Professional gun control advocates have always had a seat at the table in the Biden White House. Now, however, they will not only sit at the table but determine its menu, set it, and compile the guest list for it. This comes under a new initiative launched by Joe Biden last Friday to establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to be overseen by none other than Kamala Harris. But while the effort is supposedly being run by the White House “to reduce gun violence,” its real purpose is to employ professional gun control advocates and amplify their propaganda and agenda with taxpayer dollars.
There are different ways to look at this effort.
One is to dismiss it as a publicity stunt and a way to appease the always demanding, never satisfied gun control lobby, which is a key constituency of the Biden-Harris Administration. After all, the new office has no congressional authorization, no dedicated congressional appropriation, no policy-making or enforcement authority, and no clearly defined reason for being, other than a vague mandate to “coordinate” the administration’s efforts on guns.
The appointment of Harris as its nominal head is perhaps telling, as she has a dismal favorability rating (including with Democrats), a reputation for speaking incoherently, and precious little success in shepherding consequential legislation through Congress. Even the administration’s collaborators in the press can’t seem to settle on a consistent narrative about her, sometimes portraying her as a liability to the Biden ticket and the party and sometimes trying to rehabilitate her image. Harris’ “oversite” portfolio also includes “stemming the migration on the southern border,” where the situation has only gotten worse from national sovereignty, human rights, and law enforcement standpoints. Besides unchecked illegal immigration that strains infrastructure and social services (leading even the Democrat mayor of New York City to characterize is as an existential crisis for the city), America’s porous border promotes smuggling of contraband and persons, often with deadly consequences. If there is a more disliked and ineffectual politician in D.C. than Kamala Harris, it’s hard to imagine who it is.
But it would be foolish to dismiss the fact that the office’s creation represents a new milestone in an ever-expanding gun control infrastructure that encompasses the legacy media, academia, the digital technology sector, and significant portions of institutional medicine and the entertainment industry. Meanwhile, the executive branch itself is increasingly being weaponized against gun owners and the gun industry in the form of persecutory rulemakings and enforcement policies. Having a dedicated office of fulltime zealots to interface with this infrastructure could indeed go a long way toward provoking the generational change in hearts and minds necessary to disrupt long-established freedoms, traditions, and legal regimes. The U.S. is currently undergoing its own Cultural Revolution, of sorts, and our Second Amendment rights are not immune to its effects. The newly-created office, if competently administered, could help nudge that process along.
But what is clear is that Biden is determined to use the White House’s own (apparently vast) budget to employ professional gun control advocates at the public’s expense.
Previously, the most blatant and egregious example of this was its nomination of a “senior policy advisor” and paid shill for the gun control lobby to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which enforces federal firearm laws.
The effort to nominate David Chipman to that role fortunately went down in flames, thanks to your NRA’s all-out opposition.
But the deputy directors of the new office include Robert Wilcox, who will also serve as special assistant to the president. Wilcox previously worked as the senior director of federal government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety. There, his salary was underwritten by billionaire anti-gunner Michael Bloomberg. In his new role, however, it will be paid with YOUR federal taxes. Wilcox as an anti-gun lobbyist pushed such radical policies as banning America’s most popular rifle, the AR-15; banning private firearm transfers; holding law-abiding firearm dealers accountable for the acts of criminals; and limiting the capacity of magazines used in self-defense firearms. Wilcox is not just another policy wonk or expert bureaucrat whose job is to serve the public at large. He is an activist dedicated to the destruction of Americans’ Second Amendment rights. And now money coming out of YOUR pocket will fund his life’s work.
Chipman’s appointment was subject to Senate approval. Wilcox’s is not. But it is just as clearly a thumb in the eye to hardworking Americans who are struggling to get by in Joe Biden’s economy and who believe in the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
What can best be hoped for Biden’s new antigun office is what can often best be hoped for other unnecessary and politically-charged appendages to the federal bureaucracy: that it spend money while doing and accomplishing nothing. Your NRA will be monitoring its operations carefully and will report on any noteworthy developments.
About NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
My NRA will be monitoring the situation very carefully! That’s a load off my mind.
I believe Alan was being sarcastic.
They already have created an illegal, unconstitutional fourth branch of government called. the Administrative State. This rogue bureaucracy has been doing its evil work for over 80 years. This is just one more small addition to this leviathan.
Another good reason for the Freedom Caucus to provoke a shutdown until fiscal sanity is established in Mordor on the Potomac.
How about a constitutional amendment that stipulated that no Representative, Senator, or the President will be paid after the expiration of a 90 day window after the start of a new congress until such time as all spending bills are passed and signed into law by the President. Further, pay withheld during the gap in spending authorization will be forfeit and not reimbursed in any fashion.
10 percent to the big man first.
How about the NRA dumping Wayne and the expensive law firm they are paying money that should be used for lobbying efforts. Defending Wayne has become the focus of the NRA instead of defending our rights.
Surprising? No. These usurpers use taxpayer money for all the looney left causes, ie climate change, abortion, gun control, lgbtq, ad nauseum. They play free and easy with other peoples money just like any shyster criminal enterprise would. Talk about putting criminals behind bars and keeping them there, look no further than washinton dc to see where the next gulag archipelago should be.
With this administrations financial policies putting the entire country in distress, maybe Bloomberg and Soros needed the relief, “let the taxpayers pay for their own funeral”.
Note worthy developments. Like when Wayne and Trump got together and decided to work on bump stocks? I will never trust the NRA so long as Pe Pe Le Pew is in there. Why not create a task force to see how we could rid ourselves of gang violence. Do an Obama project. “if you see something, say something” and people report it to the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to see if the claim is true and if it is, they report it to the FBI who arrests them and locks them up. We should have the main office… Read more »
bump stocks again? given the public shock and outrage, i guess you would have preferred Trump target the modern weapon designs the shooter used in his heinous act rather than appease the anti-2As by limiting his push to some simple accessory that we all know was created as an end around to existing law?
we should be grateful that Trump focused only on those stocks as any lessor of a man would have done what conventional politicians have always done in recent history…. blame the tool and not the evil heart.
As you can see, you are not going to win any support on your comment. Most don’t feel that way and that Trump should have never given anything, including me and I don’t support his red flag law idea either, but I still feel he is the only non-RINO candidate which is hard to support with his actions. I play chess and I know strategy but there is to be no compliance with any rule or law when it comes to the second amendment. We also lost reciprocity at the same time. That alone was too much and it really… Read more »
“If there is a more disliked and ineffectual politician in D.C. than Kamala Harris, it’s hard to imagine who it is.” Certainly correct in could not imagine anyone worse than Cackling Kammie, but it is certainly a massively crowded tie for that title…..very like a rush hour on the 405 in LA
Frankly, far left “activist” groups and American taxpayers might just as well share a sleeping bag.