Biden Chooses Anti-Gun, PRO-ABORTION CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL Becerra to Head Health & Human Services
BY DAVE WORKMAN
SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2020/12/biden-chooses-anti-gun-becerra-to-head-health-human-services/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Democrat Joe Biden sent another strong signal about the direction on guns his administration will take by announcing his pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services is Xavier Becerra, the anti-gun California attorney general who replaced another gun prohibitionist, Kamala Harris, when she was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Becerra is the defendant in several ongoing gun rights lawsuits filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and others. He’s been sued at least five times by SAF.
If he is confirmed as HHS Secretary next year, he will be in a position to put the full force of the federal government behind the notion that guns are a health risk.
Various anti-Second Amendment groups have been crusading for years to declare “gun violence” a public health crisis. None of these groups ever seem to create a ripple in the news when there is a fatal stabbing or someone is bludgeoned to death. Becerra would likely get plenty of support from such organizations.
But he may have trouble being confirmed depending upon the outcome of the double Senate election in Georgia on January 5th. If Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are re-elected, it gives the GOP a thin majority. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Alabama already said he will vote against confirming Becerra.
Fox News is reporting “Republicans slammed President-elect Joe Biden after he announced his choice of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for secretary of Health and Human Services on Monday, and they criticized Becerra's record on abortion and other issues.”
Conservative groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Susan B. Anthony List has labeled Becerra an “extremist,” Fox added. Religious leaders are also slamming the choice, again on the abortion issue.
In September, Becerra’s office made a big splash with the announcement that he was leading a “coalition” including the anti-gun Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence “in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration demanding the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) correct its interpretation of what qualifies as a firearm.”
The lawsuit is aimed at defining so-called “80 percent” frames as firearms.
It’s no small wonder why Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler issued a ringing endorsement of Becerra when news broke Monday about Biden’s pick.
“After four years of Donald Trump, Americans desperately need strong leadership from the top to confront public health crises like the coronavirus pandemic and gun violence,” Ambler said in a prepared statement. “Xavier Becerra is a superb choice to take charge of Health & Human Services, which will have one of the most critical missions in the Biden-Harris Administration. Becerra has an impressive record of taking action to protect and improve public health, he’s been a partner in the fight against gun violence, never backing down from special interests like the gun lobby in his mission to save lives. We look forward to working with him and the rest of the cabinet to address gun violence.”
No doubt most of the resistance to Becerra will relate to the abortion issue, but Becerra would remain no friend to American gun owners as head of HHS.
Last year, when a killer opened fire at the annual Garlic Festival in Gilroy with a semi-auto rifle he brought from neighboring Nevada, Becerra lamented “We cannot enforce California laws in Nevada.”
At the time, KGO reported that despite California’s restrictive gun control laws prohibiting the sale or import of so-called “assault rifles” into the state, “the suspected gunman brought one into the state.”
Gun rights activists shook their heads because the media, and Becerra, missed the point entirely. Determined killers will ignore gun control laws and find ways to commit their heinous acts. Transporting the gun into California simply underscored the problem with such laws: They don’t really prevent crimes.
While he was in the state assembly representing California’s Legislative District 31, Democrat Becerra voted against legislation prohibiting junk lawsuits against gun manufacturers for crimes committed by third parties misusing their firearms. He voted against reducing the waiting period for firearms purchases from three days to one day. He was rated “F” by the National Rifle Association.
Biden is in the midst of picking people to fill his cabinet positions as the possibility of any reversal of the election grows increasingly remote. Over the weekend, President Trump traveled to Georgia in an effort to get out the vote for Loeffler and Perdue, while insisting he won the state and contending he won elsewhere.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
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Biden Taps Radical Planned Parenthood Lackey Xavier Becerra to Head HHS
EXCERPTS:
"Joe Biden will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) as secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the department notorious for railroading religious freedom via the Obamacare contraception mandate. Becerra has attacked religious freedom and free speech with zeal at the beck and call of radical-Left activists in Planned Parenthood and other groups."
"Becerra has abused his power as attorney general in pursuit of silencing pro-life activists and organizations."
Becerra also vigorously defended a California law that mandated pregnancy resource centers (PRCs), most of which are pro-life, must advertise abortion on placards.
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Biden’s Gun Control Signal in Becerra Nomination
BY JIM GRANT & LARRY KEANE
SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2020/12/nssf-bidens-gun-control-signal-in-becerra-nomination/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- President-elect Joe Biden is taking an early turn to the far left with his nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to take over the Department of Health and Human Services.
That nomination would put a firebrand gun control collaborator at the helm of the nation’s leading health organization delivering services and support of scientific advances in medicine, public health, and social services. This is a harbinger that the federal office that employs 80,000 and has a $1.3 trillion budget will be used to push an antigun ideology over science. Attorney General Becerra’s nomination means that the next four years will be an administration pushing firearm ownership as a public health crisis and using the cover of a national health emergency to trample on Constitutional rights.
Attorney General Becerra’s public career started in California, working as a deputy attorney general for California’s Department of Justice before he was elected to the State Assembly, then to the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993-2017. He left Congress when he was chosen by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to succeed U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as California’s Attorney General.
California Gun Control Parade
When it comes to gun control, California’s jockeying to lead the parade with Attorney General Becerra as the drum major waving the giant stick. He’s embroiled in two lawsuits challenging California gun control laws that could have national impacts. The first is Duncan v Becerra, a case challenging California’s ban on standard capacity magazines, or what the state labels “large-capacity magazines” (LCMs). In 2000, the state banned the sale of new magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, but a 2016 voter initiative called Proposition 63 made possessing those magazines purchased before the ban illegal. U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez blistered the law in his ruling that it’s unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld Judge Benitez’s ruling earlier this year.
Another high-profile challenge to California’s onerous gun control laws is Miller v Becerra, a case that challenges the state’s nearly 20-year ban on modern sporting rifles, or what they knowingly mislabel “assault rifles.” That case, too, was brought before Judge Benitez, who ruled the law was unconstitutional. Attorney General Becerra also appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where it was denied a motion to dismiss the case.
That’s Not All
Attorney General Becerra’s fights to place stumbling blocks in the way of lawful firearm ownership don’t just involve modern sporting rifles and their magazines. He’s also defending a law that requires universal background checks for ammunition purchases. California passed a law requiring background checks for ammunition sales, which was challenged by U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Rhode. The case, Rhode v Becerra, challenges the burdensome regulation that was fraught with inaccuracies and outages. Judge Benitez thrashed that law and issued a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the law. Attorney General Becerra again appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and won a stay against the preliminary injunction while the case awaits hearing there.
Attorney General Becerra also led the defense of California’s slow-motion handgun ban. In Pena v Horan, a challenge to California’s Unsafe Handgun Act that bans handguns in common use for lawful purposes. That case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but denied review last summer, along with nine other firearm-related cases. He also defended the law in NSSF v State of California, filed in 2014 that went to the California Supreme Court, the state’s mandate to incorporate microstamping technology for firearms that doesn’t exist. In 2007, California gun control advocates knew they couldn’t outright ban handguns, so they put a condition on their approved sale. They would be required to incorporate technically-unfeasible microstamping technology, that would make identifying marks on two places of each cartridge casing fired from the firearm. The state’s Department of Justice created a list of “approved” handguns that’s only shrunk. They haven’t added a new semiautomatic handgun since 2013 when then-Attorney General Kamala Harris triggered the law. A new law passed in California last session only speeds that shrinking roster. The new law calls for three handguns to be removed for every new one added.
Wrong Prescription
The problem with Attorney General Becerra leading the nation’s health agency is that any issue he finds politically unfavorable can be labeled a public health crisis and be used to justify unprecedented restrictions on Constitutionally-protected individual liberties. Gun control advocates have been trying to do this for years as if criminal activity could be cured with a pill. Thinking this wouldn’t happen would be foolish. The evidence abounds that this not only could happen, it has and is happening. The COVID pandemic saw governors order firearm retailers and ranges to close, reversing course only after threats of lawsuits, or their orders were tossed out by judges. Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo trampled on religious liberties by attempting to block people from attending services at churches and synagogues. They didn’t stop until the courts told them, and even then, they’re grousing that they’re the authority.
They’re neglecting that they are accountable to the people. That’s us. Don’t expect Attorney General Becerra to be any different at the Department of Health and Human Services. He’ll make you swallow the gun control pill and it will come in one color. Blue.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
