But How Do We Protect our Precious Guns?

A Democrat won, so it must mean our guns are in trouble

As with President Obama, the election of a Democrat as President is causing many to wonder about the fate of their precious firearms. As there is still a runoff underway in Georgia for two Senate seats, I fully expect to hear endlessly about how terrible Biden will be for guns and how important it is to elect Purdue and Loeffler to protect the Second Amendment.

Biden's gun plan is a heinous assault on American freedoms

The National Review and Red State both have write-ups on the potentially devastating effects of President-elect Joe Biden's plans. They each detail how the President-elect's plan seeks to strengthen background checks, ban online sales of guns and ammo, strengthen prohibitions on certain people's ability to purchase firearms, and ban assault-style rifles. They then go on to point out with great concern that owners of high capacity magazines and assault-style rifles that would be banned for future purchase would have to register their weapons with the government under the National Firearms Act (NFA) and would then be forced to pay a $200 per unit tax. Each outlet claims that such a move would force honest gun owning American citizens to pay out nearly $34 billion.

That's a bit of a stretch...

Politifact helpfully steps in to bring clarity to the claims of conservative outlets related to the NFA and taxing gun owners. Writing for Politifact, Daniel Funke points out that the campaign has not actually called for a $200 per unit tax, in fact it hasn't even specified what would be considered an assault-style weapon or whether high capacity magazines owned by citizens would be counted individually or as a whole. He also shares that the NFA allows for up to a 90 day grace period to be established for new registrations to avoid paying a fee (though it's still unclear if a fee would even be assessed in the first place). 

Biden's win is actually good for guns

This time Forbes steps in with a much needed dose of reality, detailing how Biden's win will likely help the gun industry as a whole. Gun sales were strong throughout Obama's Presidency, and tanked when a pro gun Republican took office after Trump's win. Biden's win will allow gun manufacturers and stores to stoke renewed fear in gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment, who are already benefitting from increased sales because of the pandemic and recent social unrest.

The bottom line, found in both the National Review and Forbes, is that any real action on guns is extremely unlikely to happen. This is especially true for the ambitious plan that Biden has set forth and the reality is that Republicans and Democrats, along with most of the media, know it. However, it's a great way to raise money for a campaign or get clicks for an article, so don't be surprised if you see a lot more breathless speculation on either side about what will happen to American's guns.