As tens of millions of Americans mark the nation’s 247th Independence Day in various manners, from celebration to complacency to protest, one thing remains abundantly clear: As violent crime rates continue to soar, record numbers of citizens continue to turn to self-protection for themselves and their loved ones.

To that end, according to FBI background checks, Americans celebrated their Second Amendment rights more than one million times in June — the 47th straight month of record-setting gun sales.

Translation: Gun grabbers be damned.

The firearms trade association National Shooting Sports Foundation said that of 2,152,187 background checks in June, 1,110,696 were likely for firearms purchases and transfers, the remainder for concealed-carry and other security permits.

NSSF spokesman Mark Oliva said, no doubt gleefully so:

Happy Independence Day! Americans have another million reasons to celebrate this Independence Day. More than 1.1 million times in June, Americans exercised their Second Amendment rights to lawfully purchase a firearm. That extends the streak to 47 continuous months that background checks for firearm purchases have exceeded a million.

This is notable because these figures buck the demands by gun-control politicians to surrender [their] rights. Americans choose differently. They choose, by the millions, to keep and bear arms. They are keeping alive the vision of our Founding Fathers that this would be a nation that celebrates the ethos of a responsibly armed citizenry.

Is it any wonder?

Gun-grabbing Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, echoed by the left-wing media, exploit the bejesus out of every “mass” shooting that tragically comes down the pike while continuing to turn a hypocritical blind eye to the record murder rates and other violent crime rates in America’s Democrat-run cities.

The left continues to peddle the illogical notion that further restricting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners will somehow reduce so-called “gun violence” while ignoring the facts and statistics of the aforementioned mayhem across America — all while howling at the moon about nonexistent “assault rifles,” “weapons of war,” and other such nonsense.

Just one problem.

As I reported in June 2022, our gun-grabbing president conveniently “forgets” his past agreement with the National Rifle Association (NRA) that bad guys will get guns “with or without gun control.” During a 1985 debate over the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA), then-Senate Judiciary Committee member Joe Biden (D-Del.) said:

During my 12 and a half years as a member of this body, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime. I am convinced that a criminal who wants a firearm can get one through illegal, nontraceable, unregistered sources, with or without gun control.

So what’s changed? As with Biden’s (and Hillary Clinton’s, by the way) former opposition to same-sex marriage, he — like all good Democrats — has evolved on the issue of gun control. (Liberals are allowed to “evolve,” you know.)

As we also reported in June 2022, the evolved president delivered a gun-control speech at the time in which he called for no fewer than seven gun-control measures.

1. A ban on “assault weapons”
2. A ban on “high-capacity” magazines
3. If banning isn’t possible, raising the purchase age for AR-15s and similar rifles to 21
4. Strengthened background checks
5. The enactment of a stringent “safe-storage laws”
6. A national “red flag law”
7. The repeal of the immunity of gun manufacturers and retailers from liability

In contrast to his comments in the earlier 1985 blockquote, Biden 2.0 said:

Enough. We should limit how many rounds a weapon can hold. Why in God’s name should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines, that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes?

The bloody streets of Chicago’s Southside were unavailable for comment.

The Bottom Line

Democrats and their lapdog media can demand all the gun-control legislation they want in their pursuit of ending nonexistent “gun violence” (guns don’t kill people; people kill people), but a simple fact will remain: Record firearms purchases — much more, the already existing tens of millions of legally owned firearms in circulation — are likely to stay exactly where they are.