97 Percent, Just Another Gun Control Group
Among all the noise and confusion created by the anti-gun/anti-Second Amendment community, there are those who purport themselves as moderates and gun owners who believe more and more gun control is the answer to so-called “gun violence”. Do they really represent gun owners? Hardly. Simply look at how they operate and what they are pushing, and you’ll see they are just another group of antis in a cheap disguise.
I came across the 97Percent in a search on “gun safety organizations”. Like a lot of anti-gun rights groups, they claim they represent both gun owners and non-gun owners. They claim their name was derived from a 2018 Quinnipiac University poll, which found that 97% of Americans support universal background checks.
First off let’s dig a little into this 2018 Quinnipiac University poll. It claims 97% overall and 97% of GUN OWNERS support universal background checks. If you think those numbers seem a little hard to believe, consider a few things. The poll was initiated just TWO DAYS after the horrific shooting at the Parkland, FL school. Also consider they asked, “Do you support or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers?”, THEN asked if they or anyone in their home owns a gun. The poll of a scant 1,249 people DID NOT identify if the respondents themselves were gun owners.
Now I’ll be the first to admit my family, friends and the people I associate with are going to skew decidedly right on most issues. However, I’m confident if I conducted the same poll I would get the exact opposite number, with only 3% supporting universal background checks. And once we had a conversation as to what those universal background checks really mean, I’m pretty sure I could knock off another percentage point or two.
The 97Percent’ers claim they are made up of gun owners and non-gun owners. The group is not member supported, but funded by the founders, a rich California couple now into philanthropy. They claim right on the front page of their website: What’s the most effective way to reduce gun deaths while respecting Americans’ Second Amendment rights? ASK GUN OWNERS.
Who are their gun owners? They have Republicans and law enforcement and former NRA lobbyists (Oh My!). Let me translate that for you, RINOs, politicians with badges and professional activists who are willing to sell their services to anyone for a buck. Not exactly a robust group of Second Amendment right supporters. Again, I ask you to consider our current Vice President is a self-proclaimed gun owner yet is one of the biggest anti-Second Amendment/Fourth Amendment/Fifth Amendment advocates out there.
Like many of the favorite Fudd’s we all know and love, as long as we leave them and their guns alone, they don’t care what happens to anyone else’s guns or gun rights. Just because you “own a gun” doesn’t make you a representative of the Second Amendment community.
What is their policy roadmap? Well, some of this is going to sound very familiar.
1) Make sure violent criminals can’t access guns.
Set violent misdemeanor crimes as the threshold for exclusion from gun purchase and possession.
2) Create a mechanism to assess if someone is a violent criminal, prior to purchasing a gun.
Implement gun permit laws at the state level, in conjunction with background checks.
Ensure background checks, at the state and federal level, are part of the gun permitting process.
3) Ensure those at high risk of committing violence in the immediate future cannot access a gun.
Implement red flag laws at the state level.
Let’s take these in order.
1) Make sure violent criminals can’t access guns. Their proposal is to reduce the state and federal firearms ownership ban threshold from a felony to a misdemeanor. A conviction of any form of violence as a misdemeanor would result in a 10-year disqualification.
These are direct-from-Kalifornistan “Red Flag” law proposals whose intent is to cast a much larger net of those who can be forcibly disarmed by the state. And don’t forget the Kalifornistan APPS (Armed and Prohibited Persons System) program to go to the homes of recently convicted offenders and confiscate their guns. That’s part of the plan.
But good news! — How Does It Respect Rights of Law Abiding Citizens?
“Along with gun permit laws and background checks, this would eliminate the need for subjective and potentially discriminatory “may carry” laws.”
Of course, these “may carry” laws have already been declared unconstitutional.
2) Create a mechanism to assess if someone is a violent criminal, prior to purchasing a gun. The proposal is for a state level permit to purchase license as well as a permit to carry license. The claim is this will be more effective than repetitive point-of-sale NICS checks currently required for FFL (Federal Firearms License) purchase and transfers since the FBI based checks don’t check state and local records.
But good news again! How Does It Respect Rights of Law Abiding Citizens?
“Would eliminate the need for background checks with valid permits (current federal laws waive point-of-purchase background checks in states with gun permits).
Would eliminate the need for potentially discriminatory “may issue” laws. Law enforcement would not need to have discretion in approving permits. The decision would be based solely on whether a person has a history of violence.
Would open the door to concealed carry permit reciprocity between states that have permitting systems in place.
Gun owners would not need a new background check each time they purchased a gun, provided they held a valid gun permit.
Gun sales or transfers between family members would not require a NICS check or a state background check, as long as the person receiving the gun has a valid gun permit.”
Sadly, the 97Percent staff doesn’t seem to fully understand NICS checks, or realize how foolish of an argument this is. And of course, there’s that whole “may issue” thing being unconstitutional and the fact many states will never willingly allow carry permit reciprocity.
Side note: From their contracted “research” to justify these policy positions, they spoke about how great it would be for the gun owner to have a state level permit for firearms purchases. Once you are “approved to execute your right” there is no delay.
Note: APPROVED TO EXECUTE YOUR RIGHTS. Does this sound like a right or a privilege to you?
Interestingly, even their own directed research couldn’t back up the 97% approval for universal background checks.
3) And finally; Ensure those at high risk of committing violence in the immediate future cannot access a gun. Simply put, Red Flag laws. There are many excellent articles out there which clearly outline why this is a constitutional nightmare.
Instead of using the laws EVERY STATE already has in place to take persons in crisis into custody and secure their firearms, they needed to come up with a shortcut civil system where the firearm confiscation comes first BEFORE the subject has a chance to defend themselves in court, without the right to a court appointed attorney, after the fact, and the supposedly dangerous subject is not taken into custody. There is zero good news with Red Flag laws, and no amount of lies or sugar coating can come up with one.
Why do I bring this up and focus on groups such as the 97Percenters? Because they claim to include gun owners in solutions, but these solutions are always, ALWAYS, the ones that take away rights, take away firearms, and turn your Second Amendment rights into second class privileges subject to whatever whim of new restrictions the next anti-gun administration feels like adding on.
Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.
Nothing in what this so-called ‘moderate’ group or any of the other anti-gun group clones does in any way respects Second Amendment rights. It’s all about getting YOU to believe other gun owners think this way, so you should too. They might as well be arguing it’s “common sense”.
Bob
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