If “Ghost Guns” Are Banned, What Does That Mean For 2nd Amendment Supporters?

President Biden has proposed to ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and require background checks for ALL gun sales. This would effectively mark the end of receiver blanks (80% Lower Receivers). His reasoning for this is to “Make America Safer” by restricting gun purchasers to only buy serialized lowers. Although to many this may seem like a logical step to take, in all actuality it will do very little to prevent gun violence in our country. 

Many, if not all of the issues he raised to Congress were very vague. He failed to point out any specific measures that he intends to implement. For example, he does not define what an “Assault Weapon” is. It is also not mentioned that the 2^nd Amendment is there to protect our right to own these types of rifles, regardless of what anyone else thinks. The Supreme Court has a “test” to determine whether or not a firearm should be protected by the 2^nd Amendment. The largest portion of that test is if it is commonly used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, then it is protected. This would include the AR and AK platforms, which commonly get mistaken for “Assault Rifles”. Interestingly enough these types of firearms are rarely used in a criminal manner. 

Biden also mentions banning high-capacity magazines. First and foremost, the definition of a high-capacity magazine is arbitrary. When you analyze mass shootings, which is a very small percentage of gun violence, you will find that most mass shooters bring several weapons with them. The shooter has on average under ten minutes before they are stopped. In this situation, it is not a big deal for the shooter to have to stop and reload. Taking this into account, banning high-capacity magazines doesn’t do anything to stop mass shootings as the shooter has ample time to reload. On the other hand, if you are defending yourself against a home invasion or other violent situation, taking the time to reload could cost you your life.

The last topic on Biden’s agenda is creating a law that requires ALL firearms to require a background check. This is where “Ghost Guns” are mentioned. This measure would effectively eliminate the right to privately sell your firearms. This would also mean that you could no longer buy 80% lower receivers that were not serialized. It would also mean that if you were to lend your firearm to a friend or family member for an extended period of time, they would have to complete a background check. The problem with this logic is that criminals don’t do background checks in the first place. Requiring more background checks will not make it so criminals have less access to firearms. They simply act outside of the law and will continue to do so. The sad reality is that this law will create more felons out of law-abiding citizens because it will be impossible to effectively conduct all of the additional background checks that the law will require. This law creates a high-risk, low-reward scenario. 

If these laws pass (which would be unconstitutional), none of these measures are going to do anything to make America safer. There are plenty of other things we could be doing to make our communities safer than imposing unconstitutional gun laws. Our government does not have the resources to implement and enforce these changes. Perhaps we should first try and address the problems in communities and families that lead to gun violence before we propose more laws that restrict law-abiding citizens from owning firearms.