How does a Beltway bureaucrat set the stage for taking away our constitutional rights? Claim it’s a “public health emergency” and then — voila — no more rights. At least that’s what appears to be the perspective of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who in a CNN interview over the weekend elected to weigh in on the Second Amendment by expressing such sentiments.

When asked if he believes that “gun violence” is a public health emergency, Fauci answered, “Myself, as a public health person, I think you can’t run away from that. I mean, when you see people getting killed — I mean, in this last month it’s just been horrifying what’s happened. How can you say that’s not a public health issue?” Easily — by not expanding the term of health beyond its current definition.

But this was just one of the more recent instances of Fauci expressing an authoritarian instinct while at the same time disingenuously hiding behind the dubious claim that he doesn’t weigh in on “what the government can do in a forceful way.” Last week in a congressional hearing, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) observed, “Well, you make all kinds of recommendations. You make comments on dating, on baseball, on everything you can imagine.” And that list now includes gun rights.

Dr. “I’m Not a Politician” Fauci is clearly singing the Democrats’ political tune. Note that Joe Biden is pushing for more limits on Americans’ Second Amendment rights while calling “gun violence … an epidemic in America.”

Following the excessive crackdown on our freedoms via the “need” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Biden and company see an opportunity to couch their anti-Second Amendment agenda in the language of a “health emergency,” and thereby justify trampling our liberties.