Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Gun control groups, not unlike the NRA, are single-issue groups. In theory, they support a single issue and typically don’t defer to a given political party except and unless that party tends to line up with that single issue. That means gun control groups tend to back Democrats, of course, but they’re not explicitly part of the Democratic machine.
On the same token, the NRA tends to back Republicans, but since they’ve also backed Democrats at various times, they’re not truly a part of the Republican collective.
However, gun control groups–organizations which routinely attack the NRA for siding with Republicans so often–are now ignoring the reality that surrounds us in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
For months now, guns have sold at record levels, and as Bethany Mandel points out over at Richocet, the gun control groups aren’t exactly acting like gun control groups.
Riots have overtaken cities and entire zones of cities have become utterly lawless, with local businesses getting hollowed out and children shot. The institutions we’re supposed to be able to turn to for defense, the police, have been nowhere to be seen; ordered to stand down by gutless politicians who care more about appeasing social justice mobs than protecting residents. As a result, Americans are taking defense into their own hands, buying out gun shops across the country.
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In a rational world, anti-gun groups would see the surge in gun sales this lawlessness has caused and come out hard against the riots and the neutering of the police.
One would think. However, they’re not. Instead, they’re siding with the rioters–the very people who have spurred so much of this gun-buying frenzy–and even tried to claim that gun rights are white supremacy in vain attempts to pretend that they’re maintaining their focus on gun control without having to actually face any real reality.
Now, the gun control groups don’t have a monopoly on this kind of thing. Far from it, actually.
However, they’ve also been known to criticize any of their opponents to even remotely touch on anything outside of gun rights, yet here we see them ultimately trying to ignore the reality right before them.
They won’t advocate putting down the unrest that has spurred millions to buy guns because they can’t be seen as siding with the right, despite the fact that in this case, their mission and the right just happen to be in alignment.
That’s not how this is supposed to work.
Especially as the same groups engage in mental gymnastics to try and make the case that gun rights are the tools of the racist, ignoring countless black men and women who defended their own lives thanks to the Second Amendment. They simply can’t help themselves, though. They’ve been in bed with the Democrats so long they simply can’t see anything but what the left declares as reality, even if it bears no resemblance to anyone who isn’t a raging liberal.
Personally, I’ll find common cause with anyone who will defend the Second Amendment, even liberal gun owners. It seems the gun control crowd has picked their allies a different way.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/07/09/the-hypocrisy-of-gun-control-in-current-political-climate/