This week, President Biden brought gun control further into the center of his campaign.
Just after headlining a national gun-control conference, Biden released a new ad focused on gun policy. He attacked former president Donald Trump’s record on guns while touting his own. It all looks like a base play that, as I explain for members, carries a lot of risk and potential reward.
We also have on-the-ground reporting from the war in Ukraine. There’s a new movement to bring gun rights to civilians in the war-torn nation. Will Ukraine get a Second Amendment of its own?
After the Supreme Court struck it down last week, the bump stock ban came back into play this week. First, there was a peculiar aspect of Justice Samuel Alito’s concurrence in that ruling that opened up questions about where The Court might go in its Second Amendment jurisprudence. Then, Senate Democrats tried to fast-track a legislative replacement for the defunct ATF rule but failed.
Plus, Bearing Arms’ Cam Edwards joins the podcast to discuss Hunter Biden’s conviction and the NRA’s new CEO.
Analysis: The Risk and Potential Reward of Biden Doubling Down on Gun Control [Member Exclusive]
By Stephen Gutowski
President Joe Biden’s increasing focus on promising new gun restrictions could help tip what’s sure to be a tight election. But it’s not a safe bet which direction it tips.
The Biden Campaign released a new gun-control ad this week. It attacked former president Donald Trump’s record on gun policy while touting some of Biden’s gun record. The ad also signaled that Biden intends to make gun policy a more prominent part of his re-election pitch.
That adds new intrigue to the 2020 rematch most Americans didn’t want to see. In a race increasingly likely to come down to a few hundred thousand votes across a handful of states, how each side handles every issue could make the difference between who wins or loses. Biden’s double down could help him reactivate base voters who’ve been soft on him thus far, or it could alienate swing voters and those from traditional democratic demographics who’ve bought guns for the first time in recent years.
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Biden Pushes Gun-Control Message in Latest Ad
By Stephen Gutowski
President Joe Biden has amplified his push for new gun restrictions headed into the 2024 election.
In a new 30-second ad released this week, Biden hit former president Donald Trump on gun policy. He also touted the gun restrictions his administration has adopted.
“When Trump was president— children gunned down in classrooms, innocent people killed in church and massacred at a concert. Still, Trump did nothing,” Biden says in the ad. “He sided with the NRA, but I sided with you. I’ve expanded background checks, created an office of gun violence prevention, and now murder rates are down.”
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Meet the Man Pushing for a Ukrainian Second Amendment
By Myroslava Tanaka-Vikulova and Tim Mak
This piece was first published in The Counteroffensive, an independent publication dedicated to on-the-ground reporting on the war in Ukraine. Check out more of their journalism here.
Kyiv, Ukraine — When push comes to shove, this Ukrainian believes, tyrants only understand the language of violence.
“If we had the same gun ownership percentage as the United States does, Russia would never have dared to invade us,” argued Maryan Zablotskiy, who is a member of parliament for Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party.
Zablotskiy is one of the authors of a bill that would create a universal right to firearms for all Ukrainians. In the interim, he has also been asking Americans to send their guns to Ukraine.
Bump Stock Ban Fails in Senate
By Jake Fogleman
An effort by Senate Democrats to quickly ban bump stocks in the wake of a Supreme Court decision striking down the ATF’s administrative ban failed on Tuesday.
A vote on unanimous consent to disregard normal rules and move the Banning Unlawful Machinegun Parts (BUMP) Act forward was unsuccessful after Senator Pete Ricketts (R., Neb.) objected to the bill. The measure, introduced by Senator Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) last June, would ban the sale and possession of bump stocks and all other devices that “materially increase the rate of fire of a firearm.”
Podcast: Hunter Biden’s Gun Convictions and the NRA’s New CEO (Ft. Bearing Arms Cam Edwards)
By Stephen Gutowski
This week, a jury found the President’s son guilty of federal gun felonies.
We’ve got one of the country’s best and most prolific gun writers on the show to discuss that development. Cam Edwards is the editor of Bearing Arms and the host of Cam and Company. He said he wasn’t surprised by Hunter Biden’s conviction but wasn’t necessarily celebrating it.
He said the evidence against Hunter was formidable and noted the vast majority of federal charges that make it to trial end in a guilty plea or conviction. Still, he questioned the underlying law that Hunter was convicted on. He said the First Son has a real chance at a successful Second Amendment challenge.
You can listen to the show on your favorite podcasting app or by clicking here. Video of the episode is available on our YouTube channel.
Plus, Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I walk through the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the ATF’s bump stock ban as unlawful on the news update. We also discuss what the ruling might mean for President Biden’s gun executive orders and what it might say about the Justices’ appetite for striking down machine gun bans. We cover the interesting politics of a gun tax ballot initiative set to go before Colorado voters this fall and recap my experience at the National Journalism Center’s range day.
Analysis: A Puzzling Aspect of the Supreme Court’s Bump Stock Ruling [Member Exclusive]
By Stephen Gutowski
A majority of the justices on the nation’s highest court rebuked the ATF’s attempt to ban bump stocks by administrative rulemaking this week. However, several also expressed a curious openness to prohibiting the devices through other means.
On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision against the ban in Cargill v. Garland. A 6-3 majority found the ATF had exceeded its authority under the National Firearms Act by reclassifying bump stocks as machineguns. The Court focused on the fact that bump stocks don’t fire more than one round per “function of the trigger,” as required to qualify as a machinegun under the law.
The majority opinion did not declare the Second Amendment protects bump stocks, which isn’t surprising since the challenge didn’t claim that. What is surprising is how many of The Court’s conservatives went out of their way to suggest the Second Amendment doesn’t protect bump stocks.
While all of the conservative members of the Court joined the majority in striking down the ATF ban, half of them expressed sympathy for its goal at one point or another.
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Outside The Reload
Is Amy Coney Barrett Souring on the Bruen Test? | Politico | By Josh Gerstein
Massachusetts Gun Control Bill Still Under Wraps as Deadline Looms | Bearing Arms | By Cam Edwards
No Charges in ATF Killing Over Paperwork Firearms Violation | Reason | By Jacob Sullum
That’s it for this week in guns.
I’ll see you all next week.
Thanks,
Stephen Gutowski
Founder
The Reload
