Elizabeth Warren has a lot of plans but very few good ideas. Her industrial plan would destroy the crown jewels of the U.S. technology sector, her foreign policy plan would invite Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to new aggression, and her economic plan would drive wealth creators overseas.
Warren’s gun control plan, released on Saturday, is similarly problematic. Warren doesn’t just want to take your guns, she wants to make sure that you buy fewer guns and that fewer guns are manufactured.
I see myself as an objectively conservative writer, broadly pro-Trump but disgusted by his racist rhetorical excesses and other prejudices. Still, as I read through Warren’s gun plan, my increasing urge was to run and buy the nearest MAGA hat and run crazily through the streets declaring Trump to be our only hope.
I exaggerate only slightly, because I believe strongly in the Second Amendment. By her own words, Warren is now pledging to shred it.
Beyond good ideas on federal prosecutions against criminal straw purchasers, Warren’s plan concerns me for three reasons.
First, Warren sees the gun violence problem through the lens of a government-enabled problem rather than through the rightful lens of a cultural problem. She says she’ll reduce gun violence by 80%.
How? Warren references the introduction of seat belts and other government mandates on individual behavior as examples of how to proceed on gun regulations. But this isn’t about regulations. The real problem with gun use in the U.S. is simple: too many idiots, criminals, or mentally ill individuals can access firearms and use them. Too many young men regard shooting each other as a legitimate manner to resolve minor and major grievances alike. Unlike Warren, I believe these are issues to be resolved by the reconstruction of the family unit and criminal justice action.
Second, Warren wants to destroy the gun industry at its source: the manufacturers. Warren says she’ll increase the tax from 10% to “30 percent on guns [sales] and 50 percent on ammunition [sales].” Guess what that means for your ability to purchase arms affordably? Guess what it means if you’re a poor American short on money but desperate to protect your family?
This taxation plan is immoral.
But Warren also pledges to introduce a “right of action allowing survivors of gun violence to hold the manufacturer of the weapon that harmed them strictly liable for compensatory damages to the victim or their family.”
I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but this is totally absurd.
Do we hold home goods manufacturers responsible for psychopaths who stab folks with their knives? Do we hold car manufacturers responsible for drunk drivers who smash into innocent people with their cars? No, we do not. We do not for exactly the same reason that Warren does want to allow tort lawsuits against gun manufacturers: because to do so would be to destroy those manufacturers in a sea of lawsuits.
Third, Warren adopts a darkly authoritarian tone toward gun owners and those who facilitate their happiness. Warren is explicit about this. She says she wants to hold “gun industry CEOs personally accountable. I’ve proposed a law that would impose criminal liability and jail time for corporate executives when their company is found guilty of a crime or their negligence causes severe harm.”
This might sound good, but it is a deeply un-American call to prosecute executives who had no culpability in the crimes of those under them. Federal and state law already provides for criminal penalties against executives who allow, enable, or conduct criminal behavior by their underlings. Warren, a former law professor, knows this. Her effort here must thus be designed to persecute those who believe the Second Amendment is legitimate.
To be sure, many Democrats will welcome Warren’s aggressive action. Warren will probably climb in the polls for it. But I and many Americans regard this call for government overreach as deeply authoritarian and worthy of vigorous rejection. Expect Trump to make it a campaign issue. Rightly so.
