Opinion
Colorado/United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Last year, we discussed the threat that the National Popular Vote Compact poses to the Second Amendment. Well, that threat has increased a bit with Colorado signing on, making it a total of 12 states and the District of Colombia – comprising a total of 170 electoral votes.
This means that a major threat to the Second Amendment is not that far off.
Delaware, with three electoral votes, is reportedly considering joining this compact as well. Both states were controlled by a party that has lost two Presidential elections in the last decade despite having won the national popular vote. In both cases, California was where they ran up the huge margins.
In 2000, Al Gore, who had called for the licensing of handgun owners, won the popular vote by about 500,000 – aided by a 1.3 million vote margin in California. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 popular vote margin of 2.9 million was aided by winning California by 4.3 million votes. California – where just about any anti-Second Amendment scheme gets passed into law.
We have the Electoral College to thank for keeping those anti-Second Amendment extremists out of the Oval Office. It fulfilled its purpose. The Founders of this country wanted to ensure that no one state could have the power to flip the entire country in a completely different direction.
This same principle was why the Senate was set up for equal representation – so that Wyoming or South Dakota had a forum where they would be on equal footing with California. What upsets many anti-Second Amendment extremists is the fact that America was never meant to be a pure democracy. It was meant to have safeguards against the type of passionate rush to deprive people of their rights we just saw in New Zealand, in Australia in 1996, and elsewhere. It was having enough senators to maintain a filibuster that saved us from a permanent ban on modern multi-purpose semi-automatic rifles (not to mention pistols and shotguns).
The fact of the matter remains that this compact remains a threat – one that is looming. The next time anti-Second Amendment extremists seize control of a state legislature and governorship, they will try to pass this with the goal of making it easier for California to effectively have all the say in a Presidential election. We could see a legalization of such tactics as “ballot harvesting” to help states like California, Illinois, and New York – all of which are controlled at the present time by anti-Second Amendment extremists in both their legislative and executive branches – proceed to rack up a decisive popular vote margin.
Don’t believe me? Look at H.R. 1, the so-called “For the People” act that passed the House of Representatives earlier this year. This 706-page monstrosity is intended to effectively rig the system against Second Amendment supporters. Thankfully, it won’t pass for now, but it does mean that Second Amendment supporters must maintain their vigilance.
But all of our eggs cannot be placed into just thwarting the National Popular Vote Compact and bills like HR 1. Second Amendment supporters expand their outreach to areas they normally don’t go, and that groups like the NRA and GOA must start hiring good translators. If not, then the National Popular Vote could be the eventual death blow for efforts to defend the Second Amendment.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.