Leftists have long played with definitions. As the late, great Rush Limbaugh astutely noted, they employ this underhanded redefinition tactic in an effort to confuse and convince Americans to embrace their incessant push for greater expansion of the government. The latest example comes from Joe Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced that the healthcare agency would be restarting a “gun violence” research program in an effort to better address America’s “epidemic” of firearms-related injuries and deaths.

“Something has to be done about this,” Walensky stated. “Now is the time — it’s pedal to the metal time.” The criminal use of firearms is made to “fit” under the purview of a bureaucracy intended to combat communicable diseases by stretching the word “disease” far beyond its original and commonly understood definition to include volitional human behavior.

Due to the propensity toward this underhanded abuse of language, and thanks to efforts by the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment defenders, Congress passed the Dicky Amendment in 1996 to specifically prevent the federal funding of “gun control” research. Firearm-related criminal activity falls squarely under the purview of law enforcement, not healthcare officials. The Dicky Amendment was explicitly designed to prevent government support of the anti-gun lobby, which endeavors to erode Americans’ Second Amendment rights under the guise of promoting public health.

Walensky is taking advantage of the COVID pandemic and government’s broad power grab to pull a fast one against Americans’ constitutional rights. “The scope of the problem is just bigger than we’re even hearing about, and when your heart wrenches every day you turn on the news, you’re only hearing the tip of the iceberg,” she declared. She then asserted, “We haven’t spent the time, energy, and frankly the resources to understand this problem because it’s been so divided.”

It’s so divided because the CDC should have nothing to do with researching firearms, which are neither a “disease” nor a “healthcare” issue. Firearms are simply tools; they are not viruses, nor are they germs, nor are they psychoses. Walensky has no business attempting to classify them as such. Her expansion of the CDC’s role goes beyond the pale, and it needs to be addressed for the egregious overstep that it is.

We can help the CDC cut to the chase regarding the so-called “disease” of “gun violence” — it doesn’t exist. What does exist are criminals engaged in criminal activity, quite often trafficking illicit drugs, using guns. Guns don’t make criminals of individuals; choices do. If everyone obeyed the law, would there be any “gun violence” to speak of? The obvious answer is no.