In a news conference on Monday anti-gun Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.; shown) announced he had asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (known as ATF) to investigate a firearm that looks, from a distance, like an Apple iPhone 6. Schumer rolled out all the scary words he could think of in his attempt to describe it: deadly, nefarious, outrageous, threatening, dangerous, and a disaster about to happen:
This iPhone gun is a disaster waiting to happen. When placed in a person’s pocket, the handgun looks almost identical to an iPhone case and, because it’s essentially hidden, the handgun poses a serious threat if law enforcement is not able to tell whether a criminal is pulling out a gun or a phone….
It’s clearly being marketed for nefarious purposes — 4,000 people are ready to pull the trigger on this dangerous weapon.
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Schumer’s anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment chops go back for decades. In 1994 he and anti-gun Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) authored the original Assault Weapons Ban. He also worked to pass the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act (Brady Bill). When the Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004, he worked to reinstate it. Following Hurricane Katrina he was one of 16 senators to vote against the Vitter Amendment which prohibits the confiscation of legally-owned firearms during a disaster.
In a word, his anti-gun stance has earned him not only the ire of the National Rifle Association (NRA) but his Freedom Index rating of 13. Unfortunately, there is no organization that rates senators for hypocrisy. For years Schumer has denied owning a handgun or even a permit to own one, all the while having an armed bodyguard nearby. As Alan Gottlieb, chairman of Concerned Citizens for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), said when the hypocrisy was exposed:
Chuck Schumer has been working overtime for years to deprive honest, law-abiding Americans the means with which to defend themselves from violent crime.
Yet, here’s Schumer unmasked, protected by an armed New York police detective, a luxury not available to average working class Americans. If Schumer is convinced that his fellow Americans don’t need firearms, why does he feel the need for an armed bodyguard?
The new iPhone-sized pistol is a two-shot derringer-style firearm, chambered for the modest .380 caliber round, designed by Kirk Kjellberg, the owner of his startup company, Ideal Conceal. He carries concealed but one day, while sitting in a restaurant, a youngster saw his gun and yelled: “Mommy, Mommy, that man’s got a gun!” Said Kjellberg to himself, “There’s got to be another way to be able to carry without bothering other people.”
When Kejllberg learned about Schumer’s announcement, he said, “The idea that this is going to cause some new big threat is just not true,” with his website explaining that “the idea for Ideal Concept follows the present-day demand for handguns that people can carry on a day-to-day basis, in a manner that makes carrying a gun easy to do. From soccer moms to professionals of every type, this gun allows you the option of not being a victim.”
Despite his use of excessive histrionics, Schumer raised one point that deserves investigation: would the gun might somehow mislead law enforcement officials into thinking it’s a harmless iPhone? On the surface the question answers itself: if it’s concealed why should law enforcement know or care? The only time that would happen is in the event of a move that might appear threatening to law enforcement. When quizzed about that by The New American, retired police officer Jere Joiner, living in Colorado Springs, responded: “Police are trained to mistrust anything in a person’s hand: It could be a rock, a cellphone, a small handgun, or whatever. Depending on the circumstances, the first police command might be “DROP IT!” or “PUT YOUR HANDS UP WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!” So, in that sense of the word, it wouldn’t matter what a person was holding.”
Kejllberg’s invention is scheduled to be released for sale later this year, where it will enter an already crowded market,as gun makers have responded to increasing demand for small, light, convenient sidearms that are easily concealed. Consider Glock’s Model 42, released in 2014. It’s less than six inches long, less than an inch wide, and barely four inches in height. Loaded with six .380 caliber rounds, it weighs a little over a pound.
None of this appears to matter to the intransigent anti-gunner from New York. And it probably shouldn’t matter much to the average citizen either, except that when Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid steps down next year, Schumer is being groomed to take his place.
Photo: Senator Charles Schumer
A graduate of an Ivy League school and a former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected]
