In a relatively long 16-minute segment on April 9, Tucker Carlson covered several aspects of Joe Biden’s gun control plan, including so-called “assault weapons.”
This raises questions as journalists used to say.
For example, what is the origin of the term “assault weapon?” It is an interesting story. For liberal activists, “assault weapon” is disinformation, a term the Left loves to invoke.
In 1988, anti-rights activist — Josh Sugarmann founded the Violence Policy Center (VPC). He continues today in that position at age 61. Sugarmann declared his intent to deceive the public when he wrote he would use “the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic” firearms to lobby for more gun control, including bans.
VPC’s original 1988 report by Sugarmann, Assault Weapons and Accessories in America, was updated in 2015 and states bluntly: “Assault weapons… are a new topic. The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns …. anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun – [This confusion] can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
So the term “assault weapon” is intended to create fear in order to mislead the public and advance a political purpose. This is what marketing folks call the FUD factor — create Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in order to sell products or ideas.
VPC forfeited its credibility decades ago. From Sugarmann’s own words, he admits he intended to deliberately misdirect public officials and the public to achieve a political goal. Sugarmann and the Left have forgotten how to blush.
None of the firearms that politicians and the anti-rights crowd wants to ban or have already banned are machine guns – and they know it. But the term “assault weapon” is intended to create fear in order to mislead the public and advance a political purpose.
Wiki and other online sources note: Sugarmann “has been credited with popularizing use of the term ‘assault weapons’.”
Years ago, I attended a Gun Rights Policy Conference in Washington, DC. Sugarmann showed up uninvited and wanted to speak to the audience — 2nd Amendment supporters. The audience and organizers were agreeable — and a reasonable person could wonder back then whether Sugarmann’s purpose was to provoke the audience as a publicity stunt. If so, he must have been disappointed because we listened politely and there was a bit of Q&A.
But the single memorable surprise in his remarks was that Sugarmann admitted he was jealous. He thought he should be Sarah Brady, who died years later in 2015 at age 73. In other words, Sweet Josh Sugarmann made it quite clear that Sarah Brady held the spotlight of the anti-Second Amendment movement; and he resented her primacy and thought it should be him. Altogether remarkable.
Also mildly curious is the fact that Sugarmann has had a Class One Federal Firearms License (FFL) in Washington, DC, which makes it legal for him to transfer and handle firearms. The FFL is registered at the Violence Policy Center headquarters in Washington D.C. I do not know if the Federal Firearms License is still current.
Meanwhile over on the PowerLine Blob, which readers describe as Conservative In Name Only (CINO), the one “gun guy” there (we think) — Lawyer John Hinderacker declared Biden’s so-called proposals as “trivial” in his post “Joe Biden, Gun Grabber.”
Time to go back and listen to Tucker Carlson who warned: “Nothing the Democratic party advocates for is more dishonest than gun control … it is entirely fraudulent.”
As if on cue, SCOPE (Shooters Committee On Political Education), a grassroots 2nd amendment group in New York State had a very different assessment from Hinderacker of the PowerLine Blob (emphasis added):
“Last Thursday, in a speech intended to mislead rather than inform, President Biden took his first steps towards neutering the 2nd Amendment (2A). Some of the left-wing media described the steps as “modest”. That same left-wing media is optimistic that more gun control is coming since Biden said “much more needs to be done”.
The SCOPE statement concluded:
“Gun control is not about guns. Gun control is about who controls America and Joe Biden and the progressives are intent on controlling America.”
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I took the time to view President Biden’s recent speech to Congress and jot down several of his comments in quotation marks. I followed these with my reaction to each comment as indicated in the parentheses.
“Gun violence is an epidemic in America” (Biden)
“8 shooting victims in Georgia & 10 more lives taken in mass shooting in Colorado.”
(How many died in the same day from drug overdose, auto accident, Doctor error etc)
“In the week between those two events, 250 other Americans were shot dead in the streets of America.”
(Vast majority are murdered in cities run by Democrats)
(Minorities are killing minorities)
“In the 90’s we passed Universal Background checks, a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines that hold 100 rounds that can be fired off in seconds”
(“Assault Weapon” is a misnomer aka knives, hammers, sneakers etc)
(100 round ‘drum’ magazines are extremely rare for AR-15 owners and jam easily as discovered by the Aurora theater killer in Colorado Springs)
(Maximum capacity owned by vast majority of owners has been 30 rounds)
(3- ten round magazines taped together can be emptied within only 2-3 seconds of the emptying of a 30-round magazine)
“We beat the NRA.”
(Also violated the Constitution and our civil liberties)
“Mass shootings and gun violence declined.”
(Not according to a data from the FBI and other government sources)
(Bans were never proven as a causal factor)
(See Bill Whittle’s video: “Number One with a Bullet”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/pELwCqz2JfE?rel=0&autoplay=true)
“Check out the report over the ten years from 1994-2004”
(No causal data was found per our own government. Thus the law ‘sunsetted’)
“But in the early 2000s the law expired and we have seen daily bloodshed since.”
(Not due to semi-auto rifles but handguns which Biden also labels as ‘assault weapons’)
(It’s also worth pointing out that gun homicides dropped sharply in most cities after the national “assault weapons” ban expired in 2004, even though the AR-15 would correspondingly become one of the most popular weapons in the country)
“I’m not saying if the law continued we wouldn’t have seen bloodshed.”
(Agreed. Focus upon guns merely deflects attention away from the real causal factors)
(Mental health deterioration and society’s unwillingness to deal with it is one such factor)
(The instrument of death is not the culprit, it’s the operator)
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