During a hearing held this week in the House on pistol braces, which provide accompanying firearms with a functionality similar to that of a short-barreled rifle or a sawed-off shotgun, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) tore into the lack of any reasonable foundation for the GOP approach to gun policy, even as Americans die.
Those braces are the subject of restrictions that have been pushed by the Biden administration, about which Republicans have predictably been outraged. Guns whose functioning the braces help pistols approximate were already the subject of strict rules. Among the concerns is the ease of concealment, and Raskin even highlighted a clip from what appeared to be basically a pro-gun influencer online talking about that very thing. The Maryland Democrat also shared other footage from similar individuals discussing how the braces are used to expand the functionality of the pistol. And these weren’t advocates for gun control talking about the dangers. The featured individuals were apparent gun aficionados admitting it.
“Our colleagues know that gun violence is the leading cause of death among children in the United States of America today,” Raskin said. “They know that more people proportionately die of gun violence in America than in any other industrialized country on earth, whether we’re talking about Canada, or Germany, or France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Israel — you name it. They know that the states with the highest rates of firearm deaths are the ones with the weakest gun laws, and the states with the lowest levels of firearm deaths have the strongest gun laws. But they say that all of this chaos and destruction is just the necessary price we have to pay because of the Second Amendment. All those thousands of people gunned down at church, and school, at the Wal-Mart, in parks and grocery stores are just the human sacrifice we’ve decided to pay as a society for our Second Amendment.”
“Our colleagues advance a completely flawed theory of the Second Amendment,” Raskin insisted. “Our colleagues embrace what’s called the insurrectionist theory of the Second Amendment. Our colleague Mr. Gaetz says the Second Amendment is ‘about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary.’.. Congresswoman Boebert says the Second Amendment ‘has nothing to do with hunting, unless you’re talking about hunting tyrants, maybe.’.. Their theory of the Second Amendment is killing Americans.” Raskin subsequently noted some of the portions of the Constitution that explicitly contradict the notion there is any inherent allowance in the document for the possibility of rising against authorities — something that would, of course, also apply to those who stormed the Capitol, who Trump himself still supports.
Raskin: Our colleagues embrace what is called the insurrectionist theory of the second amendment. Mr. Gaetz said the 2nd amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry to maintain an armed rebellion against the government.. pic.twitter.com/bKEgZ1fjgu
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 23, 2023
