U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The Socialists and their donors decided to push gun control and firearms confiscation. That didn’t turn out quite the way they planned. Our culture is changing faster than our politics and our politicians can follow. Public perception is changing more rapidly than polls can record opinions and faster than the media can spin their agenda.
There was a lot of spin. Leftists groups put on a very large public relations presentation. MoveOn and Bloomberg helped pay for it. About 10 percent of the marchers in DC were actually were under 18 years old. Most of those teens were bussed in from Democrat controlled cities. In contrast, 70 percent of the marchers were women recycled from the Women’s march against Trump. Their average age was 49 years old. 89 percent reported voting for Hillary. Firearms were a secondary issue after their disdain for Trump.
What was sold as a youth movement against violence was really a plastic surgery facelift for old leftists causes. Of course, you didn’t hear that from the mainstream news.
We heard quite a change in tone from the gun prohibitionists. Gone was the veil of “sensible gun-safety regulation”. Marchers held signs saying “Fuck the NRA” while politicians called the NRA a terrorists organization, (though a unique terrorist organization since crime falls when the NRA convention comes to town.)
There was something strange that didn’t happen, and it was conspicuous by its absence. The FBI failed in many of our recent mass murders, yet I couldn’t find a single sign at the march telling the FBI to do its job. Today, the big-state gun prohibitionists are calling to abolish the Second Amendment. They want to ban firearms and take them, “Yes, I’ll take them from your cold dead hands.” Big government fascists don’t need to be kind anymore. Not with billionaire bucks funding their media events. They want only the government to have guns, a government that they control.
The rest of us drew very different conclusions after these last mass murders. We noticed the string of government failures.
The Air Force failed before the murders in a Southland, Texas church. They failed to report a domestic abuser, a man jailed for assault and battery. The USAF didn’t report him to the federal background check system even though he should have been a prohibited person and unable to buy a firearm. Their failure contributed to the avoidable deaths of 26 men, women, and children.
We saw the police and FBI fail again in Parkland, Florida. They ignored repeated reports of criminal activity. Law enforcement officers and schools officials are required to report crimes they see. Instead, they turned their back and refused to turn in the young man who became a violent murder. Political correctness was more important than people’s lives. Political correctness lead to the deaths of another 17 people. These officials turned their back on all of us..just as the school resource officers turned their back on Parkland students once the shooting started. Broward County, you voted for that.
The rest of us got engaged rather than walk away. We changed our minds and we changed our behavior. We protect ourselves regardless of what our thought leaders say. We supported the NRA and Second Amendment Foundation..a lot. Donations to the NRA tripled. I have unconfirmed reports that NRA membership jumped up by about 25 percent, though some of those memberships may be from former members who let their membership lapse. I can confirm that 18 to 21 year olds joined the Second Amendment Foundation at 10 times their usual rate. Even CNN reported on the increased support for the NRA. Let that fact sink in for a minute.
You and I didn’t stop there. We saw that gun free churches can be a killing ground. We chose to defend churches. Church safety teams were often started or reinforced after parrisioners pointedly asked church leaders what they were doing to protect the flock. Churches sent their members to receive safety training.
We saw that schools can be easy targets for madmen. We asked our school boards to protect our children. We didn’t ask for another government program and budget appropriation. Instead, we asked the government to get out of our way. In some cases, it wasn’t as much of a request as a statement of fact.
Teachers unions said that teachers don’t want to be armed at school. Teachers actions said quite the opposite. Teachers flocked to take firearms and self-defense training where it was offered. The results to those training opportunities were literally overwhelming. A Michigan firearms instructor opened up part of his class for teachers. He offered free firearms safety instruction and some self-defense training. More than 300 teachers came into his shop and signed up in person. His classes are booked for months. An Ohio sheriff offered a similar course of instruction. His class is usually 30 to 50 students. The sheriff received hundreds of requests.
We saw similar results across the US. Interested teachers came from states that already allow armed staff in schools. We also saw strong interest from teachers in states that expressly deny arming school staff.
Classes in 10 states where armed staff are allowed or with programs already in place
Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Butler County Ohio, Licking County Ohio, Oregon, blue mountain school district Pennsylvania, Cranberry Pennsylvania, North Whitehall Township Pennsylvania, Orem Utah, Saint George Utah, Sandy Utah,
Classes in 6 states where armed staff are prohibited
Florida, Crystal Lake Illinois, Godfrey Illinois, Nebraska, Perry Township New Jersey, Rio Grande New Jersey, South Carolina, Wyoming
This is unusual. We are working around the law to protect ourselves when our laws make self-defense difficult. Some of these states prohibit armed school staff. Honest sheriffs know that they can’t have as many armed resource officers as they want on campus. Some sheriffs appointed select school staff as special, reserve, or auxiliary deputies so the staff could legally carry arms at school. Unlike the Sheriff in Broward County Florida, these sheriffs were determined to do what they could so our children were protected.
About Rob Morse
The original article is here. Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.