By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Activist gun owners interested in keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House achieved that goal in Tuesday’s election. The candidate who disagreed with the Supreme Court on the Second Amendment will not get a chance to replace judges with those more to her liking. Nor will she be able to conduct executive order gun grabs, or use the bully pulpit of the presidency to lead the way on further bans.
Republican control of the House and Senate reduces the likelihood of new federal infringements. Just don’t be surprised to see some “moderate” GOP faintheart floating preemptive surrender on prior restraints or due process denials the next time some already-on-the-radar dirtbag decides exploiting a “gun-free zone” is a great way to get media attention.
The great object now is to make sure “the Donald” keeps his word. There are plenty of Democrats and #NeverTrumpers hoping he doesn’t, but also plenty of supporters who have his ear and who can keep the pressure on. Gun owners stand a much better chance than they did on Monday of putting more Scalias on SCOTUS, of blocking “new gun laws,” of rescinding executive infringements, and even of repealing existing Intolerable Acts.
That hardly means it’s time to go back to sleep. The Republicans need to know they’re being watched and that betrayals will not be forgotten.
The other thing we saw Tuesday is that Astroturf-funded state measures are the wave of the near future. The formula: Pick a “blue” state; throw in a ton of money from New York City and Silicon Valley; hire the best propagandists money can buy; rely on media allies to amplify the signal and demonize gun owners; spook the useful idiot herd; and steamroll over grassroots volunteers who enjoy neither the money, the media savvy, the contacts nor the reach.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
That’s what happened in California. Proposition 63 passed:
The initiative outlaws the possession of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, requires background checks for people buying bullets, makes it a crime not to report lost or stolen guns, and provides a process for taking guns from people upon their conviction for a felony.
Ditto for the Question 1 “background check” measure in Nevada. Narrowly. But per Nevadans for State Gun Rights (which waged a heroic grassroots campaign against the Bloomberg machine):
Ballot Question One has passed early this morning by less than 1% of the vote. This entire campaign, Bloomberg, his supporters and the liberal media tried to pass this off as an easy victory with an 80% approval rating, and the people of Nevada showed their lies for what they were.
Unsurprisingly, Initiative 1491 on “Extreme Risk Protection Orders” passed easily in Washington State. Naturally, the gun-grabbers and their media cheerleaders billed it as a “safety measure.” Bearing Arms added some needed perspective:
The initiative also defines “family” and “household members” vaguely, allowing roommates from up to a year prior to seek an ERPO. (see crazy ex-girl/boyfriend) Essentially, a person’s gun rights would disappear merely on the say-so of someone else.
The gun-grabbers are crowing all over social media about their “victories,” painting them as something other than using oligarch money to scam the ignorant into believing the fewer rights they have, the safer they’ll be. Or something absurd like that…
What they’re not crowing about is the one contest denied them, in Maine of all places. Question 3 on expanded background checks went down to the surprise of many. And that’s after Bloomberg spent $6M on what the Bangor Daily News called “a blow to Everytown” and “a stunning victory for … a group of “ragtag volunteers.”
Now that these races are over, and noting the new realities at the federal level, expect Bloomberg to renew his efforts against the states using a formula he knows he can get to work more often than not. And now is the time – way past time, really – to anticipate and prepare for that.
We all pretty much know who the gun rights advocacy players are on the national scene, right? What grassroots group(s) are there that are active in your state? Assuming you’re not already a member, why not take a few minutes right now to find out, including how you can get involved?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
“Citizen pressure should be applied ceaselessly in order to support President Trump in carrying out these critical tasks…as behind-the-scenes efforts to thwart them will surely be attempted.”
Yes, but experience tells me that Trump’s “victory” ( remember; it isn’t official till the Electoral College “sings” in December) has probably given his supporters the okay to go back to watching the boob tube, drinking beer and generally return to complacency. The battle is won but the war is not over.
F**k kalifornia – moved my state res 5 years ago.
But now, with both houses of congress it’s time for national reciprocity
We should not only be able to get the fed legislature to pass it but it will underline the no voters so we know who to aggressively expell from the bodies.
AND NOW – TOTAL WAR TO Expell mcconnell and all his fellow lieing traitors
Fight islam Now
Trump campaigned on an anti-establishment drain-the-swamp no-more-corruption platform. We should have a good idea what to expect from Trump in the choices he makes to staff his administration prior to Jan. 20, 2017. Prior presidents for decades have appointed the usual suspects that keep the corruption gravy-train on track. They have particularly appointed members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission (TC) to key important posts. I’m not advocating any conspiracy theories but merely pointing out the organizations from which administrations are usually staffed. These folks should not even be under consideration, unless we have been… Read more »
While I am very happy (ecstatic is more like it) that Trump won the election, it is NOT over yet, unfortunately. The Electoral College does not cast its vote until the Monday after the second Wednesday in December. That gives George Soros’s minions plenty of time to try to sway (through intimidation) the delegates into voting other than how they pledged to vote- and they are not bound by law to vote as they pledged. The rioting,, and plenty of other pressures are going to be brought to bear on the process. Even the Republican party didn’t support him and… Read more »
Bruce,I feel for the time that the small arms treaty nonsense is pretty well dead.That said,we all need to work at state level to keep up the pressure though perhaps a scotus appt. and a few good cases taken up might long term give us breathing room.
Lets work while we can to introduce more to firearms and a bit of history to folks,the more we have the better we are,from a hampster neighbor!
We may be a ragtag bunch in Maine, but there’s a bunch of us. When I joined Gun Owners of Maine a little over a year ago, there were a little over a thousand on the GOME facebook page; we passed 22,000 this week, in a state of 1.4 million people. We are staying together, and will be setting our sights on Senator Angus King, who supported the UN Small Arms Treaty, in 2018.