During his Presidential term, especially after a mass shooting, President Biden advocated for and mobilized leftist efforts to infringe upon Second Amendment rights, considering “every tool” at his disposal including declaration of a national emergency. Let us consider the words of the Founders, in this case Samuel Adams: “The Constitution shall never be construed…to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.” Yet that is exactly what gun laws do – criminals by their very nature don’t follow the law, and the same cartels that smuggle drugs and engage in human trafficking through a porous southern border will find gun smuggling all the more profitable.
Dating back to 2020 spikes in crime and efforts to defund Law Enforcement led to gun purchases and background checks approaching all-time highs. Many are first time buyers, nearly half of them women. The motivation is self-defense, protecting family, friends and property. Another factor was the expectation of tighter gun restrictions when the Democrats controlled Congress and the White House. The National Fraternal Order of Police reported a 113% increase in police officers shot in the line of duty in January 2023 compared to January 2020, with 126 officers losing their lives in the period 2021-2022.
Second Amendment Rights and Gun Legislation
The Second Amendment links gun ownership and a “well regulated militia,” interpreted by some as qualifying it in terms of national defense. That changed with the 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller that ruled the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right. The 2020 book “Whose Right Is It?: The Second Amendment and the Fight Over Guns” by Hana Bajramovic, written for younger readers, makes the case within a historical framework that the right to own a gun has never been absolute. It does ignore, however, important issues such as gun safety training and mental health awareness.
Perspective and Context on Mass Shootings
Mass shootings are for the most part uniquely American. The typical definition is four or more people shot, not including the perpetrator if killed. The horrific nature of school shootings such as Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Uvalde and The Covenant School are beyond comprehension for most people, whose natural reaction is to demand that something be done to prevent future tragedies. The nature of the killing is what becomes top-of-mind, not the number killed. The Gun Violence Archive collects and reports data on mass shootings, as shown in the following graphic.
The 105% increase from 2018 to 2021 is quite troubling, but let’s put it in perspective. In September 2022 fentanyl poisoning became the leading cause of death among U.S. adults age 18-45, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2022 the Drug Enforcement Administration seized enough fentanyl doses to kill every American – the amount not seized is undoubtedly much higher. The non-profit group Families Against Fentanyl reports that the increase in the rate of children under 14 dying of fentanyl poisoning exceeded every other age group.
The CDC estimates that overdose deaths totaled 107,000 (two-thirds from synthetic opioids like fentanyl) for the 12-month period ending August 2022 – more than 160 times higher than deaths from mass shootings. The DEA reports that fentanyl is “primarily manufactured in foreign clandestine labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico.” That would be the southwest border that the Biden Administration claimed was secure despite record breaking migration.
The Gun Violence Archive reports that the number of gun violence deaths from 2013 through 2024 totals 5,183, including from homicide, accident and suicide. Viewed from this perspective, should those in power focus on reducing a comparatively small cause of unnatural death by infringing on Constitutional Rights? The Biden Administration in fact violated the Constitution by not securing the border – specifically Article IV Section 4 that states “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;” President Biden, and more specifically Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, swore to defend the United States and the Constitution, but in actuality did the opposite.
Last edited: March 20, 2025