U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “It’s not an intellectual issue,” Democrat presidential contender and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said of the citizen disarmament edicts being trial-ballooned Wednesday, in one of the few truthful statements made at the deceptively-framed “gun safety forum” in Las Vegas. He’s got that right—the entire con depends on suspending rational thought, not to mention the Constitution, and spooking the collective herd exploiting emotions of outrage, prejudice, and fear. With that in mind, doing the blood dance to time with the second anniversary of the Mandalay Bay murders was a masterpiece of mass manipulation.
“The forum, sponsored by two gun control organizations [Giffords, March for Our Lives] and MSNBC, was intended as a platform for a policy discussion,” The New York Times expounded. They could have just said “three gun control organizations,” but evidently wanted to perpetuate the myth among the ill-informed that an objective media was there to play honest broker.
“Nine candidates [Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang] participated in the forum, and the party’s increasingly unified support for strict gun control measures, which once splintered Democrats along regional and ideological lines, was on full display,” the account continues. Talk about an understatement. The mask is off, and even though some candidates have tried to distance themselves from Beto O’Rourke’s “Hell yes” enthusiasm for confiscation, all of the Intolerable Acts being put forward would move the “long train of abuses” closer to the end of the line.
So the slap fight between Beto, Mayor Pete and Castro 2.0 over mandatory vs. voluntary “assault weapon buybacks” was more one of how much to bite off now than of ultimate philosophical differences. And that’s where Pete Buttigieg showed he’s on the same page as the Republican “leadership”:
“We can get background checks done now,” he said. “We can get red flag laws done now.”
Those are precisely what GOP sellouts have been proffering under the false premise that if we don’t preemptively surrender on those fronts, the Democrats will do something really, really bad to gun owners. And most of those voters have signaled back there will be no real political cost for disarmament bills as long as they’re “bipartisan.”
“Politics is the art of the possible,” those who counsel compromise have been repeating for years. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
To paraphrase Bill Clinton lying under oath, that depends upon what the meaning of the word “good” is. And how those who refuse to draw a line in the sand or push any envelopes would know what is possible remains unstated.
To paraphrase another memorable line, we’re in it now, up to our necks. And Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio et al. offering up our rights like they’re bargaining chips only serves to take the fire out of the bellies of gun voters at a time they need to be stoked, instead.
The only way to do that is if, instead of wasting their bully pulpits on surrender signaling, they use media attention to vigorously champion the right of the people to keep and bear arms. That includes being able to explain why it’s more relevant than ever to those who may have only looked at the issue before through the manipulated lens of emotion. And that presupposes the politicos understand themselves and haven’t just been mouthing platitudes to fit with the attitudes of their bases, meaning their “convictions” are malleable and have been more barometers than benchmarks.
Like it or not, here’s a truth we all have to face: Some gun owners are sick of betrayals, and are threatening to give up on voting and prep for “the inevitable.” On the flip side, if gun owners who aren’t ready for what that will bring don’t join forces and give it their all to keep Democrats out of power, a legislative nightmare the likes of which we’ve never seen will begin. And it will probably be irreversible, as turning the “pathway to citizenship” into a superhighway for an overwhelmingly anti-gun foreign demographic is the other major priority that will be secured once there’s no longer any need to wear masks of moderation.
Articles like this never seem to run short of strongly opinionated, often angry comments. How about sharing yours with President Trump, the GOP, and your Republican representatives, and put them on notice to stop acting like Democrats Lite?
Then go ahead and watch that gaggle of oath-breakers reveal how much of their totalitarian agendas they’re willing to let slip — for now:
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.