U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is revealing his true colors and they’re not flattering.
Murphy was a guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday when he ominously and recklessly warned of a “popular revolt” if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t rubber-stamp an unconstitutional gun control agenda that he and the Biden administration are attempting to force on the American people. This dangerous rhetoric would be labeled “seditious” or “treasonous” had a Republican lawmaker uttered it. So far, there has been deafening silence by those same lawmakers that rightfully decried the Jan. 6 violence on Capitol Hill. That doesn’t excuse the senator’s remarks that seem to offer a wink-and-a-nod to those who would seize the moment to lash out at best or at worst invite and incite violence against the government institutions that protect the rights of American people.
Murphy was asked for his reaction to a Virginia federal court’s ruling that a federal law barring the sale of handguns to adults under 21 is unconstitutional. The judge found that age-based restrictions “do not exist with other constitutional guarantees.” The judge correctly applied the history and tradition test as set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bruen. Murphy chose to respond as an insolent child rather than as the statesman he purports to be and who swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies — foreign and domestic.
“If the Supreme Court eventually says that states or the Congress can’t pass universal background checks or can’t take these assault weapons off the streets, I think there’s going to be a popular revolt over that policy,” he said.
Constitutional Roadblock
In all honesty, Murphy’s angst isn’t so much with the Supreme Court as it is with the U.S. Constitution. The fact the Second Amendment exists to protect the pre-existing right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms against a tyrannical government that would disbar them of the means to protect themselves is the root of the senator’s frustration. Without that explicit guarantee, gun control special interests and antigun politicians like Murphy would have stripped Americans of lawfully owned and possessed firearms decades ago.
The Supreme Court’s Heller decision held the Constitution protects firearms that are in common use today. There are over 24.4 million Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) in circulation today. That’s more than there are Ford F-150s on the road — the most popular-selling pick-up truck in America. Murphy and his antigun colleagues purposefully misrepresent the firearms as “assault weapons” but they know that’s a politically manufactured term to demonize the firearm. The left’s newest demonizing moniker is the focus-group-tested “weapons of war.”
Murphy also knows that Congress has acted in the past before the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was enacted. He was the lead co-sponsor of the Fix NICS Act, introduced by Sen. John. Cornyn, R-Texas, with 78 Senate co-sponsors. The bill was named for NSSF’s successful FixNICS® initiative. He published press releases praising its efficacy.
Let’s be honest, 78 senators couldn’t be convinced to sign a birthday card, but they signed onto this legislation because this law is what middle-ground legislation that respects Constitutional rights looks like. Sen. Murphy ignores this because it didn’t help him take away anyone’s lawfully-owned gun.
He’s not alone in that goal. Look at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who was infamously quoted in a 1995 “60 Minutes” interview saying, “If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them — Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in.”
Just days ago, President Joe Biden published a column in USA Today demanding unconstitutional gun control.
“Congress must act, including by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring gun owners to securely store their firearms, requiring background checks for all gun sales, and repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability,” President Biden wrote. “We also need more governors and state legislators to take these steps.”
Separation of Powers
Murphy’s veiled threats against the U.S. Supreme Court weren’t the only thing. He seized the opportunity to denigrate the court’s role.
“A court that’s already pretty illegitimate is going to be in full crisis mode,” Murphy added in his “Meet the Press” interview.
Murphy joins a growing and disturbing chorus of lawmakers — particularly senators — to target the Supreme Court actively and passively over frustrations that the justices aren’t political theater pawns. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., threatened the Supreme Court in a “friends of the court” brief that wasn’t so friendly. The amicus brief was filed in N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. City of New York., N.Y. The case was ultimately ruled “moot” after New York City altered the law being challenged to avoid Supreme Court review.
“The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it,” Whitehouse threatened. “Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led a rally in front of the Supreme Court attempting to influence the court’s abortion decisions when he called out sitting justices by name.
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price,” Schumer said. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
This is the same Senate, along with then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that refused to remove protestors from harassing justices’ homes and families when weighing a landmark decision, even after an admitted assassin arrived at the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
This is building to a Constitutional crisis of senators overreaching and attempting to deny the separation of powers inherent to the American Republic. Senators hostile to the Supreme Court aren’t satisfied that they are one-half of one-third of the government’s authority. This has become an all-or-nothing gambit for them.
American Public
Murphy’s thoughtless threat of “popular revolt” threatens the American public. Just days before, he maligned MSR owners as potential murderers-in-waiting when he tweeted that banning the most-popular-selling centerfire rifle in America would only affect ‘mass shooters.’” While tragic, murders by all rifles, not just AR-15-style MSRs, are far surpassed by murders committed with knives, fists, and clubs. Gun owners aren’t the problem but serious and unanswered questions of mental health are.
Inviting the American public to commit to a “popular revolt” for the cause of gun control is insanity. The Second Amendment protects against a tyrannical government that oppresses the will of a free people. Polling shows that popular support for a ban, even if it were Constitutional, continues to drop. Nearly half of those polled oppose banning AR-15s. Stirring those who oppose lawful firearm ownership and a Constitutionally-protected industry that provides the means to exercise fundamental rights is beyond irresponsible. It is inciting violence and provoking a potentially violent confrontation.
The American public deserves better. These invitations for “popular revolt” because the Supreme Court upholds rights protected by the Constitution are incendiary. Murphy must put down the matches when he walks into a room of powder kegs.
