During an April 16 appearance on MSNBC, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts suggested “caring Americans” support gun control, while others support or at least tolerate “the gun lobby.”
She was speaking on the 10th anniversary of the April 16, 2007, attack on Virginia Tech University, an attack in which one individual used guns acquired through background checks to kill 32 people in a gun-free zone.
Make no mistake, there is a life or death battle for gun safety going on in this country. It is caring Americans versus the gun lobby and the gun lobby has a 30-year head start.
You know, that horrific day at Virginia Tech, there were so many heroes. And we’re not asking everyone to be a hero in this country, we’re just asking them not to be silent. There are 90 percent of us who actually support things like stronger gun laws, and we have something we didn’t have 30 years ago–we have an army of caring Americans fighting for stronger gun laws in state houses and board rooms. And we need everyone watching right now to join that fight, because it is a battle in state houses across the country.
A few points need to be made. First, Watts began using the phrase “gun safety” instead of gun control in 2014 after gun control candidates got shellacked during the midterm elections. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and other gun control advocates have followed her lead, but the new phrase still means the same thing as the old phrase, gun control is gun control.
Secondly, Watts refers to “the gun lobby” and, in later comments to MSBNC, she talked about how much money the NRA used in supporting Donald Trump for president. What she does not mention is that her group is funded by billionaire gun controller Michael Bloomberg. The same is true for Everytown for Gun Safety. Both groups are funded by Bloomberg’s deep wallet and insatiable hunger for more gun control.
These groups are part of the gun control lobby that the media never mentions. The big money behind the gun control lobby allows them to fail time and again yet remain in the fight because the checks keep coming.
Lastly, Watts talks about Americans as if those who support the Second Amendment are less caring than those who war against it. But in reality, the complete opposite is the truth.
Think about it — Bloomberg’s Everytown has committed $25 million to fight national reciprocity for concealed carry permit holders. In other words, they have committed $25 million to ensure law-abiding citizens who carry guns for self-defense in their home states are not allowed to carry that same gun for self-defense in other states.
If Bloomberg’s group succeeds, what happens to the single mom with an Indiana carry permit who has car trouble while traveling through Chicago en route to Wisconsin? What terrible things could happen to her as she sits unarmed on the side of the road in Chicago in the middle of the night, hoping the next car is a friend rather than a foe?
Does death await? Does assault? Do both? None of these scenarios seem very “caring.” Rather, they seem like the outworking of a smug indifference to innocent life — an indifference born in the minds of ideologues who put their political, anti-Second Amendment agendas before everything else, including that single mother’s life and well-being.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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