On Thursday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Michael Patrick Leahy and all-star panelist Crom Carmichael spoke with special guest former Breitbart colleague and Washington journalist Neil McCabe.
During the third hour, McCabe gave his take on what he saw happening in Washington as the coronavirus takes center stage. He was taken aback at the Philadelphia police departments’ decision to avoid arresting people unless it was for rape or murder and how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives (AFT) has used the pandemic to make a three-day waiting period turn into a 30-day period for purchasing firearms.
Leahy: We are joined now by our very good friend Neil McCabe. Neil is a Washington journalist, friend extraordinaire, former Breitbart colleague. What is going on in DC today?
McCabe: (Sighs) Well, you know I guess when push comes to shove the answer is just spend more money. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: Yes.
McCabe: Government control. You know I see that there expanding the waiting period from three days to 30 days just arbitrarily for buying weapons.
Leahy: Whoah whoah
(Inaudible crosstalk)
McCabe: What is the point…
Leahy: I missed that.
McCabe: What is the point of electing a Republican to anything? In the end, we’re just going to blow the budget. We’re going to tank the economy. And we’re going to restrict your gun rights.
Leahy: Where did this extension of the waiting time from three to 30 days come from? Where did that come from? Is that in a bill that was just passed?
McCabe: No, that was the ATF just came out with a ruling saying that during the current emergency, there are situations if you know the person or whatnot or there are direct cases where you don’t have to wait three days. But in those cases where you do have to wait three days they’ve moved the typical conditional three-day waiting period to 30.
Leahy: What’s interesting about that Neil, in terms of items in short supply right now. Toilet paper and firearms.
McCabe: Well yeah. As you know Mike I spent a lot of time sort of in the gun journalism right? I was the editor of Guns and Patriots for human events. I am the Washington editor for Armed American radio which is on Sunday nights on 250 stations.
The ideology of whether your for or against guns sort of goes by the wayside and you ask yourself do I need to protect myself, my family, and my property? My business? My farm? My home? And in the end, that’s where people really are.
We see all the time there will be politicians who will be against gun rights and be for restricting gun rights. And they’ll talk about how nobody needs to have a gun. Then when somebody breaks into their house it turns out they had a gun.
The first article I ever wrote for Breitbart as a contributor, not as a staff member was Mark Kelly the astronaut and the husband of Gabby Gifford, the congresswoman who was shot from Arizona he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the AR-15 should be banned. Then a week later he went into a gun shop and I talked to the owner of that gun shop and Mark Kelly tried to buy an AR-15.
Leahy: Yeah. A little hypocrisy there. I saw this tweet out yesterday. It’s very concerning. We see this happening in Democratic-controlled cities around the country. But Philadelphia is the one that struck me the most.
The Philadelphia mayor and police chief have said that we’re not going to arrest and detain anybody for any crime. Apparently any crime other than rape or murder. What is going on there?
McCabe: I didn’t realize that was a new rule.
Leahy: Yeah, they said in Philadelphia.
McCabe: In Philadelphia?
Leahy: Yeah.
McCabe: I mean it’s like you know, Baltimore. How do you get arrested in Baltimore? I have no idea.
Leahy: (Chuckles) Apparently there is no crime you can commit in Baltimore worthy of being arrested these days.
McCabe: I think what has happened too is certainly in the last 10 years you’ve had the police sort of make the decision that they weren’t going to pull back and it’s not worth it for us to get involved in crime if we can possibly avoid it. There are police looking the other way, and they are guys with families and mortgages.
Do I really need to be on trial because I arrested a criminal, and he said I was doing it the wrong way? And so what Philadelphia is doing is sort of public lives and private truths. The city of Philadelphia has taken what was a private truth and made it the public truth because in major cities across this country they’ve been backing off.
Now they’re just sort of using the I guess to their credit they’re using the excuse of the Wuhan virus to basically sync up their practice with their narratives. I don’t know if that’s also true in Tennessee. But there are other parts of the country where we are now experiencing lawlessness. I really don’t’ know how this thing is going to end.
What I think is going to happen and you’ll forgive me for saying this is that the ambient temperature will reach like 70 degrees sometime in late May or early June and the virus will be done and the people who are sick will, they’ll have to work that out. And then by July, everybody will look back, and they’ll say, what was that all about?
Leahy: That’s an optimistic scenario. It could be how it plays out Neil. I don’t know right now. I’m tracking data every day. Back to the gun thing. It’s very interesting because now that you give major police department in Philadelphia basically said we’re not going to be arresting anybody because of the coronavirus.
You can see why people want to go in and buy guns now. There’s more of a demand than there is of supply of guns and ammunition. One thing that I saw of note is that a lot of people are first-time gun users and there is a bit of caution I guess from one of the gun groups I don’t remember which where the guy said, look if you’re going to be a first-time gun buyer than you’ve got to get trained. I think that makes sense. You are a military guy. You’re in the Army Reserve. That would make sense to me. What about you?
McCabe: I guess obviously. Anytime spent at the range is good time. Obviously you want to be trained. But there was a court case where a municipality denied a man his gun permit because he was blind. And he’s like hey, where in the Constitution does it say that?
Obviously you want people to be trained but I don’t think that training should never be a reason to deny somebody their Second Amendment. There is no obligation to be a victim. And when you think about it, the great equalizer, if I can speak in an old-fashioned way. A lot of guys can handle themselves and grab a bat.
They can grab a book off their desk. Guys can do things lets say the elderly or females can’t and it’s a great equalizer that when you think about these little old ladies if their packing heat. You talk about equality about the genders, nothing brings equality to a situation like a .38 special.
Leahy: (Laughs) A great line. What’s the overall feel of the environment and the political climate in Washington these days. I think that the Democrats are really disappointed that this is a scandal and a crisis rather they haven’t been able to fully exploit to the fullest extent because at a base level, almost like a primal level the politics of a disease outbreak is just not going to fly.
And the president to his credit, I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t getting the right advice in the beginning. But now he’s sort of realized with his own political antenna what was going on and the president obviously took control of this thing about two weeks ago.
And since then he’s made the economy, and he’s made attacking this virus a priority. I think that there’s a great disappointment among Democrats. Certainly, the media has tried to whip this thing up.
Leahy: They’ve tried. They’ve tried hard. (Chuckles)
McCabe: It just sort of fell flat.
Leahy: I think that’s probably right. Neil McCabe, come back next week, and we’ll see how this evolves.
Listen to the third hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
