Gun Rights Will ‘Feel the Bern’ Under a Sanders Presidency
Another Democratic Party leader has hopped on the anti-gun hysteria after the Christchurch Mosque massacres. This time, it’s Bernie Sanders who joined the calls for more gun control.
On March 21, 2019, Sanders celebrated New Zealand’s leaders decision to ban “military-style” rifles and semi-automatic guns in the wake of the massacre that claimed the lives of 50 people.
Sanders tweeted, “This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like.”
The Vermont senator believes America should follow in New Zealand’s footsteps: “We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States.”
The Christchurch Massacre may be a tipping point as far as gun control discourse in America goes. From Nancy Pelosi to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and now Sanders, the Democratic Party has officially become the party of radical gun control. Although Republicans have left a lot to be desired under the Trump administration with the passage of Fix-NICS and the ATF’s bureaucratic bump stock ban, we’re at a point now where Democrats are pushing the Overton Window even further towards gun control.
Now former Supreme Court Justices like John Paul Stevens are advocating for the repeal of the Second Amendment. Even states like Hawaii are moving to repeal the Second Amendment. In this battle, like any other political battle, ideas matter.
The 2016 Sanders campaign normalized socialist ideas in American political discourse. Currently, the most popular member of the U.S. House, Ocasio-Cortez has taken up Sanders’ mantle and declared capitalism “irredeemable”. She is the youngest generation of politicians who bought into these ideas hook, line, and sinker. This has ominous implications for future generations.
Sanders has a track record of praising the Soviet Union and even hiring David Sirota, a known Hugo Chavez* apologist, as his speechwriter. It’s abundantly clear that Sanders’s socialism runs deep. Although, Sanders has not been able to attain the presidency, and very likely will never do so, his socialist ideas will have a lasting impact.
One overlooked aspect of socialism is its intimate connection with gun control.
Bernie Sanders may not be a tyrant in the making, but successive leaders could easily advantage of the gun control apparatus to their favor. History has shown this to be the case in several instances. Weimar Germany was one of the most notable examples when the Weimar Republic passed gun registration under the justification that it would quell violence between Nazis and Communists on the streets.
Little did the politicians in charge of the Weimar Republic know that their gun control schemes would later be used by the succeeding government to strip Jews of their firearms and subject them to one of the largest genocides in human history.
Even present-day Venezuela, one of the most visceral failures of socialism in recent memory, fell victim to a similar dynamic.
Previous social-democratic governments had implemented strict gun control, which Hugo Chavez not only took advantage of once he got into power, but expanded upon to disarm and subjugate the Venezuelan population. When the wrong political players are in power, today’s “common-sense” gun control legislation could be tomorrow’s stepping stone for gun confiscation.
Modern-day politics doesn’t care for unintended consequences nor long-term policy implications of regulations. For that reason, elected officials like Bernie Sanders have such strong followings.
As socialism becomes popular, other facets of human activity such as self-defense and privacy will be under the chopping block. Socialism does not operate under a vacuum and is indeed an all-inclusive package of human control.
As the great economist Ludwig von Mises said best, “Great conflicts of ideas must be solved by straight and frank methods; they cannot be solved by artifices and makeshifts.”
In this case, the forces of liberty cannot afford to back down.
The Christchurch Massacre may be a tipping point as far as gun control discourse in America goes. From Nancy Pelosi to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and now Sanders, the Democratic Party has officially become the party of radical gun control. Although Republicans have left a lot to be desired under the Trump administration with the passage of Fix-NICS and the ATF’s bureaucratic bump stock ban, we’re at a point now where Democrats are pushing the Overton Window even further towards gun control.
Now former Supreme Court Justices like John Paul Stevens are advocating for the repeal of the Second Amendment. Even states like Hawaii are moving to repeal the Second Amendment. In this battle, like any other political battle, ideas matter.
The 2016 Sanders campaign normalized socialist ideas in American political discourse. Currently, the most popular member of the U.S. House, Ocasio-Cortez has taken up Sanders’ mantle and declared capitalism “irredeemable”. She is the youngest generation of politicians who bought into these ideas hook, line, and sinker. This has ominous implications for future generations.
Sanders has a track record of praising the Soviet Union and even hiring David Sirota, a known Hugo Chavez* apologist, as his speechwriter. It’s abundantly clear that Sanders’s socialism runs deep. Although, Sanders has not been able to attain the presidency, and very likely will never do so, his socialist ideas will have a lasting impact.
One overlooked aspect of socialism is its intimate connection with gun control.
Bernie Sanders may not be a tyrant in the making, but successive leaders could easily advantage of the gun control apparatus to their favor. History has shown this to be the case in several instances. Weimar Germany was one of the most notable examples when the Weimar Republic passed gun registration under the justification that it would quell violence between Nazis and Communists on the streets.
Little did the politicians in charge of the Weimar Republic know that their gun control schemes would later be used by the succeeding government to strip Jews of their firearms and subject them to one of the largest genocides in human history.
Even present-day Venezuela, one of the most visceral failures of socialism in recent memory, fell victim to a similar dynamic.
Previous social-democratic governments had implemented strict gun control, which Hugo Chavez not only took advantage of once he got into power, but expanded upon to disarm and subjugate the Venezuelan population. When the wrong political players are in power, today’s “common-sense” gun control legislation could be tomorrow’s stepping stone for gun confiscation.
Modern-day politics doesn’t care for unintended consequences nor long-term policy implications of regulations. For that reason, elected officials like Bernie Sanders have such strong followings.
As socialism becomes popular, other facets of human activity such as self-defense and privacy will be under the chopping block. Socialism does not operate under a vacuum and is indeed an all-inclusive package of human control.
As the great economist Ludwig von Mises said best, “Great conflicts of ideas must be solved by straight and frank methods; they cannot be solved by artifices and makeshifts.”
In this case, the forces of liberty cannot afford to back down.
Advocates say that fatal stabbings rose to levels only seen after the end of World War II, reaching 285 killings in the 12-month period ending in March 2018. Children seem to be particularly vulnerable, with UK’s health care system, the NHS, reporting a 93 percent rise in the number of minors being treated for knife wounds since 2014.
But according to the 
It’s been illegal to purchase or carry any knife with a blade longer than 3 inches in the UK. An individual may carry a knife only if he or she can prove it’s with “good reason,” but claiming that you are afraid for your life and want to use it for self-defense 
She said that broad-based legislation isn’t going to solve the problem, but that targeted, small-scale interventions at victim and perpetrator levels might be more beneficial. Gun violence is a symptom of more serious pathologies that gun control cannot solve. Libresco eventually discovered that no restrictive measure would actually have prevented the 33,000 gun deaths she analyzed.
If the real data related to gun deaths in America was made available and people were able to put two and two together on their own, perhaps more of us would get to the same conclusions that Libresco reached. But, news outlets spin the news. They also misinterpret the news. Sometimes, willingly. Sometimes, simply because they don’t know any better and because mass shootings are extremely emotional topics and responses are fear-driven. The result is an explosive cocktail of misinformation that often leads to bad policies and yes, more gun deaths.
In an article also from last year, economist Ryan McMaken 
