Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Gun Prohibition Advocates Demonize Lawful Industry, Ignore Actual Criminals

Monday, July 17, 2023

Gun Prohibition Advocates Demonize Lawful Industry, Ignore Actual Criminals

Here we go again. Four years after then-Vice President Joe Biden said, “Our enemy is the gun manufacturers,” gun control advocates are still trying to convince Americans that violent crime results from law-abiding businesses providing a constitutionally-protected product under exacting government scrutiny. Amidst the gun prohibition lobby’s never-ending – and usually illegalcampaign of harassing lawsuits, Everytown has now upped the ante with its new “research” effort, “Inside the Gun Shop.” The point is not to shed understanding on America’s regulated firearm industry, however, but to impugn and dox the businesses that make the Second Amendment possible.

Everytown uses the report to insinuate that the real problem behind firearm-related violence in America is that greedy, profit-motivated businesses manufacture and sell guns without scruples or effective oversight. The demonization of guns and businesses is no doubt a double sop to the organization’s left-leaning audience, which is often as eager to blame Capitalism as guns for the nation’s woes. It’s also ironic, given that Everytown is funded almost entirely by billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, who made his fortune by providing technology and information services to Wall Street, the better to enable its supposedly rapacious financial exploitation. As CNN once wrote, “Wall Street as we know it today wouldn’t exist without [Bloomberg’s] innovations.”

Bloomberg would undoubtedly agree that economic theory and common experience establish that making something more expensive reduces demand for it. Thus, an ongoing strategy of the anti-gun movement is to advocate for piling as many regulations and requirements on top of the firearm industry as possible to drive up the prices of the industry’s products. This, eventually, would make firearms so expensive for the consumer as to price many people out of the market. “Inside the Gun Shop” accordingly advocates for “[d]oubling the cost of an FFL” and mandating security, inventory, and personnel practices that would make manufacturing and selling guns economically unfeasible for many, not to mention unaffordable for their customers.

But the report goes even further, publishing a searchable map of licensed gun sellers – including a filter that sorts “residential” from “commercial” licensees – so its gun-hating readers can know exactly where to direct their ire and who to complain about to local officialdom. Yet, as the report itself acknowledges, most of these businesses are run out of private residences and account for a very small volume of the overall gun sales in America (90% of dealers are responsible for only 16.5% of sales, according to Everytown’s figures).

The point of “outing” them in an easily searchable website is to make them a figurative and literal target. Yet this applies not just to bigoted gun control advocates but to thieves who might find a house with a stock of new guns an attractive target for burglary. This puts a lie to the report’s supposed concern for public safety. Indeed, it actually creates a public safety hazard.

But such is the unscrupulous, scorched-earth character of modern gun control advocacy. As ever with single-minded zealots, the ends justify the means.

There is, however, a simple response to the report’s claims. It’s the criminals, stupid.

Tackling gun crime from the lawful supply side misallocates blame and burdens the livelihood and liberties of honest people, while giving armed criminals (who ignore and operate outside of the law) an advantage. None of this is a surprise coming from Everytown, however, which also has a side hustle disparaging the police

“Inside the Gun Shop” also takes the reader inside the disordered thinking of gun control advocates, and its premises and recommendations should be rejected.

TRENDING NOW
California: Governor Newsom Continues His Vendetta Against Lawful Gun Owners Signing Multiple Anti-Gun Bills into Law

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

California: Governor Newsom Continues His Vendetta Against Lawful Gun Owners Signing Multiple Anti-Gun Bills into Law

On Tuesday, September 26th, California Governor Gavin Newsom hosted a signing ceremony in Sacramento where he signed multiple anti-gun bills into law, most notably: an 11% excise tax on all firearms and ammunition; vastly expanded concealed carry ...

New York’s Ammunition Background Check System: An Expensive Wreck?

Gun Laws  

News  

Monday, September 25, 2023

New York’s Ammunition Background Check System: An Expensive Wreck?

The F-35 stealth jet isn’t the only example of expensive technology that crashed recently. The implementation of New York’s ammunition background check law – the rollout of which was, to be generous, extremely low visibility – was ...

Massachusetts: Update on Proposed Sweeping Gun Control

Monday, July 17, 2023

Massachusetts: Update on Proposed Sweeping Gun Control

Late last month, Massachusetts politicians put forth HD 4420, “an act modernizing firearm laws.” This massive piece of legislation re-writes gun laws in the Commonwealth and imposes unprecedented gun-control.

Biden Creates New Office to Funnel Taxpayer Funds to Gun Control Advocacy

Gun Laws  

News  

Monday, September 25, 2023

Biden Creates New Office to Funnel Taxpayer Funds to Gun Control Advocacy

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 ...

Canadians on Canada’s Gun Control Measures: Expensive, Ineffective, Political Posturing

News  

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Canadians on Canada’s Gun Control Measures: Expensive, Ineffective, Political Posturing

More than three years have passed since Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban and mandatory confiscation (“buyback”) of what he called “military grade assault weapons,” which was followed by a national handgun “freeze” ...

Seeking Attention, Not Solutions in New Mexico

News  

Monday, September 25, 2023

Seeking Attention, Not Solutions in New Mexico

After several weeks of the abject failure of New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) attempt to suspend constitutional rights in her state, there are a number of theories as to what, exactly, she was ...

NRA Slams Gov. Newsom's Latest Assault on Second Amendment

Gun Laws  

Second Amendment  

News  

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

NRA Slams Gov. Newsom's Latest Assault on Second Amendment

The National Rifle Association released the following statement on California Gov. Newsom's signing of gun control: "The NRA condemns the legislation enacted by Gov. Newsom. It is a blatant and egregious attack on the rights ...

Changes Coming Soon for New York State Gun Owners

News  

Monday, August 21, 2023

Changes Coming Soon for New York State Gun Owners

There are some significant changes due to take effect early next month in the Empire State.

Colorado: Anti-Hunting Legislation Initiative 91 Scheduled for Public Comment

Hunting  

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Colorado: Anti-Hunting Legislation Initiative 91 Scheduled for Public Comment

On Friday, September 22nd, Initiative 91 was filed to appear on the ballot in the November 2024 election in a push by anti-hunting advocates trying to stop the age-old practice of hunting predators, such as ...

NRA to Move for Expedited Relief for Its Members in Light of Fifth Circuit Pistol Brace Ruling

Hunting  

News  

Second Amendment  

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

NRA to Move for Expedited Relief for Its Members in Light of Fifth Circuit Pistol Brace Ruling

The National Rifle Association of America (“NRA”) announced today that it would be expediting its motion for a preliminary injunction to protect its members from the Biden Administration’s unlawful attempt to reclassify braced pistols as ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

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.