U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- It is now official; according to The Hill, “The battle over gun control is emerging as a campaign issue heading into the midterms as gun violence rises in the U.S.”
The report says Republicans blame “progressive efforts to reform and in some cases direct funds away from police departments.” Translation: Efforts in various cities to “Defund Police” have resulted in some agencies losing demoralized officers to other jurisdictions.
By contrast, Democrats contend that “gun policies are at the heart of the issue,” The Hill says.
The story quotes Michael Lawlor, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, who asserts, “At the moment there’s so many examples of irresponsible gun ownership, people having easy access to guns. It sort of makes the case.”
Lawlor “also served as a Democratic member of the Connecticut House of Representatives,” the story revealed. Gun rights advocates could say this “sort of” taints Lawlor’s argument as politically biased.
Down in Arizona, Democrat State Rep. Randy Friese—the trauma surgeon who treated former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords after she was shot in 2011—is running for Congress in the state’s Second District. His comment to The Hill might be open to challenge.
“There has really been next to nothing done for years and years,” Friese said. “Background checks and comprehensive background checks would be wonderful. Can we get there in a two-year term if I am successful? Can I get us there in a two-year term? I sure will try.”
Such a remark suggests there are currently no background checks, which the firearms community could dismiss as patently absurd. The man who shot Giffords, for example, had cleared a background check to purchase the pistol he used.
San Jose, California killer Samuel Cassidy “used three semi-automatic pistols, all legally obtained,” according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Santa Barbara spree killer Elliot Rodger—known as the “Isla Vista gunman” although three of his victims were fatally stabbed—bought three handguns, all legally, in California, as noted in a history of the crime at Wikipedia. He went through three background checks and three California waiting periods.
The background check issue may lose some horsepower because several killers, including Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, cleared background checks. But it is still effective as a political argument going into 2022.
Another Democrat congressional candidate, Kina Collins of Chicago, where she is described by The Hill as a “community organizer and activist,” blames alleged lax gun laws in neighboring Indiana for the Windy City body count.
“Most of the guns that are apprehended after a homicide here in the city of Chicago have come from Indiana,” she contended. “So it’s not what’s happening here in the state of Illinois because we’re pushing back, it’s because the surrounding states around us have those looser laws.”
Except that a check of the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2019—the most recent data available—one finds that Indiana racked up 247 slayings for the entire state including 185 involving firearms. That same year, Chicago’s body count was more than 500, according to the popular “HayJackass.com” website that tracks killings in the city.
While The Hill may be accurate in its prediction about gun control being a central issue in 2022, the firearms community is already pushing back in defense of gun rights.
As announced a few days ago, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, have expanded their already ambitious television advertising campaigns to reach millions of Americans via more than 20 cable networks. This week, they’re airing a combined total of 143 spots. So far this year, both groups have aired 60-second messages more than 2,000 times, and the effort will continue.
“Waging this battle on two fronts, with SAF on one flank and CCRKBA on the other, is the most effective way to raise public awareness about the serious threat the Biden-Harris administration is posing to a cornerstone right enshrined in our Constitution,” said Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and CEO, and chairman of the Citizens Committee.
The campaign has so far brought more than 116,000 new members and supporters to the organizations, he said.
“We’ve been able to secure several million dollars’ worth of advertising so far this year, and the timing of our campaign has been critical,” Gottlieb said in a news release. “People are waking up to just how far out of step Biden’s Democratic Party has become with mainstream America. Violent crime is skyrocketing. Murders are on the rise. Meanwhile, far left Democrat administrations in cities such as Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and New York are alienating police officers and talking about defunding law enforcement. The party—with Biden in the lead—also wants to release criminals without bail and add further restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms.
“These are dangerous policies,” he observed, “and the public response is pretty clear. Gun and ammunition sales, including those to first-time gun buyers, are setting new records.”
Perhaps the looming battle was best summed by GOP strategist Ford O’Connell in a comment he made to The Hill.
“Democrats can talk gun control until they’re blue in the face but the problem they face at the ballot box in 2022 is skyrocketing crime in cities and states that they control,” O’Connell said. “Talk of gun control is a distraction to try to hold their base together because when I look at this, the root cause of the skyrocketing crime, outside of coming out of COVID, is really their ‘defund the police’ message.”
But forewarned is forearmed. The Second Amendment community can start right now, challenging statements from Democrats and gun prohibition lobbying groups. If The Hill is correct in its assessment of the 2022 battleground, the fight has already commenced.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
