United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Media reports that Jimenez Arms is going to have its FFL revoked after litigation by Everytown should have every Second Amendment supporter worried. What it exposes is a not-so-new threat that could render any potential Supreme Court victory moot.
Note how Everytown was able to buy up the assets of Jimenez Arms, and then have the complete inventory scrapped.
Do you think they will stop at Jimenez Arms? To be honest, I think every loyal Ammoland reader knows they’ll go for other firearm manufacturers, just as there is no way Letitia James would have stopped at the NRA if she hadn’t been defeated.
You don’t have to like the management and ownership of Jimenez Arms, which was a successor of sorts to Bryco Arms. If the allegations from Bloomberg are true (a very big if, given that we know anti-Second Amendment extremists are not always truthful), these were folks who, at a minimum did not reflect well on the Second Amendment community in the best-case scenario.
It should be noted that the elected officials who joined Everytown seemed to not place blame on the federal government for enforcing current laws against “trafficking” guns. The types of sentences that could be wielded against those who provide any sort of gun, be it one from Jimenez Arms or a Glock or even a flashy Kimber, are quite lengthy indeed and have been for a long time.
That being said, Jimenez Arms filled a crucial and underappreciated niche for the Second Amendment community: They provided an affordable way for people on a tight budget to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Not everyone can plop down $1,600 for a Kimber Desert Warrior, even without the threat of financial deplatforming.
A Jimenez Arms JA9, on the other hand, retailed for $199 per the Blue Book of Gun Values. The difference in the prices of the two semi-automatic handguns is about what some people pay for rent (or a mortgage) in a month. This, of course, is just the initial investment for someone who wishes to be truly responsible in exercising their Second Amendment rights.
It might not seem like a big deal to loyal Ammoland readers, but for many of those suffering in big cities with high crime, affordable self-defense options are crucial. Yeah, there are other options for personal protection – both firearms and non-firearms – but the hard truth is that if firearms are only affordable for the richest in society, then the Second Amendment is headed for a lingering death in practice, even if the courts invalidate all sorts of bans.
Addressing this threat is not going to be easy.
Part of it is being to be defeating anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local level. That task, though, would be a lot easier if far more Americans had skin in the game, and to do that, affordable options for exercising one’s Second Amendment rights are crucial.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.