By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
The mid-August headline in USA Today said it all; “Democrats fund spike in gun control ads this election cycle.”
According to Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), that’s more than just a warning flare in the evening sky. It’s an open acknowledgement that Democrats at all levels believe that the 2018 elections offer a significant opportunity to take back Capitol Hill and strengthen their power in state legislatures with your Second Amendment rights as the prize if they win.
The USA Today story didn’t pull any punches. It unabashedly noted that, “Candidates across the country and allied outside groups are seizing on the issue of guns in advertising this election cycle, but with a twist: More spots now promote gun control than oppose it.”
“It’s clear to me that anti-gun Democrats aren’t worried about attacking gun owners,” Gottlieb observed to Point Blank, a CCRKBA publication. “They evidently figure that momentum is on their side and that it is now safe to campaign openly against the Second Amendment rights exercised by 100 million American citizens.”
The USA Today story noted that “Democrats are driving the surge in advertising favoring gun control as polling shows the public generally supports stricter laws covering the sale of firearms and overwhelmingly supports expanded background checks.”
The story went on to explain, “It could be a gamble, given that curbing access to guns has long been considered the third rail of politics.”
“For decades,” USA Today observed, “prominent Democratic candidates, especially in battleground states, have sought to reassure voters of their support for protections under the Second Amendment for the right to bear arms.
“In 2018, however,” the report added, “candidates and outside groups – particularly in House and governors’ races – are flooding the airwaves with pointed and sometimes dramatic messages.”
And, as the newspaper illustrated by quoting a statement from Democrat Philip Levine, a candidate for governor in Florida, they are falling back on one of the favorite tactics of anti-gunners. It’s for the children.
This year, according to a USA Today chart, there have been an astounding 18,416 pro-gun control television ad spots against 8,897 spots that favor the gun rights of law-abiding citizens. Back in 2016, it was completely the opposite situation, with 4,450 gun control ad spots eclipsed by 12,979 spots against gun control.
The newspaper suggested that over the past few years, “something flipped.” There are many factors involved, for sure, including the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Florida, the hysteria over so-called “3-D gun printing” and violent crime in the inner cities, specifically places such as Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, DC.
At least the newspaper candidly noted that “rather than talking about ‘gun control,’ most candidates’ messages use other terms.”
“They’re talking about gun safety strengthening gun laws, making communities safer and standing up to the gun lobby,” the newspaper said.
The story quoted Isabelle James, identified as the political director for Giffords, the gun control organization founded by Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, the former congresswoman who narrowly escaped death when a crazed killer opened fire at a Tucson shopping center where she was holding a political rally. Several other people were killed or wounded.
“Candidates,” James said, “have found a new way to talk to voters about the policies that they know voters support without suggesting that they oppose the Second Amendment or the right of responsible gun owners to bear arms.”
“This simply confirms what CCRKBA has been saying for years,” Gottlieb said. “They’re playing with semantics, but still talking about the same old thing. Gun control is still just that; no matter what substitute phrase they use to conceal their intention.”
This is not the time to sit back and think your vote won’t count, or to find some other excuse for not voting, the CCRKBA chairman said.
“This election could be for all the marbles,” he said.
