Opinion
United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- One of the biggest threats to our right to keep and bear arms is not a gun ban like that proposed by Eric Swalwell. It’s not Cory Booker’s licensing scheme. Nor it is Kamala Harris promising to ban imports of modern multi-purpose semiautomatic firearms.
No, the biggest threats are various campaign reform laws, like the For the People Act that passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.
In 2002, Michael Barnes, then the president of the Brady Campaign, explained the reasoning behind their support for McCain-Feingold:
“Even though the measure will impact our election activities as well, it will cut into the NRA’s even more, reducing the gun lobby’s ability to obstruct the progress of sensible gun laws.”
Translation: The NRA was doing too well in persuading Americans that millions of law-abiding gun owners shouldn’t be punished for the actions of criminals and nutcases, so the Brady Campaign wanted to change the rules. It seems the Second Amendment isn’t the only part of the Bill of Rights that they hated. They tried to use the power of the government to muzzle their opponents. It was a concession that they were losing the argument.
You have to admit, at least they were being honest.
It would have been far easier for Al Gore or Hillary Clinton to win if the NRA (or other pro-Second Amendment groups) had to jump through hoops set up by some Lois Lerner wannabe. Even if the anti-Second Amendment candidate lost, FEC investigations could saddle Second Amendment supporters with legal bills in the best of situations.
Of course, given the many intricacies and complexities of campaign finance law, it is very likely that the FEC investigation will come up with violations. As a result of those findings, the Second Amendment supporters get hit with fines and possibly jail time. Who might be the targets? Figure they’ll go for the most effective advocates for the Second Amendment first. [GOA, NRA, SAF, state groups]
Furthermore, you can bet that anti-Second Amendment extremists will get a pass. Dinesh D’Souza got a felony conviction for his scheme to bypass campaign donation limits in one election, but Rosie O’Donnell has yet to face any legal repercussions for repeatedly violating campaign donation limits in support of candidates who oppose our Second Amendment rights.
The goal is not just to bog down Second Amendment supporters who get involved, although the likes of Michael Bloomberg and Shannon Watts do benefit from that. The real target of this campaign of legal and bureaucratic harassment are those Second Amendment supporters who are thinking about becoming activists and advocates.
By making examples of activists supporting the Second Amendment, they hope to deter others from coming forward.
In essence, they will give us a choice: Either let them punish millions of law-abiding American citizens for crimes and mass shootings they did not commit, or they will proceed to use the power of the government to harass us and ruin our lives.
This template was tried in Wisconsin after Scott Walker became a viable gubernatorial candidate in 2010 (the effects of that harassment may have included Walker’s narrow loss to an anti-Second Amendment opponent in 2018). It is also likely that dissuading activism was the purpose of the harassment of the Tea Party by the Internal Revenue Service.
When you think about it, the use of such tactics by anti-Second Amendment extremists should not be a surprise. Commenting on the abuses carried out by some Wisconsin prosecutors using “John Doe” statutes, National Review’s David French noted the “by any means necessary” approach, and added that in the minds of those who carried out the John Doe abuses, the targets were getting “what they deserve.”
These days, the NRA is labeled a “domestic terrorist” organization for standing against the wrongful punishment of millions of Americans who only seek to peacefully exercise their Second Amendment rights. The Cuomo regime is already carrying out its own version of the Wisconsin abuses – and also seeking to pressure the financial services industry into a boycott. You can bet that if new campaign reform laws pass, the tactics French exposed will be in common use against Second Amendment activists, so get involved!
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.