Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz is poised to shake up the Pennsylvania Senate race, bolstered by a vast personal fortune to invest in a 2022 campaign and enviable poll numbers that suggest the Republican would be an immediate front-runner,” the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday. “Oz, 61, has not decided whether to pull the trigger on a bid for the seat being relinquished by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. But if the television personality runs, he is prepared to back the effort with millions of his own money and would begin a campaign for the GOP nomination with stratospheric ratings among key demographics, a source close to Oz revealed in an interview…”
To bolster the enthusiasm, the report tells readers Oz “is on good terms with former President Donald Trump and has been friends with the former president for 15 years. Indeed, Trump appointed Oz to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, which included among its members a 2022 Senate candidate who has already received the former president’s endorsement…”
The biggest objection seems to be “culturally conservative pockets of central and western Pennsylvania” may object to Oz moving from New Jersey to Philadelphia “only about a year ago,” leaving him vulnerable to being seen as a “carpetbagger.”
That’s hardly the only one, and the lack of any acknowledgment on how the right to keep and bear arms may influence Pennsylvania GOP choices shows, among other things, DC establishment blinders on Examiner political reporting.
With Toomey taking himself out of the picture, Pennsylvania gun owners have a chance to right some serious Republican wrongs the Party has foisted on them for years. We’re talking about a politician of “Manchin/Toomey” notoriety who “earned” an endorsement from the Giffords gun grab group, and who has been trying for years to enact “bipartisan” infringements. I’ve compiled a partial chronicling of his giving aid and comfort to the enemy (and if you don’t believe that’s what they are you haven’t been paying attention) over at The War on Guns blog, along with other examples of subversive PA GOP offerings like Arlen Specter and Tom Ridge.
Oz will be Toomey on steroids. When it comes to guns, he’ll be able to look at the outgoing senator and say, “Hold my beer.” Among examples it took me mere seconds to find:
“How does this chick come on Dr. Oz all pro-red flag, and go on Liz Wheeler all pro-2A? I’m genuinely confused.”
That Oz, of Turkish ancestry, does not concede genocide by the Ottomans that was partially enabled via a permitting scheme, registration lists, and possession bans is obvious. The other concern all voters should have is with his dual citizenship. As I warned when the GOP was trying to foist another popular “dual citizen” celebrity on Republican voters, gun- (and maid-) grabbing “action hero” Arnold Schwarzenegger:
There’s another oath Arnold took, back in 1983, when he became an American citizen:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen… But there’s a problem: Arnold apparently never really meant it (any more than he would the governor’s oath) and pulled strings with the Austrian government to retain his citizenship there, as well. This despite the fact that the government of Austria “[i]n general… does not allow dual citizenship…Thus, if a person acquires US citizenship, he/she usually has to renounce the actual citizenship he/she is holding.”
The problem reaches beyond Austrian law. According to Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook, “The U.S. government has generally looked with disfavor on United States Citizens maintaining dual nationality.” Indeed, the US Department of State cautions that “dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country.”
Beltway swamp schemers who know nothing of principles and for whom the only consideration is an “R” after a winning politician’s name will try to exploit Oz’s fame and fortune to get him in the Senate, and the rights of gun owners be damned. They’re already exploiting his cordial relationship with Donald Trump (and if the former president backs him that will tell all but the most self-deluded “3D chess” apologists all they need to know).
Don’t let Party strategists get away with this.
If Pennsylvania gun owners do, they may as well elect a “gun sense candidate” Democrat, because this guy will vote for every disarmament bill that comes across his desk, assuming he isn’t the one initiating them. Oz will use his “advise and consent” role to confirm officials and judges hostile to your rights and loyal only to their Big Club interests.
Oz will definitely give you the feeling you’re not in the Founders’ Republic anymore. Throw a bucket of water on this now.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.