Editors Show Blindness to History, Hypocrisy on Guns Over Voter Background Checks

By David Codrea

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- The voting commission for which Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach serves as vice chair is considering a proposal to subject voters to the same background checks as gun owners,” The Kansas City Star Editorial Board complained Monday. “Because ballots are at least as scary as bullets.”

They were attempting to discredit President Donald Trumps’ voting commission, and going to the predictable and worn Alinsky Rule 5 playbook. That’s because ridicule is easy and cheap. But in this case, it’s also pretty close to the truth in spite of the snark.

Ballots can end up being scarier, as they can result in ambition über alles politicians being rewarded with power. That power in turn can result in edicts being enacted and judges being appointed who will uphold them even when it’s obvious the Founders would have deemed them tyrannical. As is demonstrable to anyone with an honest mind and an eye toward history, the leading cause of human misery and death has been and is democide. And as Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has amply demonstrated, much of that has been enabled and abetted through citizen disarmament.

The “progressive” luminaries at The Star would no doubt howl at that. Their hostility toward the right of the people to keep and bear arms is demonstrably ingrained, and besides, thinking we are part of history is just nuts, right?  Still, before automatically dismissing concerns about real tyranny enveloping a way of life almost everyone takes for granted, take a look around at the multitude of potentially cataclysmic threats facing us, natural and man-made. Then consider all the vulnerabilities and what it would take to cause long-term catastrophic disruptions with widespread lethal consequences.

Then ask yourself where in history any civilization is guaranteed permanence. Has not despotism and mass destruction plagued every civilization that preceded ours? Is it not, in fact, still commonplace throughout the globe? By what suspension of reality, by what denial of the observable and the probable, by what art, device or magic are we sheltered few immune? Are we certain, from our brief and privileged vantage point, that such things will never affect us personally?

Is it not a demonstrable act of denial to proclaim that our familiar way of life will forever be the norm, when everything that has gone before us shows we are, instead, the extremely lucky beneficiaries of a rare and fortunate convergence of circumstances? And one, by the way, that has only been preserved under force of arms?

But back to The Star and the narrative the editorial board is desperate to ensure is the dominant one: Voter fraud has been thoroughly discredited, and any attempt to ensure voter eligibility is both paranoid and racist.

Except new evidence is emerging that merits examination, as separate recent reports have emerged:

• Chicago reported thousands of more votes than voters in 2016, GOP official says
• New Hampshire voter fraud fight takes new turn
• U.S. Has 3.5 Million More Registered Voters than Live Adults — A Red Flag For Electoral Fraud

The usual “progressive news” outlets are scornfully dismissing these allegations as unfounded and ridicule-worthy, but that conclusion comes from those with a Democrat dog in the fight. Note the judge who just booted the New Hampshire case is a Democrat appointee. And note the Democrats and their media allies have a vested interest in trying to discredit Kobach, who is running for governor of Kansas. That’s a far cry from comprehensive unbiased audits adhering to strict standards and controls.

As for the voter background check proposal, the editorial board unintentionally undermines its own argument with an attack on economist, author and Crime Prevention Research President John Lott:

“Lott, who is a long-time opponent of gun control, argues that if background checks don’t limit the rights of gun owners, then they wouldn’t disenfranchise voters, either, would they?”

You shouldn’t ask a rhetorical question if you’re not prepared to hear the answer. And the fact of the matter is, “background checks” do limit rights of gun owners, via prior restraints, through “false positives,” and through denials to people who pose no danger but have nonetheless run afoul of draconian disarmament edicts.

As with government-issued photo IDs, how is it that requiring them somehow disenfranchises minorities from voting, but it’s suddenly not an issue when buying a gun? At least that’s the way “progressives” treat it. The gun-grabbers want everyone to vote because of a Democrat advantage with the foreign born, but they don’t want citizens to own guns.

So isn’t it hypocritical to advocate no prior restraints on gun purchases, but then turn around and require them to vote? Here’s the difference: Buying a gun affects no one else unless and until the gun owner does something to make it their business. The act of voting is an attempt to affect everyone, whether they agree with the results or not.

That’s why there is no one better qualified than Lott to address the even greater threat to gun ownership that is posed by unchecked immigration, both legal and illegal via a “pathway to citizenship” through “birthright” or by “amnesty.”  He’s more than capable of coming up with credible numbers to demonstrate why, based on all credible polls and the real world experiences of places like California, millions of foreigners, coupled with a push to make them citizens, will ultimately result in (politically) unbeatable Democrat majorities.  I wish he would, because, his “Debacle” co-author, NRA director and immigration proponent Grover Norquist, has instead focused on solidarity with Michael Bloomberg’s amnesty-pushing Partnership for a New American Economy.

Lott’s presentation referenced by The Star is posted at Whitehouse.gov.

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.

In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.