Merrick Garland, President Biden’s nominee for attorney general, said he believes there is more room for Biden’s gun-control plans, including bans on specific types of firearms.
“As I’m sure you know, the president is a strong supporter of gun control and has been an advocate all of his life, professional life, on this question. The role of the Justice Department is to advance the policy program of the administration as long as it is consistent with the law,” said Garland in his testimony when asked by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) as to whether or not he would look to ban certain types of firearms.
“And as I said, so far we have a little indication from the Supreme Court as to what this means. But we have don’t have a complete indication. And where there is room under the law for the president’s policies to be pursued, then I think the president is entitled to pursue them,” he continued.
Garland, of course, is ignoring the fact that the Heller decision did find that firearms that are in “common use” are protected by the Second Amendment. One firearm type that clearly is in common use is the AR-type rifle, as American citizens now own nearly 20 million of these semi-automatic rifles. Biden has repeatedly stated his goal is to ban such firearms, and to confiscate them through what has been referred to as “mandatory buyback” schemes.
Garland was questioned about the landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), which confirmed the Second Amendment as an individual right.
“The panel decision (in Parker v. District of Columbia, the precursor to the Heller case) was the first time, I think ever, that a court of appeals had held the individual right to keep and bear arms, which you are exactly right, the Supreme Court did uphold in the end. Every court of appeals had decided to the contrary, and the issue was plainly one that would require looking at a deep historical record as to the meaning of the Second Amendment and the way that had been applied. I thought this was an extremely important issue, important enough since it was the very first time, that we should hear it en banc,” said Garland.
At the time of the Parker case, Garland was a judge serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and he is perhaps best known as being former President Obama’s nominee to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Given his long history of hostility towards the Second Amendment and gun owners, Judge Garland is the wrong choice to lead our nation’s Department of Justice,” reported the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
His track record on the Second Amendment and his recent comments are a clear indication of what he and Biden plan to do with your rights. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that Garland is just one of many anti-Second Amendment nominees to Biden’s administration.
America’s 1st Freedom will continue to keep you up to date on the status of Biden’s nominees and their continued plans to attack your Second Amendment rights.