Obama and Guns: How We Win

By Gerard Valentino

So, as believers in the civil right to bear arms, where do we go now that the most anti-gun president in history takes office in January?

To be fair, for us, nothing changes. We simply attack this problem as aggressively as we attacked the Clinton administration and the Republicans who turned their back on us and voted for the Joe Biden-authored 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. We stand up and force the elected officials to consider the danger to their future electoral viability if they try to take our guns.

Our job is to remind them of the Democrats bounced out of office after the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban passed. We need to remind them of Al Gore losing his home state of Tennessee in 2000 due to his willingness to take our guns, and we need to remind them that John Kerry lost in 2004 largely because of his stance on gun rights.

President Elect Barack Obama did a great job of convincing people who haven’t been paying attention that he isn’t anti-gun. Well, those of us in the movement know better. But, his duplicitous campaign does us a lot of good going forward. If Obama comes for our guns, all the pro-gun voters who were tricked and voted for him will help our cause. They are likely to feel burned by his glad-handing ways.

Our biggest cause for optimism is Obama’s election year lie about his support for gun rights. The backlash he will likely experience if he tries to change that tune is likely to get him, and all the pro-gun politicians who told us he wouldn’t come for our guns, booted from office.

Each day, we need to make sure all the people who promised us we have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency know we will hold their feet to the fire, just like his.

Many of our pro-gun friends in Ohio and the Federal Government went a long way in making sportsmen believe Obama is our friend – he isn’t and never will be. But, through keeping the heat on our friends who supported him we can make a difference.

We know better about Obama, he is anti-gun - his limited record is clear on that issue. Instead, we will hold our pro-gun friends who vouched for him accountable. It won’t be easy to turn on our friends if Obama turns on us, but they made their bed when they threw their lot in with him. There is no going back now. They are on the hot seat and better hope Obama keeps their promise not to destroy gun rights.

They are who will answer the call if Obama goes back on the promise they made to gun owners and pro-gun voters during the 2008 campaign. Our friends knew better than to throw their future in with the most anti-gun candidate in United State’s history. Now, it’s incumbent upon them to force Obama to keep their election promise to us.

Our cause took a back seat in this election because people were duped into believing that Obama isn’t going to take our guns and has the answers for America’s problems. Whether he is the answer remains to be seen, although many argue his brand of socialism will only drive our country deeper into recession. Regardless, people either ignored Obama’s anti-gun record or let the rhetoric fool them into a false sense of security over the gun issue.

There were darker times in the pro-gun movement over the years. The Clinton years were particularly dangerous to the Second Amendment and there were plenty of Republicans who voted in the anti-gun camp to blame, as well as the Democrats. Both parties have to desert us for damage to the pro-gun movement to take place. We can’t forget the Republicans will have to turn their back on us and refuse to use the filibuster for any meaningful anti-gun legislation to pass.

Yet, it isn’t the Republicans who tricked pro-gun voters into supporting an anti-gun candidate. Luckily, the pro-gun relationship with our friends on the left is pretty secure. They wouldn’t lead us down the wrong road because, like those before them, they fear the electoral backlash that will occur.

Desperate economic times caused America to decide, for reasons other than guns, that Obama is the answer to our problems. There is nothing we can do about his willingness to lie his way into office. Some people are willing to believe his words instead of looking at his past actions.

But, all we have to do is look at our struggle in Ohio to realize we can win when anti-gun politicians try to trick gun owners.

Nobody believed concealed carry in Ohio could become a reality – it did.

Nobody believed we could get the law improved over the promise of then Governor Taft’s veto – we did with the passage of HB347.

Nobody believed a sweeping pro-gun law could be passed over the objections of the Fraternal Order of Police – it happened in the form of SB184.

Don’t be discouraged, the pro-gun movement had other dark times.

We will go on from here because we are right, we are just in our cause, and we are in the mainstream of voting Americans.

We will go on from here because that is what Americans do.

We fight for our beliefs and understand the government doesn’t give us our rights, they were given by the Creator. Instead, all we can do is protect our rights from usurpation by the government.

We will fight if they come for our guns – and we will win.

Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Secretary and writes for the ValentinoChronicle.com.