It’s my machine gun, and I want it now

As the government shutdown continues, it provides insight into what the Trump administration values ​​and considers worthy of preservation and funding. It is certainly not the White House, with the exception of its stupid big ballroom. Nor does it keep our functional national parks.

No. They are weapons. Firearms and people with guns.

Yes, while so many needed federal workers remain furloughed, the administration has made another exception for workers it deems necessary to the continued functioning of the nation: the people who make sure you can buy some of the most dangerous firearms.

Firearms examiners are now essential workers, and they are return to work because the gun lobby said jump, and the administration asked how high.

Nothing stopped you from purchasing most types of firearms during the shutdown. Americans have had no interruption in their access to large quantities of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns. But if for some reason you needed silencers, short-barreled rifles, or pre-1986 machine guns, you were deprived of this basic right for about three weeks.

But now the freedom to purchase these weapons, often called “gangster weapons“- is back, baby.

These weapons are all considered to present an unusual danger, because they obviously are. Therefore, a special group of firearms examiners regulates them. And of course, because America is deeply broken, these guns sell well.

These reviewers were initially deemed non-essential and were furloughed, but the Conservatives couldn’t leave that in place.

First, House Republicans were gurgling about how if Americans faced a delay in purchasing a subcategory of dangerous weapons, then we would have no freedom at all, or something like that. Then the far-right America First Policy Institute. shouted about how a delayed gun purchase is a denied gun purchase and also how Democrats provide health care to illegal immigrants. No joke. It was in the gun press release:

Instead of focusing on reopening the government, some radicals in Congress are using the shutdown as leverage to push for taxpayer-funded health care for illegal aliens. The federal government should never prioritize illegal, taxpayer-funded benefits for non-Americans over its own citizens. It’s time for these radicals to reopen government and respect the Constitution, not their own political games and egos.

Remember the former president Joe Biden’s joke about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani? “There are only three things he [needs] do… a sentence: a noun and a verb and September 11. This is the America First Policy Institute, which couldn’t just bang the table and demand more guns. He Also we had to talk about these bad Democrats and these bad immigrants.

Given that the Trump administration was already ensuring that federal workers who carry guns get paid, why not make sure that all Americans have access to a truly staggering amount of unnecessary firepower in their private lives?