Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Opinion

Pure gun control. As in disarmament and banning of firearms. It’s rare that anti-gunners get straight to the exact point that we have been warning of for decades. So, when they decide not to dance around with semantics, buzz words, “common sense” labels, incrementalism, or legal gymnastics but instead admit what they actually want, listen carefully and let their own words educate you.

Mike Spies writes for The Trace, an anti-gun propaganda machine funded by Michael Bloomberg that insists on presenting itself as “independent journalism.” Ten years ago, Bloomberg wasn’t quite satisfied with the anti-gun messaging spewing from literally every mainstream media source, so to push the message even further, he created yet another egomaniacal anti-gun vanity project. Read more on The Trace and their history from NRA-ILA’s recent alert: The Trace: Ten Years of Anti-Gun Propaganda

Spies often partners up with mainstream media outlets for the opportunity to portray himself to larger audiences as a “journalist,” and such was the case with his recent roundtable discussion on MSNBC with Katy Tur. In discussing what he considers the challenges and solutions to gun violence, Spies said the quiet part out loud: “You have to be honest and say what will actually work, which is what nobody wants to hear, which is that there are just simply way too many firearms.”  His solution: look to Australia and European countries, which of course have no constitutional right to arms.

“Whether you like it or not, the only thing that really works, if you really wanted to bring down gun violence, was to do what Australia did and to do what many other countries in Europe did.”

Short of saying the word confiscation, what Spies is alluding to as the “solution” is broadly banning firearms, including handguns. When host Katy Tur added on to Spies’s sentiment that there are “too many firearms” and piped in that firearms are “too powerful,” Spies agreed, saying, “And they’re too powerful, even handguns, too.”

A quick re-visit of the Spies-preferred Australian style of gun control: Australia implemented a firearm ban and mandatory confiscation in 1996 pursuant to the National Firearms Agreement. Nearly 700,000 privately-owned firearms were turned in to the government and destroyed. While compensation was available, the offer was one that gun owners could not be refuse; retaining one’s lawfully acquired firearms could lead to their seizure and to prison time.

As of January 2025, the Australian government reported that approximately 52,000 additional firearms had been surrendered to police and removed. Last year, the country adopted what the state government calls “Australia’s toughest firearms laws,” which included even harsher restrictions on license categories, prohibitions and disqualifications, restrictions on the number of guns an individual may own, mandatory health evaluations, mandatory training, and strict new storage requirements. Firearm license applicants must additionally provide a “proper reason” for desiring a firearm; self-defense is never a proper reason.

Spies poo-pooed the idea that America’s own Constitution is any impediment to this scheme, since he believes in only a “fluid interpretation of the Second Amendment.” Meanwhile he characterized the concept that citizens have an individual, constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms as “like, basically, a new idea.”

The Founding Fathers and the United States Supreme Court justices, among others, would disagree, as Spies has it backwards.

Not only would a basic understanding of how the Bill of Rights works have helped here, but Supreme Court precedent going back to the 1800s has supported the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right.

It was not until the “collective rights” theory began to gain traction much later in the 20^th century in an effort to aid in the advancement of gun control that the Supreme Court had cause to address this delusion in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). The Court very clearly held that, consistent with previous Second Amendment rulings and legal sources dating to the Founding, the amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. In 2010’s McDonald v. Chicago, the Court further expanded on this ruling that the individual right to keep and bear arms is incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment and enforceable against state and local governments.

Ultimately, Spies is an anti-gun activist pretending to be a journalist. “Journalists” like Spies aren’t reporting the news, they are intentionally spreading anti-gun propaganda to undermine the Second Amendment and to stigmatize the gun owning community. No matter how many times Spies proclaims, “I am a journalist,” it will never stick.  Not only is Spies not a journalist, he is also clearly not a historian, a constitutional scholar, a jurist, or someone to be taken seriously on the issue of firearms or the Second Amendment.

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

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