Second Amendment advocates have made it clear for months that a Biden administration would present a major threat to the ability to the right to bear arms.
Biden’s recent selection of Xavier Becerrra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has only confirmed this fear. Dave Workman of AmmoLand explained that Becerra is “the anti-gun California attorney general who replaced another gun prohibitionist, Kamala Harris, when she was elected to the U.S. Senate.”
In addition, Becerra is the defendant in a number of lawsuits that pro-gun organizations such as the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and others have filed. SAF has already sued Becerra five times, further highlighting Becerra’s antipathy towards the Second Amendment.
Should he be confirmed as HHS Secretary, Becerra could have the ability to use the power of the federal government to categorize guns as a “health risk.” Anti-gun advocates have turned to such a strategy in order to frame the gun ownership as a public health crisis. The next step would be to label gun owners as “mentally ill” and use state power to round up and disarm people that the state deems unfit to hold firearms.
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The use of health to justify government overreach has been a frequent tactic of modern tyrannical states such as the Soviet Union. The U.S. will likely provide its own twist to this should Becerra come into power and the Georgia runoffs go in the Democrats’ favor.
The latter is important because having a Republican majority in the Senate is key to preventing Becerra from receiving a confirmation. A win by Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue would establish a small, but crucial majority in the Senate. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton is one of the first Republicans who has already stated that he will not vote to confirm Becerra.
Workman brought attention to one case where Becerra’s office was involved in heading a “coalition” of anti-gun organizations that included Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence “in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration demanding the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) correct its interpretation of what qualifies as a firearm.”
Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler was ecstatic about Biden’s selection of Becerra when the pick was announced on December 7.
“After four years of Donald Trump, Americans desperately need strong leadership from the top to confront public health crises like the coronavirus pandemic and gun violence,” Ambler declared in a statement. “Xavier Becerra is a superb choice to take charge of Health & Human Services, which will have one of the most critical missions in the Biden-Harris Administration. Becerra has an impressive record of taking action to protect and improve public health, he’s been a partner in the fight against gun violence, never backing down from special interests like the gun lobby in his mission to save lives. We look forward to working with him and the rest of the cabinet to address gun violence.”
With how divided the U.S. government will likely end up being, Becerra’s selection could prove deadly. Democrats will be deprived of conventional legislative means to pass gun control at the federal level, but they will still have the keys to the administrative state. Second Amendment activists must remain vigilant and keep tabs on activities coming from administrative agencies.
But this scenario can be avoided altogether if Democrats are denied a Senate majority in the Georgia runoffs on January 5.
