Biden: No real law-abiding citizens fear infringement of their constitutional rights, or something

Breitbart’s headline on this oversells the quote, but only by a little. In an appearance in Connecticut last week, Vice President Joe Biden insisted that people who question this administration on gun policy — like Kate Ernest did just prior to this appearance — aren’t really speaking for themselves, but for “opponents” of gun control and the Obama administration. “No law-abiding citizen in the United States of America,” Biden thunders, “has any fear that their constitutional rights will be infringed in any way. None. Zero.”

Well, that’s an easy conclusion to reach as soon as you assume that the Kate Ernests are figments of your imagination:

Manufacturers are certainly not figments of imagination, and they provide plenty of jobs for law-abiding Americans. They certainly seem concerned enough to threaten to move jobs if states start infringing on their rights — and retailers are ready to stop supplying those states with weapons they can’t sell to the general public, too (via Instapundit):

A growing number of firearm firms in the US are vowing to reverse-boycott local and state governments that enact any new infringements on the Second Amendment.

Vowing to close what they’re calling “the police loophole,” at least 50 US companies, ranging from gun machinists to gun shops, are now saying publicly they’ll refuse to sell weapons and gear to police in places where governments have banned the use of the same gear by civilians.

Quality Arms, located in Rigby, Idaho, writes on its website that it “will not supply any firearm or product manufactured by us or any other company, nor will we warranty, repair, alter or modify a firearm owned by any state, county or municipality that infringes on the right of its citizens to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment.”

The major gun manufacturers haven’t yet climbed on this bandwagon, but consumer and retailer pressure may force their hand sooner rather than later. The only citizens not objecting so far seem to be the criminals, who get their weapons the old-fashioned way — they steal them.

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