The right of the people to keep and bear arms includes the right to hunt with a gun, but that's hardly the reason why the Second Amendment's explicit protection to keep and carry a gun was included in the Bill of Rights. Based on Tim Walz's recent response to a question about gun control from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania news anchor Shannon Perrine, however, it seems the Minnesota governor believes that the architects of the Bill of Rights were focused on protecting his right to hunt pheasants. 

PERRINE: "On another big issue that lots of folks are talking about, how should federal gun laws be different than they are right now?"

WALZ: "Well, look, I'm a hunter. I was out this weekend for pheasant season. I think the vice president and I are the first Democratic ticket that we're both gun owners, and we believe in the Second Amendment, but there are common-sense things like enhanced background checks to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people and extreme risk protection orders.

"And many of those are families concerned about family members and suicides or harming someone else. Those are things that don't infringe on your Second Amendment. They allow you to go deer hunting. They allow you to have a firearm in your home. But those are the type of things that keep people safer. And we've seen responsible gun owners recognize, a gun that is not trigger-locked or something in your home is where our children end up being shot.

Both Harris and Walz seem to be leaning into background checks while shying away from discussing their support for an "assault weapon" ban in the closing weeks of the campaign, but neither of them have been able to explain why they believe criminals would obey that particular law while ignoring the laws against armed robbery, home invasion, or murder. So-called universal background checks may poll well among the public, but in practice they're incredibly difficult to prosecute, and utterly worthless at proactively preventing criminals from getting ahold of a gun. 

According to a 2019 survey of federal inmates published by the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of prisoners who had used a gun in connection with a crime had stolen the firearm, with another 43% obtaining their gun through the black market. It's absurd to suggest that those illegal acquisitions would have been stopped by a universal background check law, when at best such a statute would have allowed the illicit gun seller to be charged after the fact. 

But as Albuquerque TV station KRQE reported in 2020, a year after the state instituted "universal" background checks, not a single person had been prosecuted for transferring a firearm without a background check. 

In the first year since that law went into effect on July 1, 2019, court records show that no one was charged with violating the law. “We spent a lot of time, a lot of resources and a lot of money trying to enact this law that’s done absolutely nothing,” said Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace.

While Walz continues to stump for background checks and "red flag" laws, the vice-presidential candidate has ignored what's happening in his own state of Minnesota, where judges are cutting defendants accused of violent crimes plenty of slack. 

Just this week a judge in Rochester, Minnesota sentenced 20-year-old Anthony Lavelle Frazier for his role in a drive-by shooting and robbery attempt that took place last year. Though Frazier was originally charged with first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree assault, and first-degree aggravated robbery, prosecutors dismissed those charges and allowed Frazier to plead guilty to a single county of aiding and abetting a drive-by shooting back in July. As radio station KROC reported on Wednesday:

The plea deal did not include a recommended sentence and today the judge in the case placed Frazier on probation for five years. The Olmsted County Attorney's Office argued for a punishment matching state sentencing guidelines, which call for a four-year prison sentence. The judge did include a stayed prison term of 57 months that could be executed if Frazier fails to meet the terms of his probation.

Frazier's co-defendent in the case was also able to cop to reduced charges of simple robbery in exchange for felony assault charges being dropped, and like Frazier, Christian Avery Miller received a five-year probationary sentence instead of being sentenced to prison. 

Walz hasn't said a word about the sweetheart plea deals that are putting violent criminals in Minnesota back on the streets instead of behind bars. Instead, he's focused exclusively on restricting the rights of lawful gun owners in the name of public safety. Walz is right when he says that we can do things to protect the public without infringing on the Second Amendment. The problem is that his rhetoric doesn't match his record of attacking legal gun ownership while going soft on violent offenders as Minnesota's governor.