they’re shattering records.
Giffords ignores these truths so America doesn’t uncover the truth of her ultimate goal. Giffords wants to ban MSRs, the most popular-selling centerfire rifle in America, and standard capacity magazines. She supports President Biden’s goal of repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), so activist lawyers can sue the firearm industry into oblivion for the actions of criminals. She supports gun registries so every law-abiding gun owner is on a government watchlist. Giffords backs the expanded use of so-called “red flag” laws that would do more than disarm gun owners, these laws would also deny them Second Amendment rights without Due Process. She wants to enact age-based gun bans, to unconstitutionally deny young adults under 21 the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Giffords’ goal isn’t just more background checks. Her goal is to eliminate lawful gun ownership. That’s the most extremist position out there.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
Gifford is brain damaged from being shot in the head. Her husband, an Arizona Senator, who is voting on one of his former employees for head of the BATFE, is the puppet master behind Gifford moving her mouth and speaking the words as she is incapable of normal mental functioning, logic or reason. It’s no different than what Sara Brady was doing to Jim, only Gifford has better makeup. Her husband, the Senator, started and ran the anti-gun organization with her name on it and still controls it as she is incapable of doing so, making his voting for Chipman… Read more »
I want somebody to show a proposal by Gifford’s group which called for enhanced punishment (or punishment at all) for criminal misuse of firearms. Unless I’m missing something, it never happens. Instead, the focus is always on guns and how to restrict ownership of them to law-abiding Americans.
There is none. New Left Progressives foster armed thugs who in turn create a society cowed by fear. That is the end goal. Once all of the serfs are totally dependent upon government for security the power elites can control the masses. That is the end point of their public policy. Total power. Totalitarian power.
be careful what you ask for you may be jailed for stopping one of their minions taking your stuff
Background checks to drive vehicles would make more sense. End background checks. Wasted time & money.
Truth is not a leftist value. New Left Progressives like the Gabboid and her Chinese Colluding hubby want power. Power at any cost. They see armed Americans as one of many impediments to total power. And we are. And we shall remain so.
Aw….ole Gabby Giffords. Pimped out by hubby Mark Kelly as the Village Idiot of Gun Control.
AR15 owners, the Giffords, must be making a ton of money from their ignorant supporters. I’m a 37 year retired police officer, from patrol to major crimes detective, with hundreds+ of arrests to my score card. I’ve yet to meet a criminal who would request a background check as he trades narcotics for a stolen gun. It just doesn’t happen. The US Supreme Court has ruled that felons can not be compelled to register any guns they may have. To do so would violate the felon’s 5th amendment right against self incrimination. Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85 (1968).… Read more »
NOW we are beginning to work toward real solutions!
leftists/anti-gunner can only lie or distort the truth. they cannot argue the facts or want to debate the issue. i actively seek debate on all aspects of firearm topics, politics, religion without much success on takers. they only want to call me names and shout me down because they cannot win without lying. only leftists want universal background checks, rarely do i encounter someone who wants them, not the 90% she speaks of. she supports chipman, a bigoted employee who wants to eliminate the Second Amendment. they, don’t care about the individual or rights, they only care that government grows… Read more »
“is one of the most improved states because of the firearm industry’s efforts”…. Mr. Keane, with all due respect, please identify for me who in the “industry” is helping fight this fight in Pennsylvania. Firearms Owners Against Crime is at the front of the pro-gun efforts in Pennsylvania with no comparable organization even close… and we’ve never seen anyone from the “industry” donate so much as a dime to our cause here. If you have associates willing to help, please put them in touch with us. The lawsuits we’ve filed to stop people like Peduto in Pittsburgh and similar infringements… Read more »
Background checks for constitutionally protected gun owners but if you want to sire children, buy ammonium nitrate, propane, gasoline, grain alcohol, cyanide, vote, build a kill dozer; have at it is a “free country”.
No ‘background chks’ to flood the USA & breed anchor Dems; no borders & immigration limits, right?
“ABOLISH THE USA!” -APG, LOLibertarian
@JLS,
Gun owners have been protected by the Constitution and its Second Amendment over the last 250 (more or less) years.
Please see “Supreme Court Gun Cases” by Kopel, Halbrook, and Korwin. You can get a copy for pennies at Thrift Books or any of the other used book on-line stores.
More keyboard diarrhea from Schart’s haywired brain.