By Larry Keane
Washington, DC – -(AmmoLand.com)- President Joe Biden has worked in tandem with gun control advocacy organizations seeking to disarm law-abiding American citizens and demonize American firearm manufacturers.
While this connection between the Biden administration and gun confiscation supporters is well known, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has threatened to undermine that relationship by daring to recognize the indisputable truth that criminals are responsible for the crimes they commit. At the same time, President Biden’s Justice Department is conveniently ignoring initiatives led by the firearms and ammunition industry that are proven to prevent gun crime and keep communities safer.
In 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez found the U.S. government 60 percent liable for the 2017 Sutherland Springs attack, during which the perpetrator murdered 26 individuals and wounded 22 more at the First Baptist Church in Texas. In the lawsuit that followed, Holcombe v. USA, Judge Rodriguez stated that the U.S. government was primarily responsible for the incident because the Air Force failed to report to the National Instant Criminals Background Check System (NICS) murderer’s 2012 domestic violence court-martail conviction, his dishonorable discharge and his involuntary commitment to a mental health facility, awarding a $230 million judgment to the plaintiffs. As a result, between 2012 and 2017, the perpetrator was able to make multiple firearm purchases from firearm retailers.
Responsibility
No one – not even the government – disputes that the Air Force failed to report material information to NICS that would have disqualified the murderer from legally purchasing firearms. In its recent appeal of the 2021 court decision, the DOJ called the attack an “inexpressible tragedy,” adding that it “unequivocally does not seek to excuse” the government’s failure to report the murderer’s criminal and mental health history. However, the Department’s civil division contends: “Even if the government’s conduct might have contributed to the sequence of events… the man who pulled the trigger that day cannot bear less than half of the responsibility for causing the injuries and pain of the victims and their families.”
For once, the Biden administration correctly recognizes that criminals are responsible for their crimes, even if this admission is under the duress of the looming $230 million settlement the government owes the victims of Sutherland in adherence to the 2022 ruling they are now appealing.
To be sure, attributing blame where blame is due and fixing persistent bureaucratic problems that failed to prevent a violent and mentally ill individual from acquiring a firearm when he should not have been able to are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the firearm industry has wholeheartedly supported and in fact spearheaded initiatives intended to stop violent individuals from gaining access firearms.
Action
In the wake of the Sutherland Springs tragedy, the NSSF advocated for legislation that made background checks stronger, more comprehensive and increasingly thorough. NSSF’s consistent efforts to strengthen NICS culminated in the Fix NICS Act of 2018, which removed obstacles to the proper submission of mental health and criminal records. Obstacles that would have, and in the case of Sutherland Springs in fact did, impede the system’s proper functioning.
Specifically, the Act created incentive structures for states (to the extent legally possible under federal law) to improve their reporting and compels federal agencies to report material information to NICS that would make gun sales to specific individuals illegal, to close loopholes, and prevent violent individuals from accessing firearms. It is difficult to overstate what a dramatic, positive impact this has had on public safety. Before Fix NICS legislation passed Congress, a Department of Defense Inspector General report detailed that “31 percent of records were not submitted (to NICS) as required.” Between April 2018 and August 2019, however, a DOJ report on the effectiveness of the Fix NICS Act showed “an increase of over 6 million records in the three national databases searched with every NICS check — a 6.2 percent increase. In addition, there was a 15 percent increase in records in one of those databases, the NICS Indices.”
As gun control advocates push for unrealistic and poorly conceived legislation that targets law-abiding Americans, the success of Fix NICS shows the firearm and ammunition industry is committed to finding Real Solutions® to prevent gun crime by deranged individuals and criminals.
NSSF and its partners in the firearm industry remain committed to protecting the Second Amendment rights of American citizens while working to ensure that dangerous, violent perpetrators can’t purchase firearms – whether through firearm retailers, straw purchases, or any other black market transaction – thanks to the NICS platform and its improvements via Fix NICS. We encourage the Biden administration to develop a more consistent, coherent, and logical approach to gun crimes that reflects the primary truth in the Department of Justice’s arguments: that a robust background check system is operational and that criminals are deemed responsible for their crimes.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s FixNICS Campaign
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
Like your “Partners” at the ATF you need to go away.
If a person, any person, is safe enough to be let out in public then that person should be accorded all rights listed in the Constitution. There should be no such thing as restricted rights for a free citizen.
Right on!!! If it can be restricted, then it is not a Right! Rights are a shield that the government can not get over, around, or through. A Right stops government in its tracks. Civil Rights are one of the checks on governmental power that the founders built into our constitutional system and that government has worked hard to make people forget. Something granted by government that can be restricted, or withdrawn is license. Restricted Rights is just double talk; a confusion of legal concepts; a governmental deception to control people. Government has become the mechanism by which rich people… Read more »
restricted rights is an oxymoron, heavy on the moron part.
the pedo-in-chief, more properly his handlers, are probably unaware of what the doj has done to his administration otherwise they would be addressing this issue.
now when will they be admitting of the egregious wrongs, immoral acts and murders perpetuated during the fast and furious operation, ruby ridge, waco…?
I have been saying that, and catching flak for it, for years
You can’t lock up everyone for everything they might have done wrong forever.
No right is absolute. Free speech ends at libel or slander. Religious rights end in trying to force others to accept your beliefs. Gun rights end at murder and violent threats. The right to protest has to be peaceful.
One has every RIGHT to do AS THEY DESIRE —- AS LONG AS THEIR ACTIONS DO NOT IMPINGE ON THE RIGHTS OF ANY OTHER PERSON or CITIZEN!!!
YOU RIGHTS END — WHERE MY RIGHTS BEGIN!
“Gun Control”
It’s NEVER been about Guns.
It’s ALWAYS been about CONTROL.
I don’t remember the specifics, but aren’t NICS and Fix NICS both bad legislation?
Frankly, in my educated opinion, ANY gun control legislation is bad legislation. I would just as soon my protection from bad guys consisted of me, my gun, and my local sheriff’s department, and nothing more.
Yea…. How about prosecuting criminals instead of victims defending themselves? How about rewards and tax free status for armed citizens that kill criminals in the commission of a crime? Want to reduce violent crime? 1) NO BAIL FOR FELONS 2) Mandatory speedy trial with all appeals and sentencing and execution upon conviction within two years of the arrest while the public remembers the crime 3) Two (violent) strikes you’re DEAD. 4) Execute every convicted violent felon on TV at 6 pm every night so parents can have their children see consequences and until the death rows and prisons are empty.… Read more »
Not quite. Yes, end the nonsense tat lets real criminals off wth a gentle tap on the wrist. Your suggestion of the death penalty for twoce-offenders is wrong. ONLY those who have wilfully ended some innocent person’a life should be executed, but ALL those MUST be. Also, we all are well aware of many “felonies” that must no lnger be called “felony” crimes. Theft above a certain arbitrary number is not, nor is driving your car above some arbitrary speed. Crimes must lways have an obvious VICTIM before being called a crime. And when someone DOES commit a real crime,… Read more »
You Sir are talking about; COMMON LAW which our judicial system USED to be based upon.
Number 3 should be THREE STRIKES AND YOU ARE OUT!
And re: Sheriffs The Sheriffs could stop gun control. They are the problem. The sheriff is the top law enforcement official in every county. They have the power to NOT ENFORCE any gun laws they choose. They could certainly honor their oaths to the constitution and order their deputies and the police in their counties not to enforce unconstitutional laws such as ANY GUN LAWS. The sheriff’s nationwide could certainly put the legislators on notice that they will not enforce any gun laws or any laws that violate the constitution. They could also go after the local politicians in their… Read more »
No they are not bad legislation.
But some here would rather let the anti-gun people make the rules.
All rights come with responsibility to use them properly.
Sometimes that equal limits, we all agree that kids should not have unfettered access to firearms, there are many other things we agree on that require moderation and just don’t realize we do that normally.
Thou doeth screech to much! Speak for your self and do not try to put your ineptitude upon me or mine!
Both are a mixed bag, leaning towards the bad legislation side. The plus side of NICS is the “I” for instant; (mostly) there is no longer a 10 day wait or however long it took for your local PD to say OK for a purchase. The bad sides which should have been fixed with Fix NICS, and wasn’t, was the FBI does not use all relevant data when checking for a purchase to avoid flagging someone who has a similar name to a bad guy. Also, it is extremely difficult and expensive to have your name removed if it is… Read more »
@RTG; One more to add to your list; THE REAL COMMON LAW!! Not this ‘maritime law’ NOR ‘sheria’ bs which BOTH SHOULD NOT EXIST in America!!!
The NSSF, just like the NRA, always pushing for more gun control. NICS has a false positive rate of over 94% and the NSSF and the NRA both campaigned to add even more people to the massively failed system greatly increasing the number of people who will have their rights denied.
Using the goa fear mongering information from 2015 before the fixnics was put into place.
How about more up to date results ??
The “up to date” results say more people are on the list, therefore, more rights are being infringed. As stated above. NICS is not only a complete failure but unconstitutional as well.
You used Biden and coherent in the same sentence.
Create crisis; offer solution desired.
“Mass Shooter”; Increase power of Surveillance State.
No thanks.
WTF ? When will you get it right ?
I AM EXTREMELY THANKFUL that the ASSININE garland was not appointed to SCOTUS! This RANK HYPOCRITICAL SKANK needs to be sitting in a prison cell for NOT FULFILLING HIS DUTIES WHICH HE WAS HIRED TO DO!!!!!!!