Last week, President Joe Biden announced measures he and his Administration would be taking to “curb the epidemic of gun violence.”
Here in Mississippi, Republican political leaders reacted to that news with concern.
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Attorney General Lynn Fitch appeared to leave the door open to potential legal action to challenge the Administration’s efforts, calling Biden’s plan “an all-of-government assault on the Second Amendment” and saying her office is in the process of evaluating the best plan to protect Mississippians’ rights.
Congressman Steven Palazzo (MS-04) said he was the first Member of Congress to introduce a formal censure of former President Barack Obama when he issued executive orders attacking the Second Amendment, adding that he “will be carefully reviewing these executive orders to determine if similar action is warranted.”
However, the Chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party says none of the measures President Biden is proposing would violate the Second Amendment.
In a statement submitted to Y’all Politics, Chairman Tyree Irving said he is a gun owner and has been for quite some time. As a lawyer and former appellate judge, Irving says he is well aware of the prohibition of the Second Amendment that states, “[T]he right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
“None of the executive orders and/or actions issued or proposed to be taken by President Biden violate the prohibition of the Second Amendment,” Irving said.
Chairman Irving outlined the President’s announcement, which included ordering the Justice Department to issue, within thirty days, a proposed rule to help stop the proliferation of “ghost guns” and to issue, within sixty days, a proposed rule to make clear that when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle, that device and resulting weapon are subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act.
President Biden also asked the Justice Department to publish model “red flag” legislation for use by the states to make it easier for states to adopt extreme risk protection order laws while directing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to issue an annual report on its investigations into firearms trafficking in America. In addition, Biden called for investing in evidence-based community violence intervention.
Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Irving sees these as positive steps.
“I applaud the President for taking these actions, and I feel confident that they will help lessen the incidents of violence in our country,” Irving said.
His counterpart, Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Frank Bordeaux, sees it differently.
“This is just another attempt by the Left to strip away our constitutional rights, and I’m confident that Republicans in Congress will fight this every step of the way,” Bordeaux told Y’all Politics.
Frank Corder
