#Hillary Targets America’s 5 Million NRA Members, Ignores 1.5 Million Gang Members

by Cam Edwards: Hillary Clinton says we must “do something” about violent crime—and that “something” involves demonizing gun owners (particularly NRA members), signing executive orders targeting gun sales, banning the most popular style of rifle in the country today, and appointing anti-gun justices to the Supreme Court, who in turn would uphold her efforts. These measures, according to Clinton, are simply “reasonable” regulations that still protect and promote the right to keep and bear arms. To non-gun owners and people who don’t think too often about these issues, the platitudes and soundbite solutions carefully crafted by campaign consultants and delivered by Clinton might sound good. After all, we have to “do something,” right?

Why isn’t the “do something” increasing federal prosecutions of weapons cases? According to the TRAC database at Syracuse University, federal weapons cases have declined for a decade now, though they still haven’t returned to the low levels seen during Bill Clinton’s time in office. Odds are good that if Hillary Clinton gets elected, there’ll be fewer criminals like Sulif Wilkins prosecuted for being a felon in illegal possession of a gun. Wilkins just received a 10-year sentence in federal court, and still faces charges in connection with a drive-by shooting that left a 3-year-old boy dead.

Why isn’t the “do something” focused on actual criminals committing violent crimes, instead of the tens of millions of legal gun owners who aren’t a problem? Why does Hillary vow to target the country’s 5 million NRA members, but won’t say a word about the 1.5 million gang members who are actually wreaking havoc in their neighborhoods? The Baltimore Sun recently reported that arrests for illegal guns rarely lead to prosecutions, even after anti-gun lawmakers rammed through a series of gun-control laws billed as the Maryland Firearms Safety Act in 2013. By 2015, Baltimore’s homicide rate was the highest in city history. And yet this year, according to The Sun, those actually sentenced for illegal gun possession are only getting an average of six months behind bars.

I understand that if you don’t put too much thought into these issues, what Clinton proposes may sound all right to you. Frankly, every word out of Clinton’s mouth has been poll-tested and focus-grouped to achieve maximum “reasonableness.” It’s what she doesn’t say that should bother you. In the final presidential debate, for example, Clinton couldn’t even be forthright about what the Heller case was about. She had to frame it as a case about gun storage laws instead of a handgun ban, because telling Americans the Supreme Court got it wrong, and that they don’t really have a right to have a gun in their home for self-defense, isn’t a good way to win votes. Just look at the record number of Americans opposed to a semi-auto ban, as measured by a recent Gallup poll.

Truth is, Hillary Clinton would be disastrous for the Second Amendment, and in turn that would be disastrous for Americans in high-crime neighborhoods. It would become even harder to exercise our right to keep and bear arms, and that harm would fall disproportionately on the urban poor. Meanwhile, as anti-gun activists push to put more laws on the books, the criminal justice system continues to spit out convicted criminals who’ve served a fraction of their sentences, and many other criminals never even go to trial. Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis recently told The Sun that for people carrying guns illegally, “there’s no certainty of a consequence.” That statement holds true for people committing armed robberies, home invasions, and other violent crimes as well, unfortunately. It’s not that Baltimore’s criminal justice system has an issue when it comes to prosecuting illegal possession of firearms charges. The city’s criminal justice system (right alongside the criminal justice system nationwide) isn’t fully enforcing the laws on the books even when it comes to repeat and violent offenders, and it’s the good people in bad neighborhoods who are paying the biggest price.

Clinton’s push for new gun control laws would replicate Baltimore’s experience on a national scale, harming good people and helping criminals, all in the name of “doing something.”
---------------------
Cam Edwards is Host, NRANews “Cam & Co.” and writes for America's 1st Freedoms.

---

Tags: Cam Edwards, NRANews, Hillary Clinton, Targets, America’s 5 Million NRA Members, Ignores, 1.5 Million Gang Members To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!