Tombstone, Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Election Day for the critical 2022 mid-term elections is November 8, 2022, but Early Voting has already begun in many states. That means that many of your friends and neighbors could be casting their ballots as you read this.
So what have you done, what are you doing, and what are you going to do, to guard and protect your rights in this election? What can you do?
Let’s start with some simple facts: The US operates under a two-party system. While we’d like to see third-party candidates get elected and shake up the status quo, that very rarely happens and requires some very special circumstances. I won’t claim that a vote for a third-party candidate is a “wasted vote,” as some like to say, but I will say that those votes are usually less effective than direct votes for Democrats or Republicans.
Between the two major parties, the choice for GunVoters is very clear;
Democrats have made gun control a key plank in their official party platform and a major campaign issue.
While Republicans have a strong statement of support for gun owner rights in their official party platform. The words in the platforms don’t mean that all Democrats support all gun control, and it certainly doesn’t mean that all Republicans are strong supporters of gun owner rights, but in broad terms, Republicans are pro-gun, and Democrats are anti-gun.
The division plays out most significantly in the balance of power in Congress and state legislatures. If there is a Democratic majority in a legislative body, that means they control the committees and the floor. They decide what bills are heard or buried. And you can bet your mortgage there will be an active push for more gun control.
With a Republican majority, Republicans will control the floor and set the legislative agenda. While Republicans have historically been disappointing in their failure to push pro-rights legislation, and some of their members have some pretty blatantly anti-rights positions, significant gun control is much less likely to advance under a Republican majority.
What this all means for GunVoters, is that in the big picture, we are always faced with a uniparty choice of “Very Bad” and “Less Bad.”
In some races in some jurisdictions, the choice might be between “Very Bad” and “Very Bad,” or “Very Bad” and “Even Worse,” but even in a race between a “moderate, pro-gun Democrat,” (Do these actually exist anymore?) and a “liberal, anti-gun Republican,” (These definitely exist.) the big picture always demands that GunVoters support the Republican. Not because that individual candidate is the best in the race BUT because that candidate could mean the difference between a Democratic majority and a Republican majority. Consider Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania.
That can be a hard pill to swallow, but that’s an extreme and rather unlikely scenario. More often, it’s a choice between an anti-gun Democrat and an anti-gun Republican, which is easier to justify. But even if there were a case as described above, say between former Senator Max Baucus (a nominally pro-gun Democrat from Montana). Former Senator Mark Kirk (a vocally anti-gun Republican from Illinois), the overriding factor that GunVoters should be looking at in the General Election is not where the individual candidates stand but how their election would impact the balance of power in the Senate. A vote for Democrat Max Baucus in this hypothetical race would also be a vote for Chuck Schumer (vociferously anti-gun Democrat from New York) to be the Senate Majority Leader. That’s critical to remember.
With a closely divided House and Senate, the game is not chess nor even checkers, it’s a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Block your opponent from gaining squares that will give his team an advantage. While I am not at all thrilled with Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Senate Majority Leader, having him in that chair is inestimably better than another two years of Chuck Schumer in control.
Now that we’re through the Primaries and into the General Election, it’s not about Blake Masters, Mehmet Oz, or Herschel Walker, it’s about Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
It’s All About Guaranteeing a Red Wave in November. So what can you do?
As my mother always said: “If you can’t say something nice about the Republican, say something negative about the Democrat.”
Make it a point to take every opportunity to remind people that it’s Democrats who got us where we are today and who are dedicated to radical gun control. Hot-button issues in your state might vary, but choose the issue that will have the most powerful effect on the people you’re talking to. In Arizona, you can point out that Mark Kelly founded a radical gun control organization that spends millions of dollars to push extremist legislation and support radical, leftist politicians who will advance that anti-rights agenda. But you don’t have to focus only on gun rights. In Kelly’s case, it’s worth mentioning that he voted the Biden party line 100% in his first year and 97% in his second. He’s trying to paint himself as some kind of maverick among Democrats, but his voting record says he’s right on board with Schumer and Biden.
Voting has already started, and if Democrats retain their majorities – slim as they might be – it will be painted as a mandate from the voters to push their agenda even harder, including more attacks on our rights. So we must do everything we can to ensure that every gun owner and every American who cares about liberty understands what’s at stake and casts a ballot.
GunVoters have the power to shift elections – if we stand up and get involved. Stockpiling ammo and making bug-out plans is fine, but putting at least as much effort into trying to avoid the need for those plans is much more practical and productive.
Work now to win the fight to avoid the fight. The time to take a stand is now.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father, Neal Knox, led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs, and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists through education, analysis of current issues, and a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona, and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.