The Daily Signal - The Second Amendment Is ‘Essential’

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

States all over America are mandating nonessential businesses close, which is forcing lawmakers to decide what businesses should and should not be deemed “essential.” In states like New York and Massachusetts, gun stores have already been told to close their doors. In Texas, on the other hand, the attorney general has said gun stores can remain open during the pandemic.  Cam Edwards, Editor of BrearingArms.Com, joins The Daily Signal podcast to explain why gun shops should be considered essential businesses and how the coronavirus has affected firearm sales.  Plus: we share an interview with Maj Toure, Founder of Black Guns Matter. He explains the mission of his organization and how communities can combat gun violence without restricting Second Amendment rights.  And be sure to check out the Faith on Facebook Resource Hub and find all the tools your church, small group, or Bible study can use to build community and stay connected during the coronavirus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, April 6th. I'm Robert Louis. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we share my recent conversation with Second Amendment advocate Cam Edwards. Cam is the editor of Baringarms.com, and he explains why the coronavirus has affected gun sales and why gun shops should be considered essential businesses. We also have Virginia's interview with Maj Toure, the founder of Black Guns Matter. He was a popular guest once before on our podcast, so we'll be a lot of, We look forward to sharing this new interview with you. Plus, we read your letters to the editor and bring you a good new story about the ways in which faith communities are utilizing technology to stay connected during the pandemic.

Before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about the most reliable source for global economic data, the Heritage Foundation's brand new Index of Economic Freedom. Just a few weeks ago, Heritage released the latest edition of the Index of Economic Freedom. It ranks nearly every nation in the world according to its level of economic freedom, whether for personal or professional research, the index is a well of information. Learn why it's easier to start a business in Switzerland than it is in France and where America falls on the ranking. You'll be able to find everything you need at heritage.org slash index. The website features interactive maps, country rankings, graphs of data, and much more. Now, stay tuned for today's show. coming up next. I am joined by Cam Edwards, the editor of Baringarms.com. Cam, thanks so much for joining me.

Oh, thanks so much, Virginia. I really appreciate it. Now, you are super passionate about the Second Amendment. And right now, we're obviously seeing a lot of debate over whether or not gun shops should be allowed to stay open during the coronavirus pandemic. And we're going to get a little bit more into kind of talking about what states are doing and the nitty gritty of all of that in a moment. But I wanted to begin just by asking you, how historically have crisis situations affected gun sales? Yeah, it's a great question. And, you know, we really are in uncharted territory right now, right? We've never really gone through anything like this, at least for 100 years or more, in the United States. But typically, you know, you can go back to 2005 and Hurricane Katrina into Orleans. And what we saw after Hurricane Katrina on the ground were police officers going door to door confiscating legally on firearms in the name of public safety. As a result of that, the National Rifle Association, went state by state, and in about half of the states around the country, they were able to get emergency powers legislation on the books that prevents governors from infringing on the right to keep him bear arms during a state of emergency. That's been a huge help and a big protection for gun owners around the country right now. But unfortunately, we've seen in states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Washington State, and a handful of others, governors have either left it up to counties to decide whether or not gun stores are essential businesses or they've simply ordered these stores to close. Interesting. So did we see an increase in sales at the beginning of March? Well, we did. Absolutely. Yeah, the FBI released the NICS back.

background check numbers, the National Instant Check System numbers on Wednesday of this week. And it's a new record. More than 3.7 million background checks were conducted. Now, not all of those were for gun sales. Some states will check firearm ID cards every day. But the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is the firearms manufacturers trade association, they're able to look at these numbers and kind of decipher, okay, this was for a gun sale. This was for an ID check. say is that about two and a half million firearm background checks were conducted during the month of March. That again would be a new record. And what we're hearing anecdotally from gun stores around the country is that in many stores, at least half of their customers are new

gun owners, not, you know, people who've never owned a firearm in their life or people who don't currently own a firearm now, but they are, you know, they're concerned about what the future might hold. And so they are becoming gun owners in the past month. Yeah, yeah, no, I know a lot of people are obviously and kind of rightfully so concerned where we are, like you say, these are unprecedented times and people want to make sure that they have the means to defend themselves and their loved ones. But like you said, we're seeing kind of mixed messages from different states and you have states like Texas who, you know, are saying absolutely we're going to make sure that our gun shops stay open and that Second Amendment rights are protected. Like you said, very different story in places like New York and Massachusetts. So how is it that states can just kind of like pick and choose? Shouldn't it be across the board?

You know, they're allowed to stay open because it's kind of part of the Second Amendment rights. It's a great question. And, you know, I think it comes down to what we're seeing really around the country and that the 9th and 10th amendments are implicated here, not just the Second Amendment, right? So we don't have a federal lockdown that's been put in place. President Trump is saying, you know, I'm leaving a lot of this up to the states. States are the ones that have the authority to do this. And under emergency declarations, governors do have broad leeway to do all kinds of things in the name of the public health.

What they don't have the right to do, in my opinion, is to circumvent or infringe on individuals' constitutional rights. Even in the state of Virginia, for example, where Governor Northam has limited public and private gatherings to no more than 10 people, that doesn't shut down, let's say church services, right? Churches can still offer their services online. If they have the space available, they could put nine people in a Sunday school classroom and nine people in the next one. They're allowed to regulate. They're allowed to try to mitigate the spread of this disease, but they're not allowed to simply prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights. Your rights don't disappear during a state of emergency. And thankfully, Virginia, what we're now seeing

is a number of Second Amendment organizations are filing lawsuit. They're taking these cases to court, and we have already seen a number of governors back down in the face of these legal challenges and allow gun stores to reopen. Yeah, that's happened in New York, correct? Governor Cuomo is being sued. He is being sued. He has not backed down as of yet. But Pennsylvania, we saw that with Governor Tom Wolfe in New Jersey,

Governor Phil Murphy, Los Angeles County, Sheriff Alexville and Iowa. Waiva also reverse scores. Now we have a lawsuit that's just been filed in northern California against eight separate jurisdictions in the Bay Area. And hopefully we'll see those jurisdictions back down as well. But, you know, we saw on Thursday, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker had reopened gun stores for about an hour before his office then suddenly changed its mind and declare them non-essential again. So it's, you know, we've seen a lot of success. Unfortunately, has not been unprecedented 100% success. And I suspect that some of these anti-gun governors are going to try to continue to prevent people from acquiring a fireman ammunition so that they

can exercise their second amendment rights during this national emergency. Yeah. So in your opinion, why should gun shops be deemed as essential businesses? Well, I think again, just look at the number of guns that were sold last month and the number of Americans who went out to purchase a firearm. It is clear that Americans are concerned about their future and not, and, you know, gun control advocates, their snarky response to this is, well, you can't shoot a virus. Well, we know this. That's not why we're buying firearms. I'm sheltering in place. I put my home on lockdown. I have a wife who has an immunized, compromised immune system. That's what I'm doing to protect her from the coronavirus. But I also own firearms because in case somebody were to try to violate

these social distancing norms and break into my house and try to get within six feet of me, I'm prepared to defend myself and my family. And there are a lot of Americans who really are concerned about that. Look, we have 10 million people over the past two weeks that have all of a sudden lost their jobs. They're filing for unemployment. We have a stimulus package that will hopefully get these folks the money that they need to survive over the next couple of months. But these are really unprecedented and unparalleled times. It is not unreasonable for people to be concerned about the fraying of the social fabric and an increase in violent crime. And I think it's entirely, I think it's human nature to want to protect yourself and the

people that you love in times of uncertainty. And so for that reason, alongside the fact that the Constitution specifically points out that the right of the people that keep a bear arm shall not be infringed, in my mind, makes it an easy call that, yes, these gun stores are essential, not only to the personal safety of Americans, but frankly at this moment in time, to their piece of mind as well. Yeah. And what would you say to the other side of the argument that, you know, are individuals who are worried that this surge in gun sales in such a time of crisis could actually lead to more violence? Well, I would tell them to put their money where their mouth is. I mean,

these are groups that bill themselves as gun safety organizations and yet they are doing nothing to ensure that any of these new gun owners have basic gun safety advice and training. A lot of these folks can't get to a range right now. But it's been groups like the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation, as well as individuals who have really done a great job of putting these resources out online so that if you are a new gun owner, you can't get to the range, you can't take a basic pistol course or a concealed carry course, you can at least still get the knowledge of, okay, here's how I safely load my firearm, here's how I unload my firearm, here's how I store my firearm safely. You know, that to me is the

we know that Americans want to keep and bear arms and more Americans than ever before are doing so. To try to deny them their ability to keep and bear arms, I think is completely unconstitutional and downright on American. I think the right thing to do is ensure that the folks who are new gun owners have that education and training that they need to be safe and responsible. Yeah. And for anyone who has recently purchased a firearm or is thinking about doing so, what are just a few? of those kind of tips that you can give us for correctly handling and safely handling a firearm? Well, the big one is treat every gun that you own as if it is loaded at all times, even if you, you know, don't have a magazine in your firearm, even if you haven't loaded a bullet in your firearm, treat it as if it is loaded. Always keep that muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

Don't point it in anything that you're not prepared to shoot at. Make sure that, you know, you are aware of what is behind your target. You also, you know, look, you never want to mix alcohol and firearms. You always want to be safe there. You know, these are some of the basic tips. But there's also a fantastic resource online called Gunn University. If you go there, Gunn University.com, Ryan Klechner, who's a veteran, he's a farm's attorney, is a farmer's instructor,

has a ton of videos there under these section, Guns 101. And this is really devoted and designed for, for new gun owners. And it won't take you a lot of time. But if you're sitting around the house, you've got nothing to do, you know, watch a couple of these videos over a half hour or so and familiarize yourself with the farm that you've just purchased. That's really helpful. Thank you. And tell us a little bit about your site, Beringarms.com, and what our listeners can find there. Sure. So Beringarindarms.com, as the name suggests, is all about the Second Amendment. We are covering a lot of the political and legal news, as well as some of the cultural

news where we're talking a lot right now about the fact that, you know, it's not just conservatives who are buying firearms. We have people on the, really the entirety of the political spectrum, who are now becoming gun owners and what this could mean to the gun control debate in the months and the years ahead. So we're talking and updating the site constantly. We also have a program bearing arms cam and company that is a daily show that's focused on Second Amendment News and Information. You can find that on YouTube at Town Hall Media. You you can also find out on Apple Podcasts at Bering Arms Cam and Company. Great. Cam, thank you so much. We just really appreciate your time today.

Absolutely, Virginia. Thanks so much for the invite. Up next, I talk with Maj Toure, the founder of Black Guns Matter. Stay tuned. The Daily Signals priority is to make sure you and your family are receiving the best information on how to stay healthy and keep the coronavirus from spreading. Here is an important message from U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, discussing how young people can help slow the spread of the virus. A question I often get asked is why should young people care about the spread of coronavirus? Well, we know that people with underlying medical conditions over the age of 60 are at highest risk,

but they've got to get it from somebody. And it's why during our 15 days to slow the spread initiative, we're encouraging young people to avoid large gatherings of 10 people or more, because we know that if you get coronavirus, you're at risk for spreading it to someone else. I am joined by Maj Touret, founder of Black Guns Matter. Mahj, thank you so much for being here. No problem. Thank you for having me.

So could you begin by telling me a little bit about why you decided to found Black Guns Matter and what you all do? Yeah, so in 2015 going into the 2016 national elections, what we saw was everybody, obviously, during an election cycle, everybody saying voters registration drive. You know, for us, we were like, yo, we need a license to carry drive. So we did an event. It was way too many people. People came from Brooklyn, just all over the place. And we noticed that there was a need because some people were saying, yo, can we get our license here?

And it's like, yo, you live in a different state. So we knew there was information missing. So fast forward a bit. We said we wanted to do this in 25 cities. We said we'll do 25, excuse me, 13 cities and do $25,000. We raised the money. You know, we completely crowdsourced. And then we did the 25 cities and we were like, okay, that's it.

And everybody was like, yo, you got to keep going. You got to keep going. fast forward a bit more. Now we're over 50 or 60 cities in, if like maybe not even more. We've raised about $280,000 to, you know, make these classes free for whoever wants to come with an hour goal of $1 million. So we do conflict resolution, firearm safety and storage, and, you know, de-escalation and political education in areas where there is the most gun control, which coincides with the most violent crime. So if we can educate people about safe and responsible firearms ownership, protect the Second Amendment, then in turn we create more of a voting block that is voting for more freedoms as opposed to their own restrictions.

Sure. So if I sign up for one of your classes, I walk in, not really sure what to expect. What am I going to hear? You're going to get the basics of firearm safety, anatomy, what is a firearm, what are the basic parts of it, proper storage, the basic four rules of firearm safety, but also conflict resolution and de-escalation. as well as, you know, you can't, the reality is a firearm is the last resort of or tool to defend life. And so every single person, especially if you're a beginner, we are entry level. There is no class, no organization, more entry level than us.

We cater to the people that know absolutely nothing about firearms. But you're interested. You're curious. You know, you might want to know a little bit about it. If you want to learn, come shoot potentially. and just get put on the path to safe and responsible gun ownership, as well as, again, you can't leave out that political education component, you know, because it doesn't make sense for you to learn about your human right to self-defense,

and then you're voting in people that want to try to take that away from you. So if you come to our class, very basic, you know, entry level, that's what you're going to get, as well as you're going to, you're going to, you know, be exposed to some of the contradictions, the political contradictions, even your own contradictions. Hey, I thought voting, you know, get rid of the guns would make us safer, but then recognizing that, oh, I was wrong. And that's a good thing, as long as you recognize the, you know, the error and then you grow from it. So these are all encompassing things. We take a very beginner but holistic approach to firearm safety and conflict resolution and political education in Black Guns Matter.

So tell me a little bit about your personal journey. I mean, so many people look at gun violence in America, and their automatic reaction is we need to ban guns. Yeah. Why was that not your reaction? Because just doing the data, I mean, you've got authors like Dr. John Lott, who's done tons of study. More guns and safe and responsible hands actually means less crime. And so when you're being objective and dealing with the actual statistics, you see that, you know, if there's a chance, no weirdo is going to attempt to rape a young lady if it's a 70% chance that she has a firearm and she's trained.

Rightfully so. I think that when you look at the numbers, the millions of defensive gun usage is every year. These ain't my stats of me just making it up. These are FBI statistics. Every year there's millions of people that use firearms to defend and protect life and the things in people that they love. So that number far outweighs the 30 to 40,000 deaths related to firearms annually

when 60% of those are suicides. You know, then you got violent crime and gang crime and that activity. you know, in reality, we may have about 11,000 homicides with firearms annually in America when you distill it down to the actual facts, not the bias, depending on which side of the issue you're on. So when seeing that, it's like, okay, this means it's a deterrent. This means I'm able to, you know, be in respect of the Second Amendment and the human right to defense.

And this means I'm also going to mitigate trauma if we're doing that from a safe and responsible space. So that presents the answer to us very clearly. more and more people, safe and responsible firearms owners, especially in the areas that's left out of the conversation the most, which is urban America. Doing that, we shift that dial in a more respectful for freedom direction. So what are some of the benefits are really the fruit

that you have seen firsthand from going into urban areas and teaching people how to be responsible with firearms? Oh, once you put somebody on to something as simple as muzzle discipline, you know, and tell them, you know, it's like a lightsaber. You want to pretend like this muzzles the lightsaber and you don't want to point it in anything you don't want to cut. That light bulb goes off. When you tell people the basic four rules, finger off the trigger, know you're targeting what's behind it, treat every firearm like it's weapon, you know, every firearm like it's loaded.

These are things that stick with people, you know, and then when you start to expose them to the lies that they've been told, or even something as simple as this is actually how a firearm works. That person is now going to be forever. space where, hey, this is something that is safe. This is something that I have the right to own. This is something that could potentially protect my life. They're no longer going to vote in a direction and opposition to that. So those are some of the things, as well as just, you know, just straight up like cutting down on, you know, violent crimes. So, for example, 2016 in Philadelphia, we did most of our classes before we started touring. For that whole entire year, we did most of

our classes in Philadelphia. 2017, the statistics came out for Philly. Philly had the lowest violent crime in 2016 than it had since 1979. And that's one small step. This is when, very early on, before we had fundraised very heavy. We just concentrated on the major issue there being conflict resolution. Because I can't have the conversation with you about a firearm if you won't go, just because somebody stepped on your toe. We have to have that conversation about conflict resolution and de-escalation.

And so those are one of the areas that we saw big strides in. And gun, pro-gun, anti-gun, doesn't matter. No one is saying, hey, we're okay with death and trauma. So even from the conflict resolution angle, we've seen an impact, and we know that it is scalable. How has the black community responded to Black Guns Matter? Oh, the hood love us. The hood love us.

You know what I'm saying? For the work that we do, fortunately I'm able to go to any city and get the respect of someone that works very, very hard. that knows before I started doing this, my commitment to my community was already cemented. With that being a case, it's just catapulted. You know, most, when you have that conversation

with someone that knows that you're not going to make them feel silly or attempt to make them feel silly because they don't know as much, I mean, you know, funny term, but it's a safe space. And so when you practically, simply explain these things and then invest, put equity in the community, in educating and informing the community,

They're going to love you forever. So the response that we get, we don't get pushback. We get love. Our classes, we actually now have to try to keep our classes, you know, like the cap of 100. You know, some of our classes have had four or 500 people. It's a lot more difficult to manage four or 500 people. So the response and people giving up, I mean, we're completely crowdsourced. You know, go fund me.com for it slash black guns matter.

people have given us over a quarter of a million dollars and for cities that we may not even been to their city yet that's saying we appreciate the work it's very difficult to give hard work in blue-collar middle and lower-class Americans to donate money to something that they don't want so that's an impact or a litmus for the impact or the respect that we have in hoods all across America

you all are not slowing down you have big planes for the future Tell me a little bit about that. So, again, like our first goal was 13 cities after the 13 first colonies and $25,000 raise. Every time we hit a goal, we were like, okay, we did it. And more and more people were like, no, you have to keep going. I mean, I get bombarded. Every time we reached a benchmark, our last benchmark of, I think it was $150,000, people were like, you got to go to $200.

We got the $200, and we were like, okay, we'll get to $250, and it's done. We got to $250,000 and way too many people messaged and said, you need to make this a million dollar goal. And so we did, and we've got past the $250,000, $280,000. But now we need to buy a building. We need to buy a flagship location in Philadelphia. And that's what some of the outside of the remaining touring that we're doing as well. But we want to train trainers, you know, to how to engage urban America.

Because a lot of instructors, they know guns, but they don't know. know urban America. They don't know how to communicate. They don't know the culture. They don't know the language. And these are things that are fixable. So that's a part of it, as well as just obviously doing the tours, you know, keeping the entry costs free to beginners, as well as we need a building. We need a few buildings. We need a place where people know that they can come, learn very basic, very beginner. Again, conflict resolution, de-escalation, firearm safety, and storage, as well as first aid training. You know, these are things that need to be available two people in urban America consistently.

And that's what I, you know, a chunk of that, you know, remaining $700 and some odd thousand dollars is going to go to. And that's a lofty goal. But, you know, we come from good soil so we can get it done. So how can we support you? How can we get involved a little more? One, I want everyone to, after they watch this, I want everyone to make sure that they're, you know,

if you don't know, you should find out the basic four rules of firearm safety. That doesn't cost you anything. The other thing is you should look into your local, politicians wherever you are across the nation and see what their stance is on the second amendment because if a politician is telling you you shouldn't have the means to defend yourself but he or she is walking around with armed security you know it's the biggest contradiction in the world so you know support politicians that are pro second amendment um and if people want to support us directly they can get a shirt or they can just go you know donate to the website if one you

you folks happen to have an extra seven hundred thousand dollars laying around we can put good use to it. But even if you got $7, really every little bit of this helps. And again, this is completely voluntary. It's not like we're going into your check and taking the money out, you know, and things of that nature. But we're asking people that think that if this is important to urban America, even if you live in rural or suburban America, you know, if those rights are infringed in urban America, it's just a matter of time for rural and suburban America as well. So if you donate, you know, again, gofundme.com forward slash black guns matter 10 bucks, you know, 100 bucks, 100,000 bucks, a million bucks, whatever.

You'll take anything. Yeah, yeah, we need it. It all folds. Absolutely. We really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much just for sharing your heart and your passion and what you're doing to really transform urban communities all across America. No doubt.

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. All right, peace. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. In the agenda, you will learn what issues. heritage scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening

here at Heritage that you can watch online, as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and on the Daily Signal's Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Angela Saylor, commentary article titled America's National Past Time, Remembering the Role of Women, Ken writes, Thank you for the story. One of my favorite childhood memories was going to watch the Grand Rapid Chick's play. I was about eight at the time in the late 1940s.

My grandfather was a real fan, and he often took me to see the chicks play. And in response to Cal Thomas's commentary, a warning from the dark hole of debt, William writes, Printing more money and putting it on the street is a big concern. Anything that drives prices up drastically, such as shortages of products, will lead to inflation. It appears that we may be going in that direction if this virus drags on. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. Send us an email at Letters at DailySignal.com. Virginia, it's Monday, and you have another good news story for us today, and we certainly need it.

Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. Well, today's story is really for all of our listeners who are looking for a simple way to stay connected with their faith communities during this pandemic. You know, now more than ever, Americans are really depending upon technology to connect with one another and to maintain that sense of community. So churches and faith communities all over America have been utilizing technology in really powerful ways during the coronavirus. Oak Grove Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, even worked out a way to host a drive-in church service. streaming their service through FM radio. But most communities are turning to online platforms like Facebook to keep posting church services,

Bible studies, and sharing information. And Facebook has now made it easier than ever for churches to learn how to utilize all of the many tools that they offer. The social media giant has launched a faith on Facebook resource hub, offering instructions on how to use Facebook live to stream services, how to launch a phone. fundraiser for your ministry, church, or an individual who might be a need in your community, or how to build community using Facebook groups. We'll be sure to provide a link for the Faith on Facebook Resource Hub in today's show notes so that you can check it out and find out more

information and how you can start using those tools today. Virginia, thanks so much for sharing that. I know that our family is certainly tuning in on Sunday mornings for our church service. A local group of about six churches here in Northern Virginia have banded together. and share. We have, you know, over 150 people who join, which is really tremendous. And the other thing I want to mention is so many of the Christian radio station or faith-based radio stations that exist in this country are just doing a tremendous service right now to keep people's spirits up and that message of God front and center in their lives. So thanks for bringing us that. Yeah, absolutely. No, Rob, that's so critical that in these times we really do continue to lean on one another and, you know, our churches and our pastors. is to find that support, even though we might be physically distant. It's certainly awesome that we have those technology tools to keep us connected. That's certainly true.

Well, we're going to leave it there for today. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal Podcast. You can find all our episodes on the Rurkishy Audio Network, and our other shows are available at dailysignal.com slash podcast. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to even more listeners.

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