And we put resources into allowing law enforcement to actually knock on the doors of people who were on two lists. A list where they had been found by a court to be a danger to themselves and others, and were on a list where they were precluded and prohibited from owning a gun because of a conviction. That prohibited that ownership. And those lists were combined, and then we sent law enforcement out to take those guns. Because, listen, we have to deal with this on all levels. But we have to do this with a sense of urgency and have to act enough with the talk.

And again, I really have to stress. Lawful gun ownership, that is one thing. We’re talking about something else. And we have to stop conflating and blending all these issues because they are separate and they are different. And the bottom line is this. Our children should not be in fear of going to a community festival or going to school or going with their parents shopping on a Saturday afternoon. And in fear that there’s going to be some mass shooters shooting up the place. And let’s talk about assault weapons for a moment. Assault weapons are weapons of war.

Be clear about this. Assault weapons are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. There is no reason that they should exist on the streets of a civil society. Yeah, those assault weapons are actually to defend against tyranny in the actions that you’re actually trying to take and you’re speaking about taking right now. You see, you’re actually running for the presidency of a corporation, basically the CEO, okay? The power resides in each state’s constitution and then deeper than that’s in the people. See, the reason why you’ve never taken our weapons before is because you cannot take our weapons.

It is against all laws, against all universal rights, against all human rights. You cannot touch our weapons. And as soon as you do, the Second Amendment instructs everybody in the United States of America what to do next. So Ms. Kamala Harris, you’re either a treasonous scumbag or you just don’t know. Either way, you shouldn’t be running for the position you’re running in. Good evening from New York. I’m Chris Hayes, hundreds of armed demonstrators faced off with the federal government in southern Nevada over the weekend. And the federal government blinked. The battle of big government versus the rancher.

It’s big government versus the rancher and Mr. Lundy is not backing down. When push comes to shove, when it comes to the constitution, folks aren’t going to back down. I’ll be honest, we saw what happened at Waco and the Branch Davidians. I’m concerned. Right now, the biggest story is the face-off between federal agents and this man, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. America better wake up if we’re going to live in this country with any kind of freedom and liberty. Mr. Bundy owns around 500 head of cattle. They’ve grazed on this plot of land in southern Nevada for decades.

But Bundy doesn’t own that land. The federal government does. And in order to graze cattle on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, you have to pay land use fees. Bundy stopped paying those fees in 1993. He now owes the government over $1 million. You see, Bundy doesn’t think the federal government owns the land. In fact, he doesn’t recognize the federal government at all. I abide by all of Nevada state laws, but I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing. The courts disagree with Mr. Bundy’s reading of the constitution and have ordered him to pay for his use of the land like every other rancher does.

Last year, a federal district court ruled that the BLM was entitled to seize and remove Bundy’s cattle. It owes the American people $1 million because he has not obeyed the laws. Earlier this month, the BLM started rounding up some of Bundy’s cattle that illegally graze on federal lands. No BLM! No BLM! On Wednesday, a confrontation between Bundy family members and supporters and federal rangers went viral. The feds say officers were assaulted and a police dog was kicked. While Bundy family members allege they were thrown to the ground and also tased. We have always said that we will do whatever it takes.

We’ve never defined that. And I think that’s one of the reasons they’re here with such a course is they’re scared of us. Within days, Bundy became a symbol of the fight against an out of control federal government. We need guns to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government. Hundreds of states’ rights protesters flock to Bunkerville, Nevada to support Bundy. Many of them aren’t. I’m willing to lay my life down. The group shut down several lanes of a Nevada interstate and engaged in tense negotiations with federal law enforcement. Protesters flooded this federal holding pen area, aiming to release Cliven Bundy’s cattle.

First you back up off the gate for right now, we’ll be working with you and you. You two to come in with me. That’s it. It’s the people, a lot, and you guys need to leave. They’ll push these people back so they can do its thing. Federal officers tried to bring the Bundys over the line to negotiate. Give you my honest word right here, I’m going to walk you so you can negotiate with your father up top. Walking past armed BLM rangers, the Bundy started talks about releasing the cattle and combing the crowds. But what I need you to do is to keep this crowd calm, above and below.

After a days-long standoff with federal authorities, Cliven Bundy won the day. I only want to talk to one person in each county across the United States, and here’s what I want to say. County Sheriff, disarm U.S. bureaucracy. The sheriff is your most important ally in the securing of your rights. Because your sheriff is not a hireling of the state, not a hireling of your county. Your sheriff is a constitutionally elected representative of the people. It is his duty by oath to secure your rights. It is not his duty to blindly enforce the law. If there is one office that you can take back control of to secure your rights, it’s this one.

Because your sheriff is the highest authority in your county. Your sheriff has an authority to deny enforcement of laws, state or federal or local, that do not secure your rights or work contrary to your rights. This is Sheriff Brad Rogers from Elkhart, Indiana. He stood up to the federal government. He got sick and tired of the federal government. The FDA and the USDA coming in and raiding his Amish farmers in the middle of the night, trying to seize their weapons of mass destruction. You know, raw milk and cheese. He wrote a letter to the FDA and the USDA and told them that if they stepped foot in his county one more time, without first coming to him and seeking his permission, that those agencies would have to come bail their agents out of jail because he was going to arrest them for trespassing.

And since the day of that letter, they have never had another problem with the USDA or the FDA because the federal government knows the sheriff is the highest authority in the county. That’s why they’re always trying to co-opt them. That’s why your sheriff’s departments are always being offered free toys and training and mutual jurisdiction agreements and, ooh, we’ll let you wear our badge if you let us wear yours. It’s bribery, it’s extortion, it’s trickery. We’re the sheriff who relinquishes a policy to a lower power because you realize your elected representatives will do a lot of things when you’re not looking, right? But they will never do what you want them to do.

They will never do what you really need them to do, not to provide you with welfare and homes and health care, but to provide you with the security, the ability to secure your own rights. They will never do that unless you expect it and you demand it. This weekend, the BLM started to release Bundy’s cattle and suspended their operation, citing safety concerns. In the meantime, Bundy has been elevated to hero status out in Nevada today. Federal agents are pointing rifles at American citizens in an escalation of a standoff over a man who, for 20 years, has grazed his cattle on some land that the state owns.

A man who spent time in prison for the 2014 Bunkerville standoff is now suing the U.S. government and federal prosecutors, Todd Engel, seeking $100 million in damages in his civil rights and conspiracy complaint. Back in 2018, all charges were dropped against him and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. A federal judge found prosecutorial misconduct. [tr:trw].