The Pro-Gun Rights Movement: The Tea Party before the Tea Party

by Gerard Valentino

Quite often when a pro-gun advocate brings up the gun issue, politically-astute friends roll their eyes and try to shut down debate. It could be because many gun owners are single-minded, or because some of the right, including many Republicans, realize they missed the boat on the issue.

We can't forget, however, that the gun movement was the precursor to the Tea Party and to the anti-big government backlash in America today.

Now, word has leaked out that President Obama is going to address the nation on gun control and he is sure to try and divide the political right over the issue by claiming that reasonable gun control is the key to unity on the issue. The problem is that President Obama's definition of "reasonable" is a total ban on the private ownership of firearms, such as has existed in his hometown of Chicago. Another problem is far too many Republicans are unwilling to admit that the gun issue is key to their electoral success.

President Obama's message is sure to include a statement that all Americans can unite behind the quest to keep criminals, the mentally ill and others from easily obtaining a gun. To be honest, such a message seems reasonable and seems like a policy that makes perfect sense. The problem is that, in practice, the gun control advocates have always used reasonable gun control as a way to destroy the rights of law abiding citizens.

A key to the success of gun control is for the mainstream media to portray gun owners as far right wing cranks who are driven by a fear of government and living on the fringes of society. By marginalizing the unreasonable gun nuts, anti-gun advocates will claim everyone else can clearly see the value of reasonable gun control and can come together in a spirit of compromise.

Such a tactic is familiar to anyone affiliated with the Tea Party movement, who are also equated with the far right fringe by the elitist left and mainstream media. Sadly, many in the Republican Party see gun owners and Tea Party supporters the same way - as a sideshow taking the focus away from so-called mainstream issues.

Now that President Obama is gearing up to once again go after guns, and the pro-gun movement, he is likely to claim the pro-gun lobby is too big and too powerful on one hand, and then claim gun owners are a small fringe minority on the other hand. Arguing both sides of an issue is nothing new to anti-gun zealots who have thrown every crazed theory about guns at the wall over the years in a vain attempt to see what will stick.

The fear, now that the president is involved, is that Republican leaders will desert the pro-gun faction like they did during the fight over the Clinton Gun Ban. We've already seen Republican leaders throw the Tea Party organizations under the bus when politically necessary, and based on past actions we know they will do the same to gun advocates.

That might not seem so bad to moderate Republicans and non-gun owners, because they think it might benefit the remaining Republican agenda to cast the Tea Party and gun owners aside. Some gun owners feel the same and are willing to sacrifice handguns and other evil looking guns to save their shotgun or target guns.

But, just as the anti-gun groups will not stop with handguns and so-called assault weapons, the left will not stop when Tea Party groups and gun owners are no longer part of the political world.

Once they divide and conquer the Tea Party and gun groups they will go after the moderate Republicans as well.

To think otherwise is to live in a dream.

Gerard Valentino is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors and the author of "The Valentino Chronicles – Observations of a Middle Class Conservative," available through the Buckeye Firearms Association store.