Blumenthal Miffed About Gun Rights Restoration Effort

Forgiveness is a big part of Christianity, but also of Western society in general. People are asked to forgive one another all the time, for a variety of sins. Not everyone is deserving of forgiveness, but those who are often get it. It’s part of why presidents and governors have the power to pardon and grant clemency to people. It’s forgiveness.

And the people of Connecticut have long forgiven Senator Richard Blumenthal for lying about having served in Vietnam. Sure, he said he didn’t mean to mislead, but he did mislead and they gave him a pass.

Now, though, he’s up in arms because another part of forgiveness for others is heading back into operation.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is no longer responsible for vetting convicted felons who want to buy firearms — it’s now under a different arm of the Justice Department (DOJ).

That’s because of an interim final ruling from Attorney General Pam Bondi (R). Bondi cited a decades-old law that left the ATF “unable to effectuate its regulatory authority to act on individual applications due to an identical appropriations rider enacted annually,” according to the ruling.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) isn’t happy with the DOJ’s plan — or lack thereof — for doing it.

The ATF used to consider felons’ requests for guns on a case-by-case basis. Now, according to Blumenthal, the DOJ will use an algorithm to make the decision.

“We should be assessing on an individualized basis whether a person will be dangerous with a firearm,” Blumenthal said. “Not a blanket, wholesale restoration of gun rights to everyone convicted of felonies, no matter whether dangerous or not, no matter whether the crime involved violence or not.”

Except Attorney General Pam Bondi has already said it won’t be some blanket restoration. She specifically said that she supports keeping violent felons legally disarmed.

But Blumenthal’s “mistakes” don’t end there.

First, we haven’t been able to assess individuals for having their gun rights restored because his own Democratic Party–in the guise of one Sen. Chuck Schumer–defunded the part of the ATF that would restore those rights on that individual basis. Had that not happened, it’s unlikely anyone would have done anything to change the gun rights restoration process.

Plus, I looked and the word “algorithm” doesn’t show up in the Department of Justice’s document at all. I’m not sure where he’s getting this, and no source for this is provided, just the word of a man who we know has a history of lying.

Look, people screw up. They do stupid things and have to pay the price. I’m fine with that. Sometimes, those screw ups are massive and yes, violent. When they get their life back in order, though, we need to stop treating them like they’re still criminals. We need to have some grace in our system, some mechanism to make it clear that they have been forgiven by society.

People like Blumenthal made it so that it couldn’t really happen. Now, he’s upset that it will, and he’s lashing out with whatever he can come up with to try and demonize the entire process, all while pretending he and his party had no role in preventing that all alone.

Cope and seethe, Dick. Cope and seethe.