Opinion
Minnesota – -(AmmoLand.com)- Governor’s races matter a lot to Second Amendment supporters. Governors can be the last line of defense against passage of legislation that places onerous burdens on our Second Amendment rights. They have the ability to set the tone for how the Second Amendment is discussed in a given state. In addition, governorships have been a launching pad for presidential campaigns. Governors also have the power to make appointments to fill vacant seats for their state in the United States Senate. So, governors have a national impact.
The race in Minnesota is one of 36 states holding gubernatorial elections this year (three U.S. territories are also holding them). Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, no friend of our Second Amendment rights, is term-limited out. Running to replace him are former RNC Committeeman Jeff Johnson, a Hennepin County Commissioner, and Congressman Tim Walz. Like Second Amendment champion Marsha Blackburn, Walz, elected in 2006, had a track record of supporting our Second Amendment rights and decided to use his service in the House of Representatives to serve as a springboard to higher office – in this case, governor.
However, to do so, he has turned his back on law-abiding gun owners. In fact, for the most part, Tim Walz has done a complete 180 on you gun rights.
Why? Because rather than stand on his track record and trust that Second Amendment supporters would repay loyalty, he chose to lick his finger and put it in the air, and pander.
A copy of a January 1 statement available at Project Vote Smart he made as he was running in the primary for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s nomination for governor lays out his current status as a puppet for Chuck Schumer and Michael Bloomberg avowed enemies of our Second Amendment rights. Walz has come out against allowing school districts to use federal funds to arm teachers. This was preceded by his decision to oppose HR 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, with the spurious justification that it had been added to the Fix NICS Act.
Now, it’s not fun to have to go through a background check (a form of prior restraint) to acquire a firearm. Firearms ownership is the primary way we exercise our Second Amendment rights. The National Instant Check System, though, came about because anti-Second Amendment forces in this country had gained enough votes to push the Brady Act through – and sunsetting the five-day waiting period after five years was the best that could be done at the time.
Making fixes to the system, which failed to prevent at least one prohibited person from acquiring a firearm used in a mass shooting, had to be done. That being said, it did not hurt to also push for concealed carry reciprocity at the same time. Walz could have stood with Second Amendment supporters in what was a good piece of legislation.
Walz’s anti-Second Amendment dance is not the first time Second Amendment supporters have seen this sort of turncoat behavior. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York was once a solid Second Amendment supporter when she won in 2006. But when she became a Senator, she became a Schumer puppet. Sadly, even a track record cannot be a 100 percent guarantee. It beats a questionnaire, though, as was the case with Larry Hogan.
The good news is that Second Amendment supporters have a choice. Jeff Johnson has made strong declarations of support for our Second Amendment rights, according to his campaign web site. Second Amendment supporters have learned a bitter lesson in betrayal from Walz’s waltz with Schumer and Bloomberg, but they have a chance to teach him a big lesson in by voting this November.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Unfortunately, it is the politician’s will to win regardless which way the wind is blowing they will profess to be that way. The NRA has been snookered many times by the form they send out to politicians in order to grade them. It is getting increasingly harder to believe what one of them says because they will turn on a dime and not even look back at the suckers that voted for them. There is no easy answer and, sometimes, research doesn’t even root them out.
Congressman Tim Walz. LOOKS like the kind crabby old curmudgeon you would NOT want for a next door neighbor, or even on the same block or CITY !!
Well, after all is said and done, we do have the best politicians that money can buy. Soros and Bloomberg know this.
Another angry democrat that should be closeley monitered and defeated
Locking arms with, IDEOLOGICAL CHAMELEONS Ideological chameleons follow the simple social strategy of avoiding controversy and confrontation by espousing the beliefs of the people in their immediate vicinity or advocating the philosophy of those who scream the loudest in a debate. Quite a few supposedly pro Second Amendment public officials have shown themselves to be ideological chameleons when they supported restrictions on the private possession of military style semiautomatic rifles following recent atrocities in which such firearms were employed. Like their reptilian namesake, people who merely blend in with the ambient philosophical foliage seem to have little insight into the… Read more »
Anti-Constitutionlists need to go……………
One way or another…
Oldmarine
Tim Walz is as dumb as a bag full of hammers. Ignorant men should be treated that way also. Without the country people the cities would die. You can’t talk sense to and Idiot so the best thing to do is to shut them away from ordinary people, maybe put them back in sandbox basics. I would like to just tell this man to his face how stupid he really is. Minnesota needs to disarm this a-hole brain to play with his own toys.
How about “turncoat” Rick Scott in Florida who, one year after speaking about gun rights at the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta, stabbed gun owners in the back by signing a list of gun control measures as Fl. Governor and US Senate candidate. What a “weenie”. Unfortunately, we have no good choice for US senator this year in Florida.
He was angling for his run for senator, which he will probably win. Politicians will not do anything that would lose them a vote, so make that known to him that votes will be lost for pandering to the mobs after the Parkland shootin.
“Governor’s races matter a lot to Second Amendment supporters. Governors can be the last line of defense against passage of legislation that places onerous burdens on our Second Amendment rights.”
Correct as such was the case with Vermont’s rock solid RINO,Benedict Scott in violation of his oath and Constitutions,not to mention his out right lies to Vermonters.
The problem remains to vote for a confirmed liar or Dave,er I mean Christine,neither is a good choice but Dave,er Christine would be worse for Vermont and most likely the nation.
Green Mtn. Boy, You are right with “Dave”.