GOP Rep. Kinzinger Insults Fellow Veterans

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke

GOP Rep. Kinzinger Insults Fellow Veterans

Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger is not only a Vichy Republican, he is also a disgrace to the uniform he once wore. According to NPR, one of his “solutions” to a statistically insignificant problem (hate-based mass shootings, relative to all homicides) is to raise the age of firearm purchases to 21. From the article

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Illinois Rep Adam Kinzinger, a former Iraq war veteran who voted against the bipartisan House bill on background checks penned an essay on Medium, saying he is in favor of red-flag laws and now supports universal background checks, raising the age to purchase a firearm fro 18 to 21 and “banning certain high capacity magazines, like the 100-round drum the Dayton shooter used this weekend.”

I will just address the age requirement “solution” here and the other unconstitutional nonsense later, or leave to others. I referred to Kinzinger as a “Vichey Republican,” because in his self righteous screed, he manifests characteristics of the Left, substituting emotional drivel, for where an explanatory title of a think piece ought to be: United Against Hate — How We Can Sensibly Address Gun Violence. You can read his whole unconstitutional proposal here. Below are the relevant excerpts.

The second change I’m calling for is more controversial, but too important to shy away from any longer: raising the age of gun purchase to 21. In the 1980s, the United States enforced 21 as the age to consume alcohol and today, authorities are on the verge of making 21 the age for purchasing tobacco products. I have my disagreements with some of that rational[sic], but I think in the case of gun purchases, there is significant merit in raising the age limit.

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Rep. Kinzinger starts out by trying to justify this usurpation of individual rights by citing one questionably constitutional law and the possibility that states would pass yet another, likening an enumerated Constitutional Right with the purchase of two common commodities. Side Note: Have you ever wondered why we spend billions on Federal regulation of two common commodities and an Enumerated Constitutional Right?

He goes on to talk about another blatant violation of the 2nd Amendment, using that as leverage to make his final point—and Democrats say there’s no such thing as a “slippery slope.”

Under current law, a U.S. citizen must be 21 to purchase a handgun. Initially the thought was that shotguns and assorted hunting rifles would still be available for younger Americans, and I don’t disagree. States should be able to create exceptions for some shotguns for hunting purposes. However, this provision has allowed many legal purchases of semi-automatic rifles by soon-to-be mass shooters. Particularly in school shootings, the assassins are often enrolled in the school, recently graduated, or expelled. In some cases, a grudge is carried out with legally purchased weapons. An adolescent, high school fueled grudge is much less likely to survive over the three years between the end of high school and the time of legal age of purchase.

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Now might be a propitious time to point out that this legislation wouldn’t have stopped either of the two shootings we are discussing. The El Paso shooter was 21, while the Dayton killer was 24. So, once again, we are being stampeded towards a “solution,”…that isn’t.

Finally, here’s the part that really angers me as a former Soldier.

With this change, it’s important to note that members of the military can still use arms assigned to them, as those under age 21 who carry pistols as part of their job still legally do. Military members go through plenty of training, not only on how to use a gun, but the moral reasons behind its use and the restraint of its use. They are briefed in what constitutes a moral and immoral order, as well as a legal combatant and an illegal one.

I’d like Representative Kinzinger to face the 17, 18, 19 & 20 year old Marines who retook Falujah at bayonet point, or the same age young Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division (my old home) who climbed up and down the escarpments of Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush, running to ground Al Qaida terrorists. I want him to look them in the eye and tell them that he would support a law that forbade them from purchasing a firearm while they were home on R & R. Tell them they can fight for this great big thing we call, These United States of America—but they can’t buy a gun. I hope he is never, ever again, put in command of troops.

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Mike Ford, a retired Infantry Officer, writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

Follow him on Twitter: @MikeFor10394583

You can find his other Red State work here.

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