Biden or Trump: Tyranny wins and liberty loses either way – Part V
Welcome to Part V of my series where I’m taking a deep dive into the lack of discernable policy differences between Joe Biden and Donald Trump and proving that regardless of who gets elected in November — assuming voters decide to play the game owned and operated by Republicans and Democrats — tyranny wins and liberty loses either way.
In Part I of this series, I documented how Biden and Trump both embraced various forms of COVID tyranny. In Part II, I examined their mutually shared approach to the tyranny of abortion. In Part III, I documented their simpatico liberty killing policies in the area of illegal immigration. In Part IV, I showed how Joe Biden and Donald Trump hold the same values concerning the LGBT agenda.
In Part V, I will show how Joe Biden and Donald Trump are anti-Second Amendment, pro-gun control tyrants seeking the destruction of our God-given right to bear arms. Both men have a long track record in this area, but I will focus primarily on their actions as president.
Joe Biden has always been a leading proponent creating a federal “assault weapons” ban and throughout his career, he has been extremely supportive of dismantling Second Amendment rights. So, it came as no surprise to see him target gun rights as one of his first orders of business just months after his inauguration.
Calling gun violence an “epidemic” and an “international embarrassment,” Biden rolled out a plethora of executive orders (or actions) in April 2021 that were loaded with Washington doublespeak about how his actions weren’t a violation of the Second Amendment — which means, of course, the exact opposite.
Besides, according to Uncle Joe none of our rights in the Constitution are “absolute” anyway.
“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment,” Biden said in the Rose Garden. “They’re phony arguments suggesting these are Second Amendment rights at stake with what we’re talking about. But no amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute.”
“So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution,” he added. (Emphasis mine)
Included in Joe Biden’s executive order was a directive for the Justice Department make “ghost guns” — homemade weapons without a serial number that are more difficult for government to track — subject to background checks; to create a “red flag” law template for the states to use to keep firearms out of the hands of people who have committed no crime; and to reclassify pistols modified with stabilizer braces as rifles subject to the National Firearms Act.
In addition to having his DOJ create a model for the states to use when creating red flag laws, Joe Biden also called for a national version of the gun grabbing, unconstitutional anti-Second Amendment legislation — along the lines of legislation proposed by Lindsey Graham during Trump’s presidency — along with incentives (bribe money) to pay states to pass red flag laws of their own.
In September 2021, Joe Biden signed the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, legislation that included a rider that allowed the creation of gun confiscation orders (Military Court Protection Orders) — a military version of red flag laws — to be enforced by military judges and magistrates. These “emergency” Military Court Protection Orders were explicitly exempted from the constitutional protection of due process.
In February 2022, we learned that Joe Biden had been building a national gun registry, a registry that contained nearly one billion records at the time detailing American citizens’ firearm purchases.
In June 2022, Trumpists and other Republicans teamed up with Democrats to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) — so titled because Donald Trump and Republicans agreed with Joe Biden and Democrats on the “need” for more gun control — and gave Uncle Joe unlimited authority to do as he wished in the name of gun “safety.” So, in August 2023, Biden issued a new round of gun control orders that made his earlier actions look small in comparison beginning with a new mandate requiring NICS background checks on private firearm sales.
In September 2023, Joe Biden again tapped-in to his newfound power under the BSCA to create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention “to reduce gun violence, which has ravaged communities across the country, and implement and expand upon key executive and legislative action which has been taken to save lives.” Kamala Harris was given the responsibility of overseeing the new office.
In March 2024, and with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida as a backdrop, Kamala Harris recognized the sixth anniversary of the tragic shooting that took place there by announcing the opening of the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, a national office to be used for the express purpose of abusing the power of the federal government to force states into implementing and enforcing red flag laws.
So, how does Donald Trump measure up? Not so well because, like Joe Biden, he’s always been pro-gun control and anti-Second Amendment. In fact, many of Trump’s gun control ideas could have been inspired by his successor.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump’s far-left approach to gun control was obvious to everyone not drinking the orange Kool-Aid. Following the Orlando, Florida nightclub shooting in June of that year, Trump immediately promised to find new ways to keep certain people from legally purchasing a firearm.
In February 2018, following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, Donald Trump began pushing several Democrat-friendly anti-gun measures: such as raising the age to 21 to buy a rifle and expanding background checks.
Following two devastating mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio in August 2019, Donald Trump said in an interview that people with mental illness should be ‘involuntarily confined’ to prevent mass shootings, despite research showing that less than 1% of gun violence is committed by people suffering from mental illness.
At an August 2019 campaign rally, Donald Trump told reporters that he intended to push for a ban on semiautomatic gun, expanded mandatory background checks, and temporary gun confiscation after warning his loyal followers that a victory for Democrats in 2020 would mean the end of the Second Amendment. “I’ll be convincing some people to do things that they don’t want to do, and that means people in Congress,” Trump told reporters after the rally.
In November 2019, Trump took steps in the direction of using involuntary confinement to end gun violence when Attorney General Bill Barr announced the launch of a federal gun control program called Project Guardian. Under Project Guardian, Trump encouraged U.S. attorneys to adopt programs to “disrupt” potential threats and to begin pushing “court-ordered” mental health treatment for those deemed mentally ill.
During his presidency, Donald Trump openly embraced Nancy Pelosi’s gun-control agenda, banned bump stocks by executive order, pushed for enhanced background checks, and called for the expansion of red flag laws on a national level.
However, Donald Trump is such a threat to the Constitution that he’s gone after other parts of the Bill of Rights — such as the right to privacy and the right to due process — to advance his pro-gun control, anti-Second Amendment agenda:
- He suggested that law enforcement ignore due process rights to make it easier for the government to seize guns
- He proposed forcing social media companies to develop tracking tools to “detect mass shooters before they strike”
- He threatened to have his DOJ take Google and Apple to court to force them to turn over personal information on users of a phone app that calibrates rifle scopes
- He called for the creation of a phone app capable of conducting remote background checks via the NICS system, giving government greater access to personal information without due process and leading to the creation of a national gun registry
Despite these facts, Donald Trump appeared at the 2023 National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana where he declared to those in attendance that he was the “most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president” in history, and he made a vow to fight against gun control “forever.” Of course, that was a lie.
So, as the 2024 election approaches, remember this: whether through Joe Biden or Donald Trump, gun control and the destruction of the Second Amendment is inevitable — and that means that tyranny wins and liberty loses regardless of which man is elected.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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