Fake Pro-Gun Group Endorses Fake Pro-Gun Candidate
By Chad D. Baus
Pro-gun groups have been trying to sound the alarm about Barack Obama’s extreme anti-gun record since his Presidential campaign began. While his record includes opposing letting people use a self-defense argument if charged with violating local handgun bans by using weapons in their homes, and being a member of the Joyce Foundation (which provides groups like the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence hundreds of thousands of dollars to use in their fight to destroy your gun rights), Obama’s campaign lip service as been all about his supposed support for gun rights.
Obama’s true beliefs about gun owners were exposed for more Americans recently when he described small town Midwesterners as “bitter”. “They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” Obama snidely told a group of San Francisco donors.
It is clear to gun owners who are paying attention that this man cannot be trusted to uphold the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But for those who are less involved in the political process, Obama’s “pro-gun” charade is likely working, just as a certain “hunters and shooters” group has succeeded in convincing some gun owners that they support the Second Amendment.
But when the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) endorsed Barack Obama for President, they finally took a step that should expose both the organization and Obama to even the most disconnected gun owner.
In 2005, John Lott posted a story (sourcing another weblog) about a new anti-gun gun group masquerading as a pro-gun rights group. From the article:
By creating this made up group called The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), who will inevitably be used in future Democrat led anti gun campaigns in the near future as so called 'expert' witnesses or a 'sane' voice of sportsmen - just so the anti gun democrats can grandstand for gun control non-issues via their willing accomplishes in the press. I'd imagine the closer we get to the '08' presidential election the more (AHSA) will be in the news.
In our own coverage at the time, we wrote that while the cat was out of the bag on the Democratic Leadership Council's (DLC) phony pro gun group, it was clear that the mainstream "news" media would work to perpetuate the image that AHSA is a pro-gun rights group. Indeed they have. And despite the fact that the leadership of AHSA has a long history of spitting on the Second Amendment, some gun owners have been fooled.
According to the NRA-ILA, AHSA president Ray Schoenke has a long history of giving political donations to some of the nations most anti-gun politicians, including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and Ted Kennedy. In 2000, Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign) and the Ray and Holly Schoenke Foundation also made donations to the Brady Campaign. AHSA Board member John Rosenthal remains the leader of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts anti-gun group. And one of the leading organizers of AHSA is Bob Ricker, who has served as a paid expert witness against gun manufacturers in a number of reckless lawsuits. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Last month, the Fake Pro-Gun Group found a match made in heaven in Barack Obama, the Fake Pro-Gun Candidate, and endorsed his candidacy for President. From the NRA-ILA:
In a statement on the AHSA website titled “Obama: He ‘gets it,’” Schoenke announced the endorsement, saying that Senator Obama’s voting record has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the Second Amendment! Are you kidding? Obama’s hostility toward the Second Amendment is so well known and well documented that in the 2004 elections, NRA’s Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) issued Obama a well-deserved “F” grade. Obama is anti-gun. Period. And no amount of sugar coating or spin by AHSA will change that fact.
The AHSA statement closes with the line, “Senator Obama will be a strong and authentic voice for America’s hunters and shooters and it is with great pleasure that we endorse his candidacy.” While typical of the rhetoric coming out of AHSA, that line is nothing less than ridiculous.
AHSA would be more correctly called the “American Association for the Protection of Anti-Gun Politicians.” No gun owner or sportsman should take the group seriously or fall prey to its carefully crafted lies and deceptions, as clearly demonstrated by their endorsement of Barack Obama.
Related Links:
SportsmenforObama.org
Obama; No Gun Shops Within Five Miles of Schools; Porn Shops Okay
Barack Obama's Second Amendment is all about hunting and target shooting
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