The Left continues to fan the flames of anarcho-tyranny.
Two legislative proposals by Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), member of the far-left “Squad,” would make life harder for the hardworking and law-abiding while giving greater social latitude to criminals who would take advantage of honest Americans.
The first of Tlaib’s bills, co-sponsored by fellow Squad member Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), would enact a federal prohibition on landlords from using criminal background checks during their screening processes.
In addition, the legislation would scrub from consumer reports convictions older than seven years.
The proposal is similar to a law passed last year by a county in California’s San Francisco Bay that outlawed the ability of landlords to use criminal background checks for considering the eligibility of potential renters. In another provision included within that law, a tenant protections package in Alameda County, landlords are prohibited from discouraging ex-felons to apply for housing.
Tlaib’s bill is unlikely to make it through the Republican-controlled House, but it nevertheless sends a signal of where Democrats’ priorities lie going into the heated 2024 election cycle. One member of the House GOP caucus, Representative Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), told Fox News that Tlaib’s bill would be unfair to landlords, who have a right to be familiar with the criminal records of those to whom they would rent.
“We all want safe, affordable housing for our constituents. But if the goal is to increase safe and affordable housing options, this isn’t the way to go about doing it,” said Garcia.
The congressman added,
This bill would be an unnecessary and unproductive expansion of bad housing policy. Earlier this year, landlords in LA went on a hunger strike to protest the city’s backwards approach to the issue. Property owners have a right to know who is renting their assets, and California’s housing challenge will only get worse if my colleagues across the aisle continue to ignore that fact.
In a joint press release that the offices of Pressley and Tlaib released for their bill, Tlaib argued, “We must prioritize restorative justice, lead with compassion, and recognize the human dignity of our neighbors as we work to dismantle the cycles of mass incarceration and housing discrimination. This legislation will end the systemic barriers to stable housing returning citizens face every day as they begin to rebuild their lives in our communities.”
Representative Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who chairs the Republican Study Committee, pushed back against the Democrats’ bill, likening it to leftist calls to defund the police.
Indeed, the Tlaib-Pressley “Housing FIRST Act” is part of a broader effort to weaken social standards against crime and lawlessness.
In another bill unveiled this week, the Safe Storage Saves Lives Act, Tlaib would require gun dealers to sell a gun lock for every firearm purchase. The congresswoman asserts that doing so would cut down on accidental shootings nationwide.
According to the text of the bill, this legislation would make it “unlawful for any person to offer a firearm for sale unless the person offers for sale a secure gun storage or safety device that is compatible with the firearm.” Anyone found in violation of this would find themselves slapped with a penalty of up to $1,000.
Tlaib’s press release for the bill reads:
Tragically, in Southeast Michigan, we have witnessed the deadly consequences of children having easy access to firearms in their homes. Safe storage is key to protecting our children from gun violence. The Safe Storage Saves Lives Act will require a gun lock with every gun sold in the United States. We must move with the urgency this moment demands and pass commonsense gun safety legislation that will save lives.
The National Rifle Association is among the bill’s detractors. The NRA told Fox News that the legislation is unnecessary because gun manufacturers already include a lock with new firearms. Moreover, the organization points out, Project Childsafe provides free gun locks for those who want them.
As with many leftist policies, the facts don’t make sense when it comes to actually keeping people safe. But there is a logic to it all when seen through the perspective of the Left’s underlying purpose.
Crime and lawlessness have long been instruments by which revolutionary leftists foment the social instability and chaos by which they are able to accumulate power for themselves and effect their totalitarian agenda.
In the examples of Tlaib’s recent proposals, those who would suffer would not be criminals, but law-abiding citizens; for instance, landowners who have to deal with the loss of value of their property when ex-cons inhabit it, as well as upright Americans who would essentially be forced to have former felons as neighbors.
And the redundancy of Tlaib’s gun legislation would hurt firearms sellers, driving up their prices, causing them to lose customers and potentially even putting some of them out of business. All that would be accomplished by this would be to have fewer honest Americans armed — while criminals continue to have access to illegal guns.
