Activist Says ‘Responsible’ Firearm Owners Have Nothing to Fear From Gun Control

I’m always amused when I see anti-gun activists claim to be moderate and only in favor of a few “common sense measures,” when the gun control lobby is busy pushing laws that criminalize basic aspects of our right to keep and bear arms. 

Khary Penebaker, who’s been involved with Everytown and Moms Demand Action, tried using this approach on X, and things did not go well for him. 

Dear responsible gun owners: the laws we are asking for would not touch you. Background checks, safe storage, red flags. If your rifle is locked and your record is clean, the only thing you lose is a talking point.

— Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) July 22, 2026

Any man who wants to make it harder for me to defend myself is my enemy.

— Forest Mommy🌲🗡💪🏹🌲🌲 (@ForestMommy) July 22, 2026

No.
I will not submit to a system that would seize my arms based on random assertions and without due process.
I will not get government permission to leave my grandfather’s rifle to my grandson.
I will not submit to invasion of privacy in my home.

— Casey Murph (@caseymurph1) July 22, 2026

How do you propose legally identifying those who aren’t locking their firearms up via your prescribed method?

Are we supposed to take pictures everyday, and send them in as proof?

Does an officer come by every morning and evening to make sure they’re locked up properly?

Do… pic.twitter.com/Gf4hbxjJed

— SYSKUSA (@syskusa) July 22, 2026

I reject Penebaker’s thesis. Background checks, storage mandates, and “red flag” laws are just a few of the things that gun control groups are demanding (not asking for). They want to ban commonly owned firearms. They want to ban commonly owned magazines. They want to impose limits on the number of guns you can buy in a certain time period. They want to impose waiting limits before you can take possession of a gun that you’ve lawfully purchased. 

They want to require training and a license to possess a firearm in the home and to carry one in public. They want to require gun owners to have liability insurance. They want to be able to hold gun makers and sellers financially responsible for the actions of violent criminals. They want to make it a crime for you to carry in most places open to the public. 

They want to deprive young adults of their Second Amendment rights. They want to criminalize selling a gun from your private collection without becoming a federally licensed gun dealer. They want to ban bump stocks, pistol braces, and suppressors. 

Those are just a few of the laws that gun control activists like Penebaker want to put in place, and when they get their way people lose a lot more than a talking point. They lose access to a fundamental civil right. 

Even the specific laws that Penebaker mentions come with a cost to gun owners, because they criminalize non-compliance. There are ways to make background checks available to those private citizens who would like to run a background check on a potential buyer of one of their firearms, but anti-gun activists don’t want that to be optional. They want people to be charged with a crime for not running a background check. 

The same goes for “safe storage.” Gun control activists aren’t interested in incentivizing the use of gun safes. They want gun owners to be charged with a criminal offense if they don’t keep their firearms locked up and unloaded at all times. 

Red flag laws, meanwhile, can easily derail the lives of law-abiding gun owners. We’ve seen instances in New Jersey where gun owners have essentially been red-flagged after seeking help for a child’s mental health, even after a doctor has determined the child poses no risk to themselves or others. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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