Gun Rights Groups Say Biden’s Gun Orders Are ‘Tyrannical,’ Will ‘Dismantle’ Second Amendment

Few rifles remained on the shelf at Caso's Gun-A-Rama store in Jersey City, New Jersey on March 25, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

One of the largest gun rights groups in the country said it is preparing to fight a slew of executive actions from the Biden administration, claiming they’re “tyrannical” and that they will “spare no expense” in defeating them.

“Gun Owners of America is wholeheartedly opposed to the unconstitutional gun control threatened today by President Biden—restrictions such as the attacks on homemade and brace equipped firearms and so-called ‘Red Flag’ Gun Confiscation Orders,” said Gun Owners of America’s Senior Vice President Erich Pratt in a statement.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden unveiled executive actions that the administration will take, including restricting so-called “ghost guns” made from do-it-yourself kits, the aforementioned Red Flag laws, investing in “community violence interventions,” nominating David Chipman—a gun control advocate—to head the ATF, and issuing a yearly report on firearms trafficking.

Biden, in announcing the orders, said it would help “confront not just the gun crisis but what is actually a public health crisis.”

“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment,” Biden said. “These are phony arguments suggesting that these are Second Amendment rights at stake from what we’re talking about.”

But Gun Owners of America’s (GOA) statement suggested that Biden’s executive action would violate the Constitution.

“GOA is committed to the defense of gun owners, their pistol-braced firearms, do-it-yourself firearm kits, unserialized homemade firearms, as well as any other lawfully-purchased, constitutionally protected items the Biden Administration proposes to criminalize or confiscate,” the statement added. “GOA’s grassroots members are primed and ready to fight back against whatever Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment violations Joe Biden is cooking up with his state-level so-called ‘Red Flag’ Gun Confiscation Order proposal.”

In the announcement, Biden claimed that “from the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons. So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution.”

But the National Rifle Association (NRA) stipulated that Biden’s “actions could require Americans to surrender lawful property, push states to expand confiscation orders, and put a gun control lobbyist to head ATF” and accused the president of “dismantling the 2nd Amendment. It’s time to STAND and FIGHT!”

Thursday’s announcement comes after two mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia that collectively left 18 people dead.

And in March, the Democratic-controlled House passed two bills that would expand background checks, largely along partisan lines. One would increase background checks on individuals who are seeking to purchase or transfer firearms and would give authorities 10 business days for federal background checks to be completed before a gun sale can be licensed.

The push for gun control also comes after tens of millions of Americans purchased firearms last year, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. It noted that 21 million firearms were bought in 2020, setting a new record.