More firearm purchase background checks (185,345) occurred on Black Friday, 2015, than any other day in history – ever. That is the same day as the shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. The previous record was set in 2012, during the week following the Sandy Hook, CT, shooting. The number of background checks on Black Friday, 2015, are about five percent higher than they were on the same day last year.
According to ABC News:
FBI background checks processed by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are conducted for gun purchases from federally licensed deals and for permits to carry guns. A background check does not mean a gun was purchased, but manufacturers rely on the background check statistics as a measurement of the industry’s health.
The FBI started processing background checks for potential gun owners in 1998 as part of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
Black Friday is traditionally a big firearms sales day, but we can’t ignore that after each mass shooting, President Obama called for more stringent gun control. If I were a gambler, I would place my bet that Americans are arming themselves before they are prevented from doing so by either their state or federal governments.
Obama spoke from Paris, where he is attending a “Climate” conference:
In the United States we have the power to do more to prevent what is just a regular process of gun homicides, that is unequaled by multiples of five, six, [or] ten, and I think the American people understand that. So my hope is that, once again, this spurs a conversation and action.
According to Breitbart:
On November 12 CBS News reported that Obama has given a team of “White House lawyers” the job of finding a way that executive action can be used to expand background checks. And Breitbart News reported that part of what is being sought is an arbitrary threshold that can be set on private gun sales. Citizens who sell more than the allowable level will be forced to do background checks on every sale.
…. Moreover, background checks are already expanded in Colorado. Breitbart News previously reported that expanded background checks and a “high capacity” magazine ban are the law of the land in Colorado, but neither were effectual in stopping the Planned Parenthood attack or the high profile public shooting that took place in CO Springs on Halloween day.
Additionally, 114 House Democrats Urge Obama to Sidestep Congress. According to Breitbart:
On November 23 Representative Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) (D-CA-5th) and 113 of his Democrat colleagues submitted a letter urging President Obama to circumvent Congress by using executive action to expand background checks to cover private gun sales.
The letter, according to Congressman Thompson’s website, urges the president to close the background check loophole through executive action. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) lead a letter signed by 24 senators also asking the President to take executive action to close the background check loophole.
“The Republican leadership in Congress continues to sit on their hands as gun violence becomes America’s new normal. Thirty-plus people a day are being killed by someone using a gun, yet the majority refuses to take the simple and commonsense step of passing legislation that would help keep guns out of dangerous hands. Since Congress won’t step up, the President should. Through executive action he can help keep guns from criminals, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill. Something needs to be done and since Republicans in Congress can’t even bring themselves to hold a vote, this is the best option to make our country safer and save lives.”
“Specifically, the Members of Congress are asking the president to eliminate the ambiguity surrounding the term: “engaged in the business” as it pertains to federally licensed firearms dealers. Under current law, only licensed gun dealers are required to perform background checks for all gun sales, and only those individuals deemed to be “engaged in the business” of dealing in guns are required to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). ”
The entire content of the letter can be read on Congressman Thompson’s official website.
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Dave Perkin’s latest comment on Facebook:
over 185,000 background checks on black friday… a new record.
that’s a sixth of a million new guns into the market of law abiding gun owners…. including a substantial number of NEW owners (although there’s no reason to think all the purchases went to new owners).
I make an educated guess that we now have over 120 million law abiding gun owners in America. Law abiding… meaning we do not run around shooting people.
So why does every plan to deal with gun crime move first to disarm ME?
How about they show their seriousness by moving to disarm the people who should not HAVE the guns? Sweep the Illinois Nat. Guard through south side Chicago, take every gun… use backscatter radar to find them… there are pretty much NO legal gun owners in SS Chicago. Sweep through, take every gun. FIght every battle. TAKE THEM, from the people who have them and use them ILLEGALLY.
Don’t take MINE. If you do, I am the next victim of the guy who doesn’t give a crap about the law and will keep his gun even after I give up mine.
Disarming legal law-abiding gun owners turns us into the next 120 million VICTIMS. And it will increase crime, of ALL kinds as well as just gun crime, like crazy. Britain’s per capita violent crime rate is 3-5x ours. They disarmed a couple of decades ago. Now every citizen can be attacked by anyone who wants to, and they know they will not be shot.
And the Brits are now responding to the gigantic increase in violent crime by… proposing to ban KNIVES.
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You know how stressed/freaked out I am about this nonsense about teh Won expediting jihadis into the US? I misread this headline and thought a record number of background checks for “refugees” had been completed on Black Friday when everyone was busy shopping.
Yoga breathing, YTZ, Yoga breathing.
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Ooooooommmmm.
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Well, it’s either that or break out the Żubrówka, and that’s two emergency exits past breaking out the Jack.
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Looks as if Obola will be up to his BS with the shooting in California. Watching now, a black SUV was pulled over. Gunfire exchange, then SWAT comes in with a armored skid steer, and while checking the inside of vehicle, pull one of the alleged gunmen out dead.
We will about 3-5 press cycles of Obola’s BS.
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He’s already spoken about gun control once. I’m sure there will be more of it.
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It’s sad that this is now predictable. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Reminds me I haven’t gone to the range in a long time.
I prefer the Swiss model. They haven’t had random outbreaks of gun violence and every household with a military age male has a gun. Earned at the Kaserne after compulsory military service induction. How come THAT’s never presented as an alternative??
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Sorry. I’m supposed to say, “rifle”. Marines are forever reminding me the difference between their “gun” and their “rifle”. Sigh. In Canada, we refer to all rifles as “long guns”. Force of habit.
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I think that the “gun control” debate is just checkpoint in the widening ideological divide between the left and the right. The superficial cocktail party answer is that the right, fundamentally, believes in the moral right to life – whether that’s over the abortion debate or gun control. Although it is seen in most of the major religious traditions to kill, an exception is made for self-defense a la Aquinas.
The left of course views the rights of the collective over the rights of the individual, even when it comes to self-defense – which is why I am surprised that so many people were stunned when Anita Dunn expressed her admiration for Mao as a man who got things done. The right of the collective in a struggle for a “greater goal” is more important than the right of one small cog impeding that goal. Ergo, you have to remove any means that would afford the individual has to assert their individual rights over the mass and hubris of the collective will. It’s also how they can reconcile in their own minds the mass murder/genocide of collectivist regimes, whether that’s Mao or Stalin.
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I have long mulled over the acceptability of defending one’s life–in light of some Scriptural admonitions against that–over against the acceptability of defending the lives of innocents. I see NO Scriptural admonitions against the latter. Forgiving one’s enemies is not the same as preventing enemies from slaughtering the innocent.
That’s probably not stated very well, but the phone just rang–am expecting an important call…
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My reference is The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. Surrendering one right to self-defense is to capitulate to evil, IMHO.
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I understand what you are saying, ytz. But I have wrestled with the issue; it is hard to parse Matt 5:44 [in context] about loving & forgiving one’s enemies PLUS Matt 5:39, the “turn the other cheek” verse. Where Jesus clearly says “do not resist an evil person”. I take this as speaking to oneself in particular. That not to resist is a statement of ultimate personal trust in the providence of God. It does NOT mean to stand aside and allow evil to run roughshod over others. That would be allowing evil to proceed unopposed.
This is where I am today in my understanding: not to resist evil against yourself when you are capable of doing so is a powerful witness. It is a victory in the spiritual realm. Which is far more effective and efficacious than any victory in the physical realm.
I THINK Bonhoeffer would have understood this POV. Perhaps even agreed with it.
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