Just after the Nov. 5, 2024, election, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a lame-duck hearing, at which point the committee was still under the chairmanship of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). He called the members together to boost talking points on “How Bump Stocks and Other Conversion Devices are Amplifying the Gun Violence Epidemic.”
The hearing had a hollow and bitter tone, as only Sen. Durbin and members of his party attended. The Republican members were then busy holding their leadership elections, as voters had just given them control of the Senate (53-47).
Sen. Durbin began the hearing with a video montage of numerous criminal actions, all presented in a certain way to blame law-abiding citizens for the actions of criminals.
Sen. Durbin then said, “Glock switches, which are banned under federal law, are cheap, often costing less than $20, and they’ve been increasingly common across our country. We must act. Gun manufacturers can and should do more to ensure their products cannot be converted into illegal machine guns. If manufacturers fail to act, Congress should take up legislation to hold these companies liable for the foreseeable consequences of their actions.”
But, as Durbin clearly noted, so-called “Glock switches” are already illegal. As former President Joe Biden (D) so often did, Durbin was acting as if it were perfectly sensible, and indeed not at all counter to American jurisprudence, to hold the makers of a legal product (i.e., the guns illegally modified by these devices) liable for the criminal actions of others.
Durbin also said, “I hope to be able to work with the new incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley.” If so, Durbin will have to focus more narrowly on violent offenders, rather than on law-abiding businesses and gun owners. Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa), who has long defended U.S. citizens’ Second Amendment-protected rights, was then due to take over the Senate Judiciary Committee. This leadership change should make it more difficult for Durbin to use the Judiciary Committee to push false narratives about American freedom.
When asked about the Judiciary Committee, Grassley told the Des Moines Register, “From my position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, obviously getting constitutionalist-type people on the Supreme Court and circuit court and district courts” is critical. “That takes up about 50% of the time of the committee.”
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