Changing Anti-Gun Tactics

The anti-gun legislation of America’s coastal state and local governments is often driven by the corporate ideologues who fund them. Their meddling in the business and social affairs to influence change within free states and municipalities is having a negative effect on personal freedoms.

Those who advocate for “gun control” instead of “gun rights” never seem to allow a good tragedy to go to waste, using any tragedy involving a firearm to promote the anti-gun agenda. Remembering the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which produced the Gun Control Act of 1968 to the 1980s crack-cocaine epidemic that fueled passage of the 1994 Crime Bill and Assault Weapons Ban, gun control advocates have relied on the temporary public zeitgeist to achieve smaller and more permanent advances of the current anti-gun agenda to ban private transfers of firearms between individuals, restrict magazine capacity and the amount of ammunition an individual may own, and to retroactively ban tactical rifles and semiautomatic handguns among the civilian population. The agenda also aims to shape the future of gun ownership by preventing future generations from inheriting firearms and ammunition — or learning about them.

Pending Restrictions

The onslaught against access to accurate information about firearms has taken the form of commercially restricting your access to publications such as Guns & Ammo, which is no longer allowed in common grocery and drug stories, and is being restricted online by search engines, digital TV providers and through social media. What would happen if all of the popular streaming services and social media apps collectively decided to instantly shut down any positive firearm media or communications between gun owners and businesses? What if no banks authorized transactions of firearm-related products and forced our industry to deal in cash only? Do you think the regulatory commissions, legislative branches or courts would completely reverse the anti-gun movement?

Such policies have typically come from large, wealthy bastions containing progressive thinkers on both coasts. California, with its entertainment industry and technology centers, and New York possessing global-minded business elites. These groups are adept at raising money to shower on social projects. Money is their power. Anti-gun progressives believe that they know what is best for you. A former senior employee of the Mike Bloomberg-funded Mayors Against Illegal Guns has said, “The overriding feng shui of Bloomberg’s folks is that they [think they] are the smartest kids in the room and can do almost anything better than almost anyone else.”

Some of the latest efforts to protect us from ourselves include orchestrated attacks on ammunition and magazines, as evidenced by the recent legislation appearing in California and Washington. Going after the incidentals is easier from a legal position, allowing them to orchestrate incremental advancements. For example, Washington state’s Senate Bill 6077 targets an old favorite, the 10-round magazine. The proposed legislation bans new standard-capacity magazines but allows people who have them keep them. The bill’s authors are hopeful that a “grandfather clause” will allow the bill to survive judicial scrutiny. A federal judge blocked a similar California bill that did not contain a grandfather clause. (This actually opened a period of non-compliance and resulted in a weeklong buying frenzy of standard-capacity magazines.)

In Virginia, a similar ban passed the House of Delegates but was later deferred by the Senate. It wasn’t a real victory for gun-rights advocates in Virginia though. It was a one-year delay so that gun-control politicians could try to read the wind at a later date. These laws are becoming pervasive in the United States. Even regions that guard our personal freedoms such as Arizona are seeing similar laws floated out so that anti-gun politicians can measure the receptive public population.

In California, anti-gunners are experienced and realize that they will lose certain cases in court.  Funded by Bloomberg’s cabal, gun control advocates are now using bureaucracy and taxation as tools to assist in their incremental assault tactics against our freedoms. We are seeing increased fees from the Department of Justice, arduous processes to set up new vendor licenses for people who wish to sell their ammunition, and a requirement of all vendors to perform background checks before obtaining a certificate of eligibility for employees to conduct business, as well as point-of-sale background checks for purchasers. Gun control advocates want to make the process of buying and selling ammunition an exercise that confuses and frustrates the average American. They expect that most law-abiding citizens would rather give up then subject themselves to the scrutiny.

These tactics are designed to erode our civil rights. It is especially insidious since they can point to it and innocently suggest, “We’re not making it illegal; we are making it safer for the children.” This is a difficult tactic to defend against in the court of public opinion following a tragic event.

Follow The Money

Understanding our opponent is important. Bloomberg’s proxies include Mothers Demand Action and The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. They understand the long game and are willing to make incremental adjustments across generations to eventual victory. By dumping millions of dollars into local political races, they have been successful at manipulating the national narrative. It has been estimated that Mike Bloomberg has spent near $400 million dollars supporting anti-gun candidates and policies throughout the country. This level of financial backing could make a moderate Democrat turn anti-gun at the next election.

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Do Your Part

Keeping our local politicians accountable is more important now than ever. Likewise, becoming politically active at the local level is critical for gun rights supporters. Showing up en masse at pro-Second Amendment rallies, attending local government meetings, and becoming part of one of the pro-Second Amendment lobbying groups are ways that we can make a difference. There is a lot of anti-NRA sentiment within the community, so if you’re not keen on supporting the National Rifle Association (nra.org) at this time, please consider supporting another organization such as Gun Owners of America (gunowners.org), the Firearms Policy Coalition (firearmspolicy.org) as well as your respective state firearms association.

Let’s be a good local ambassador. Please take your friends and family shooting. This is a generational fight, so it’s on us to start teaching the future of gun owners. Invest in a rimfire and mentor a kid and teach them how to shoot. It’s important that we all get involved.