Americans are not taking the Left’s latest gun-control push sitting down.
Gun sales jumped by 15 percent in August of this year — just as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are taking aim at the Second Amendment.
Congress returned from its August recess on Monday, and Pelosi warned there would be “hell to pay” for Senate Republicans “if they don’t pass universal background checks,” as The Hill reported of her remarks.
“Some of the gun violence prevention groups have upped the ante even further to say that if this bill is not passed, [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell and [other] Republicans in the Senate and the president will have hell to pay,” Pelosi said at a press conference with other Democrats, including Schumer, as The Hill also noted. “So let’s save time.”
These types of relentless attacks on our constitutional rights, in my view, have prompted Americans to arm themselves in even greater numbers.
“Congress returned to Washington for the first time on Monday since the mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, where nearly 40 people were killed,” as the Washington Examiner noted.
“Democrats are trying to build pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and President [Donald] Trump to pass and sign a House background checks bill, which has stalled in the GOP-controlled Senate … The leading indicator of gun sales jumped in August, driven in part by Americans seeking self-protection and deep concerns congressional Democrats are going to push through expanded gun control legislation.”
Related: Another Front Opens Up on the War Against the Second Amendment
“The overall number of background checks recorded in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System surged 15.5 percent, said the National Shooting Sports Foundation. That figure includes background checks done for security, concealed carry permits, and gun sales, and was the highest August number ever recorded,” the Examiner also reported, adding that “the new surge came in the wake of heightened pressure for gun control, sales bans on military-styled rifles, and limits on ammo following a spike in mass shootings.”
The White House has remained focused on the potential mental health connections in shooting activity.
“Analysts said that [this] might be the start of a 2016-style buying binge. Then, calls by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton for gun control and an assault weapon ban led to the highest yearly sales and background checks ever,” the Examiner also reported.
President Trump has done an about-face on his earlier support for gun control after polling showed his base was so angry that it could cost him the White House.
Late last month, the Examiner reported that Michael Hammond of the legislative counsel of Gun Owners of America said, “I am no longer committed to voting for Donald Trump. I think he’s about to make his ‘read my lips’ mistake. He thinks he can do anything on the Second Amendment and gun owners will love him.”
“Our Second Amendment will remain strong,” said Trump recently.
Hammond’s group positions itself as a bolder alternative to the larger National Rifle Association, which has about 5 million members.
He said he’s concerned that Trump could pass historic gun control legislation that Republicans successfully blocked under former President Barack Obama.
However, the good news is this: President Trump is listening to his base.
As Time magazine recently reported, while Trump once again backed tighter background checks for gun purchases, he also said he wanted to be careful that closing what he calls “loopholes” wouldn’t clear the way for more gun control.
“Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House for Kentucky, the president said he considers gun violence a public health issue and is considering ways to make background checks more strict. But he also said, ‘You’re on that slope and all of a sudden nobody has any legal protection,’ adding, ‘Our Second Amendment will remain strong,'” as Time also noted.
This piece originally appeared in WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.
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