What do computers, books, toy guns, Sudafed, and lawn darts have in common? According to anti-gun politicians and pundits, they’re all more heavily regulated and difficult to obtain in the United States than a firearm.
False comparisons between firearms and other consumer products are debunked every time they’re made, but facts and common sense didn’t stop Spartacus from leading a #socialjustice rebellion, and it’s not going to stop Cory Booker, either!
The Democratic presidential hopeful and sitting U.S. Senator has stated repeatedly that toy guns are more heavily regulated in the United States than real guns. Spartacus, Jr., made the same claim in his 15-point gun-control policy platform last week, but today the Washington Post’s fact-checkers rated his statements as “mostly false.”
The Washington (com)Post hasn’t been a friend to gun owners, but this time they nailed it.
“The Consumer Product Safety Commission does not regulate guns, but it does regulate toy guns. That does not mean there are ‘more regulations’ of toy guns than real ones,” the Post concluded. “Firearms, at just about every level, are highly regulated in the United States. Booker is calling for another level of regulation, but he can’t suggest toy guns are even more highly regulated.”
SEE ALSO: Cory Booker Wants Nationalized Gun Licensing, One-Gun-a-Month, Universal Background Checks
Booker’s argument rests on the fact that the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn’t ensure that guns are made using “safe” designs. In that sense, he’s right: unlike they do with toasters, bureaucrats in Washington don’t review every Remington bolt-action rifle to ensure it won’t burn down your house.
But the senator’s proposal is what you might call a solution in search of a problem.
“My sense is, this is something that is not a material factor in the gun debate,” Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA, told the Post. “Certain products are unsafe because of design. Others can be unsafe from misuse.”
Guns manufacturers aren’t reinventing the wheel. Even the newest firearm designs have been around for decades, and many of these designs have undergone extensive military testing. We don’t need federal regulators to review Mossberg shotguns to ensure they won’t spontaneously combust.
What’s more, gunmakers are still subject to lawsuits if their products are defective. Contrary to what anti-gun politicians would have you believe, firearms manufacturers are not exempt from being held accountable for bringing a defective product to market. The Post notes, for example, that Remington in 2018 settled a lawsuit from owners who claimed that a defective trigger mechanism allowed the gun to be fired without the trigger being pulled.
SEE ALSO: Missouri Considers Banning all Federal Gun Control Laws within the State
The truth is, firearms are one of the most heavily regulated products in the United States.
“No other industry is regulated at the federal, state and local level to the extent our industry is regulated, which include design and performance standards,” Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told the Post. “The federal agencies that regulate the industry include ATF, FBI, State Department, Commerce Department, IRS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Calling for consumer oversight of firearms isn’t about protecting Americans. It’s about regulating firearms out of existence. As this 1999 New York Times article pointed out, “Any rational regulator with that authority would ban handguns.” Regulators could also, as they did in California, require manufacturers to include “safety” features that don’t actually exist, like microstamping and “smart guns.”
Toy guns aren’t more heavily regulated than firearms, but if Booker gets his way, firearms won’t need any regulation because they won’t exist in the consumer marketplace.
Booker is not any brighter than the HillHO. These people are nothing but Marxists, trying their best to demonize firearms. They pay little, if any, attention to national statistics on the sale and purchase of guns. If they did, they’d still lie through their teeth. They are doing anything and everything they can think of to eliminate or nullify the 2nd Amendment. They’ll continue these efforts patiently and just chip away.
Automobiles are not UNSAFE but inherently dangerous.
When Cory Booger was the mayor of Newark NJ for 7 years the ghetto city was ranked 6th in the FBIs top cities with murder with illegal guns.
Politicians can lie about anything without consequences. Those that
believe these lying vipers are a big reason why they get away with it. The other is that no one can or will hold these oath breakers accountable.
Guns are not “unsafe,” but they are inherently dangerous. There’s a difference. A firearm’s utility is in the danger inherent to its purpose; like a knife is sharp because it is made to cut, a firearm is dangerous because it is made to wound and kill. The ability to wound and kill (among other uses for firearms) requires firearms to be dangerous. This is not to say they are unsafe. Most modern firearms are incredibly safe considering the damage they are capable of causing when used purposefully or negligently. Very few firearms today are capable of inflicting damage accidentally. Most unintentional injuries caused with firearms are due to negligence and operator error. And of course, they can be intentionally misused to cause harm, but so can many other things be misused, even articles not intended to cause harm at all. (I heard John Wick once killed two men with a pencil.)
A firearm is not made to wound and kill. It is made to fire a projectile and deliver it to a target. It is the projectile that can be dangerous. Mishandling and misuse of a loaded firearm, both actions of the operator (whether intentional or inadvertent), are what are dangerous.
Why do you people bother with this? It is completely obvious that firearms are designed to kill things. They are also inherently dangerous. If they weren’t they wouldn’t require special handling and use to prevent something being killed.
A really sharp Ticonderoga #2 pencil.
It wasn’t very safe for that 17 year old male page you sexually assaulted. Corey Buggerer. Maybe we some regulation is needed?
It appears to be a contest to see who the dumbest SOB in the Democrap party is, right now they’re all tied for FIRST place!!
The last time I checked I can go into any Walmart and buy all of those things without waiting while a background check is being run. Not so with a gun. I have to fill out paper work then the employee has to put it into the background check system. So once again a liberal douche bag spews lies.
Ol’ Spartacass Booker is a cretin. How someone that stupid got into office is a condemnation of the direct Senatorial voting begat by the 17th Amendment. An Amendment that failed to deliver the promised changes to the Senate chamber, and if anything made that body of bumbling baboons worse.
Why is this stupid bastard a law maker ,he’s an absolute idiot.
It seems to be about perception, recently people have been killed by collapsing crane, runaway tractor trucks and a hundred other deadly causes and yet the only thing that interests some politicians and the media is guns and the NRA, why? The NRA was founded by civil war generals that were horrified by the loss of life by soldiers inability to use rifles effectively enough to save their own lives and civilian marksmanship programs were started. Someone might ask why would we need that now? ask the twenty thousand armed Cubans now controlling Venezuela for the answer.