Trump win means tone-deaf anti-gun groups vow to double down
Underscoring their ideological stubbornness in the wake of electoral repudiation, some gun prohibition lobbying groups are vowing to “double down” their efforts to push through more restrictive gun control laws following the reelection of Donald Trump as president, along with handing him a Republican Senate majority.
According to ABC News, Kris Brown, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Trump’s reelection is “deeply troubling for our safety and freedom from gun violence.” Brown wasn’t quite so vocal about gun-related violence resulting from policies of the Biden-Harris administration, which included leaving the border open to many dangerous illegal immigrants.
The Brady Campaign is named after the late James Brady, who served as president Ronald Reagan’s press secretary before being severely wounded in the attempted assassination of Reagan not long after he took office.
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Brown seemed to blame Trump for some of the gun-related violent crimes occurring during his presidency, including the Las Vegas massacre in October 2017, and the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
But in those cases, both killers had passed background checks. Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock had legally purchased several firearms over a lengthy period, passing background checks in the process. Florida high school killer Nikolas Cruz legally bought the rifle and was known to local law enforcement in Parkland, and he had been prohibited from being on the high school campus.
Trump’s policies were not responsible for either incident, since both killers had obtained their guns under existing gun control laws, passed several years ago. Earlier in the campaign, ABC News revealed a poll that showed Trump trailing Harris when it came to the question of which would be better able to handle gun related violence.
The reaction from anti-gun-rights groups to Trump’s election underscores the fact these organizations are guided as much (or more) by partisan politics as an actual desire to reduce crime. The gun prohibition lobby always fares better with Democrats in office, reinforcing their image as the “party of gun control.” On Capitol Hill, Democrats have been pushing gun control legislation and policies for decades.
According to ABC News, Harris led Trump by 5 points in the poll on the question of ability to “handle gun violence.” Translation: Harris would call for additional gun controls while Trump would not, especially considering that he didn’t after being shot by a would-be assassin this past summer in Pennsylvania.
By no small coincidence, gun control proponent Maggiy Emery wrote in the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week that her state needs an office similar to the one created by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris a year ago. The soon-to-be-dismantled White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention — for which there does not appear to be any evidence it ever prevented a single gun-related violent crime — would be the model for the Minnesota effort, Emery indicated.
In her op-ed, Emery argued in favor of a state gun violence prevention office that would:
- centralize coordination and implementation of state gun control laws
- create data-driven policies allowing the collection of data on gun-related deaths and injuries
- provide financial and technical support to community organizations
- support local communities by providing “rapid response to acts of gun violence”
What is a “rapid response” to which Ms. Emery refers? Would it involve organizing a candlelight vigil with speakers calling for more gun restrictions, while television film crews looked on?
The ABC News report stated, “During his victorious campaign, Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, voiced opposition to most of Biden’s executive orders to combat the scourge that the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found to be the leading cause of death in the United States for adolescents under the age of 19 for three straight years.”
Could it be the reason Trump and Vance oppose Biden’s measures is because they don’t work? Anti-gun Democrats — Biden and Harris included — simply refuse to acknowledge their strategies have failed, and according to Second Amendment activists, it is because they are philosophically blind to one inescapable truth: Criminals do not obey gun laws.
The gun prohibition lobby’s mindset of denial can be seen in how it describes itself: They are “gun violence prevention groups.” Crime data suggests they haven’t prevented anything. Criminals still get guns, people are still being murdered, and even when guns aren’t involved, they’re using other weapons. Annual crime data invariably shows more people are fatally stabbed in any given year than are killed with either rifles of any kind, or shotguns. They are fatally beaten or strangled, or killed with blunt objects.
The problem isn’t guns; it’s dangerously violent people, usually with criminal records, who are not in prisons or mental institutions because of the policies of the same people who lobby against gun rights.
So this fight will continue, even with Trump’s return to the White House, and with a friendly GOP-controlled Congress.
It was best summed up by Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, while referencing Trump’s Election Day victory.
Noting that Trump didn’t immediately call for more gun control after surviving an assassin’s bullet by fractions of an inch, Gottlieb stated, “despite his wound, he refused to call for more gun control, and encouraged his supporters to fight. And that is exactly what we intend to do, because the right to keep and bear arms is what protects this nation from tyranny, and frustrates the enemies of liberty.”
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