Month: March 2021

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) claimed Wednesday that 90 percent of Americans support the universal background check gun control he introduced last week.

Thompson’s bill, H.R. 8, “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021” expands retail point-of-sale checks to private sales as well, thereby criminalizing all private gun sales performed without an FBI background check.

While the bill is called “bipartisan,” of its 210 cosponsors, only three are Republicans: Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Chris Smith (NJ), and Fred Upton (MI). All Republican cosponsors have histories of supporting gun control legislation.

On Wednesday, Thompson spoke from the House floor in favor in H.R. 8, then tweeted that the background checks “keep guns out of the hands of those who may be a danger to themselves or others.”

He did not mention the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attacker passed background checks for his guns. Therefore Thompson’s bill would not have hindered his attack, much less stopped it.

Thompson also failed to note that the June 12, 2016, Orlando Pulse attacker acquired his guns via a background check, as did the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school attacker, and the August 3, 2019, El Paso Walmart attacker.

California has had universal background checks since 1991 and here are just a few examples of high profile attacks not stopped by the checks:

• ABC 7 reported “seven people were killed and three were wounded when a 43-year-old former student opened fire at Oikos University in Oakland, California,” on April 2, 2012.
• Twenty-two-year-old Elliot Roger “killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks in the area near the University of California, Santa Barbara,” on May 23, 2014.
• Breitbart News highlighted Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire in a San Bernardino, California, Health Department Christmas party on December 2, 2015, killing 14 people.
• The Associated Press wrote how 39-year-old Kori Ali Muhammad shot and killed three people in downtown Fresno, California, on April 18, 2017.
• ABC 7 noted that 38-year-old Jimmy Lam “opened fire inside a San Francisco package facility, killing three people and injuring several others” on June 14, 2017.
• Twelve people were killed when a gunman opened fire inside the Borderline Bar & Grill, in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 7, 2018.
• Breitbart News covered a shooting that left three killed and 12 injured on July 28, 2019, at the Gilroy, California, Garlic Festival.
• The New York Times reported an October 31, 2019, shooting that left five dead in Orinda, California.
• On November 18, 2019, the Guardian ran a column titled “Ten Dead After California Sees Three Mass Shootings in Four Days.” Those shootings included the Santa Clarita shooting at Saugus High School and the killing of four individuals during a “family party” in Fresno.

But Thompson is assuring Americans that universal background checks will “keep guns out of the hands of those who may be a danger to themselves or others.”

Moreover, he also tweeted that his bill is supported by “90 percent of the American [people].”

Thompson’s tweet did not contain any proof/substantiation to bolster the “90 percent” claim.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

 

 

Via Fox News:

Texas mayor Don McLaughlin Jr. said the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is going to get bad fast and warned the 2019 immigration surge will seem like a “cakewalk” compared to what will happen under President Biden.

McLaughlin Jr. said Wednesday during an appearance on “America Reports” that his city of Uvalde is experiencing a dramatic surge in immigrant-related apprehensions and crimes, including an increase in high-speed car chases between police and smugglers.

“We’re having 10 to 12 chases, high-speed chases, through our communities a week now,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve never seen this before.”

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Via CNN:

The Senate voted to confirm attorney general nominee Merrick Garland on Wednesday, sending the appellate judge on his mission to uphold the integrity of the Justice Department after its actions over the past years threatened to undermine it.

Garland was confirmed in a 70-30 vote.

The former chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has been praised by members of both parties. He pledged in his nomination hearing last month to “fend off any effort by anyone” to politically influence the Justice Department’s investigations, and that his first priority would be to fully prosecute the “heinous” crimes committed in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.

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