By Joseph P. Tartaro | Executive Editor
The battle to ban an entire class of firearms in the United States—exemplified by the AR-15 and other so-called “assault weapons” —has been going on for more than 30 years, as part of a general anti-gun campaign to erase the Second Amendment from the US Constitution.
Actually, the campaign against Eugene Stoner’s Armalite Rifle (AR) began in Europe, largely due to the anti-semi-automatic rifle campaign in England because of the Hungerford school massacre in 1987. In that mass shooting incident, a deranged man, Michael Robert Ryan, used two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun in multiple locations to kill 16 people and wound another 17.
Most people think it was the January 1989 Stockton, CA, schoolyard shooting that was the match that lit the anti-gun fuse, and it certainly did in California, which passed the first “assault weapons” ban in the US. However, anti-gun theorist Josh Sugarmann had written a strategy paper almost a year before Stockton in which he recommended that since people couldn’t tell the difference between a fully automatic rifle and a semi-automatic, the anti-gun crowd could gain ground by calling them all “assault weapons.”
Truth be told, Sugarmann and his fellow gun-grabbers would have preferred to ban all guns, especially handguns, but that campaign wasn’t gaining any traction in those days.
It is significant that school shootings in Hungerford, England, Stockton, CA, Newtown, CT, and now Parkland, FL, have supplied the anti-gun crowd the most traction in passing laws to restrict the ownership of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
This time, however, the anti-gun zealots don’t plan to let a tragedy go to waste. They have organized as never before, launching a full court press to use a March Madness term, and they have organized young people as the spearhead in their blitzkrieg against guns.
The student marches against guns began in Parkland almost immediately after the latest Valentine’s Day massacre, but the kids’ campaign against guns quickly spread to schools and cities around the country, and there appears to be little prospect that these emotional appeals will end soon. Almost a month after the Parkland shooting, schools across the country are still scheduling anti-gun demonstrations by high school and middle school students.
But that’s only part of the anti-gunners’ full court press.
They have also roped big businesses into the campaign. Major retailers, such as Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have made headlines by establishing their own anti-gun rules: no long gun sales to people less than 21 years of age, no stocking or sales of guns labeled assault weapons, and other new rules.
Delta Airlines, car rental companies, insurance companies and banks made headlines by publicly announcing that they were severing ties to the National Rifle Association as symbolic gestures in support of the anti-gun cause.
As might be expected, most of the media gave extra publicity to the anti-gun cause, and radio and television have done the same with their selection of talk-show guests in an attempt to achieve a legislative victory for the anti-gun juggernaut. Of course, most cable news TV outlets also helped stir the pot.
Then there is the exploitation of the multiple outlets of the Internet, including just about all of the devices and apps available.
Principle among these are the daily flow of emails from just about every possible anti-gun organization, plus quite a few elected officials, and segments of the Democrat Party, such as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
And some of the avowed anti-gun organizations, like the Giffords Group are also playing political games based on the effort to ban guns. Needless to say, they blame all of Congress for not acting to re-enact the Clinton gun ban which sunset in 2004, but they focus on Republicans first.
In addition to trying to win the open seats now held by retiring Republicans, organizations like The Giffords Group are already campaigning against some Republican candidates specifically. because they have voted in synch with the gun rights organizations, usually personified by the largest, the National Rifle Association, which is the best known.
The Giffords Group has already taken positions on their website and in emails to urge the defeat of six Republicans. Their list includes Reps. Vern Buchanan (FL-16th), Mike Coffman (CO-6th), Barbara Comstock (VA-100th), House Speaker Paul Ryan (WI-1st), Pete Sessions (TX-32nd) and Sen. Dean Heller (Nevada).
I may have missed some elements of the anti-gunners’ full court press, but it seems more coordinated than ever before, and perhaps the most public face of this effort in many communities will be the children’s marches. And the pathetic part of it is that the young people’s message has been mostly a non-specific “Do Something Now” cry, rather than support for any specific solution to the problem. If they would support the arming of trained, volunteer teachers and other school staff is unclear. But that is one way to blunt the dangerous impact of gun free zones.
The anti-gunners are now mobilizing teacher organizations to oppose such a proposal. So the focus is till on banning some 10 million more rifles and figuring out what to do about the ones already in private hands besides requiring their registration under the National Firearms Act.
The full court press continues.
