Swalwell Swagger: California Dem Running on Gun Control Platform

Opinion

Anti-gun California Congressman Eric Swalwell has launched a presidential campaign with gun control as a central theme. (Screen snip, YouTube, The Late Show)

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- The California congressman who famously suggested last year that gun owners could be nuked has made it official with an appearance on The Late Show; he’s running for president on a platform of gun control, according to CNBC.

Rep. Eric Swalwell became the 18th Democrat to jump into the race, with a campaign video that accuses Donald Trump of dealing in “bulls**t,” and declares “We should take the most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the most dangerous people.”

He was at a Tuesday “town hall” in Sunrise, Florida not far from Parkland, the scene of last year’s attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 students and adults dead. The incident provided the launch pad for a gun prohibition movement that spread nationwide, with no small amount of help from the gun control lobby. He is also appeared on Rachel Maddow’s show, according to a tweet from the MSNBC commentator.

In an interview with Esquire, he stated, “I will be the first candidate to say that reducing gun violence has to be a top three issue. Last year I wrote a bill calling for a buy back and ban on assault weapons—not just to ban future manufacturing, but to just take the 15 million that are out there and buy them back. And do what Australia did; do what New Zealand did. They’ve shown us—Australia in the 90s, New Zealand just this week—that courage in doing the right thing can protect people.”

Neither Australia or New Zealand have a Second Amendment in their constitutions, a fact that doesn’t seem to bother Swalwell or his fellow Democrat candidates.

Outside of California, it’s not clear whether Swalwell will get any traction with his gun control gab, perhaps with the exceptions of Seattle and Washington’s Puget Sound Basin and Portland and Oregon’s lower Willamette Valley.

However, Washington already has an anti-gunner in the race to unseat Trump. Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee threw his hat in the ring weeks ago, running on a “climate change” platform with gun control in the background, but he has remained firmly in last place as the establishment media has concentrated on flashier candidates including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and lately on the non-candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, whose touchy-feely habits have given the press something to talk about other than Robert Mueller’s report on alleged “collusion” with Russia in the 2016 election process.

Swalwell is being remarkably up front about his gun control agenda, and his animosity toward the National Rifle Association, which gathers later this month in Indianapolis for its annual convention, is blatant.

In his Esquire interview, he calls the NRA a “paper tiger.”

“They have us in fear that [if you support] any limitation on firearms,” Swalwell asserts, “you would be in a position that the overwhelming majority of the country is against you. And I’ve just come to find out that’s not the case at all.”

He also said he will be “an aspirational candidate who believes that in our lifetime we…could buy back and ban every single assault weapon.”

Right there is an issue over which Swalwell will face huge opposition on several levels. The guns he wants to ban are semi-auto modern sporting rifles, the most popular firearm in the country today. His argument that they can be “bought back” rings hollow with Second Amendment activists who observe that the government never owned those guns in the first place.

Swalwell’s entry into the race for the Democratic Party nomination brings gun control front and center, and makes it clear that being against gun rights is no longer part of any “hidden agenda.” He is hiding nothing, and it is clear from the outset that, since there has been no rebuke by any of the other candidates, or the party establishment, Democrats are no longer worried about alienating the nation’s gun owners.

As noted by Alan Gottlieb in a recent Op-Ed sent to newspapers across the country in the aftermath of the New Zealand gun ban announcement, “By their silence, the entire national Democratic Party, and especially those Democrats hoping to replace Donald Trump in 2020, have erased any doubt that they have graduated from being the ‘party of gun control’ to being the ‘party of gun confiscation.’”

Gottlieb is chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, a national grassroots gun rights organization. Now that Swalwell is making gun control a pillar of his campaign, Second Amendment advocates like Gottlieb could find it much easier to encourage gun owners to vote in 2020.

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About Dave WorkmanDave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

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Mike11C

I won’t vote for any liberal but, I almost hope some idiot like this wins. In fact, I wish they’d come out and try to ban ALL guns. Let’s get this party started already. I’m not getting any younger and, I’m not about to let the government “buy back” any damn thing. The problem is, they’re not going to just go away when they loose the election. They’re just going to keep pushing for a total ban on guns until it happens. Well fine, let it happen now and see what comes next. When the SHTF and the smoke clears,… Read more »

George Steele

a) Take a baboon; b) lobotomize him; c) make him the classroom teacher for SwallowWhole; d) provide him with Prozac when he gets frustrated he can’t teach SwallowWhole anything.

This guy isn’t fit to lead the lime-spreading team at an outhouse ranch. The only reason a politician wants to take away your guns is that he knows he is planning to do something to you for which he richly deserves to be shot. He’s proof positive that voters in his district are brain dead – the standard method by which Democrats get elected.

God, what an embarrassment.

Tionico

he will be “an aspirational candidate who believes that in our lifetime we…could buy back and ban every single assault weapon. Oh he’ll be aspirating alright, and at a very rapid rate, once he actually tries to make this happen. Seems this guy doesn’t get out much…. does he not know that a few states have mandated surrender and/or registration of those Modern Sporting Rifles he wants to confiscate? Does he not have a sufficient number of synapses to realise that if nere registration i New York State has resulted in low single-digit compliance rates? Is he delusional enough to… Read more »

BilltBob Texas

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

When will they ever learn……NO BODY will win a nationwide election on THIS issue…..so far, anyway.
But we can’t let our guard down. Just need to get EVERYONE you know to get out and vote against these morons…..

StLPro2A

“We should take the most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the most dangerous people.” I agree with Swalwell. Let’s start by taking microphones and votes away from Progressives and mainstream media.

Paul

Now THERE’S the congressional district, Swalwell’s, that Trump should start busing ALL the illegals into who cross the border into California in the next six months! That would be EXACTLY the right place to put them. The White House was considering busing all the illegals into “sanctuary cities,” so let’s make Swalwell’s district a pilot program test! Sounds like a plan to me!

dg

This nut case is serious about the nukes. He would love nothing better. He reminds me of a spoiled california upper class high schooler. Ever see those nazi movies with hitlers henchmen? Put a nazi uniform on this guy. He absolutely fits right in. MOLON LABE

Deplorable Bill

Another politician who is openly saying he will disavow his oath of office before he is elected! That is treason and there is a price for treason. Before the sentence is carried out however, a good tar and feathering and broadcasting the same on t v for a few days is in order. Anyone who funds, aids and/or abets a traitor is also committing treason. Anyone who writes, passes into law, adjudicates, prosecutes or enforces any law that goes against the second amendment is committing treason. Again, there is a price for treason.

Arm up, carry on.

Gdubb

There’s a shocker. Swallowell running for POTUS. Isn’t that special. I can’t wait to watch him argue with his Anti-American dipshit comrades in the primaries, making themselves look even stupider and incapable in front of the voters. They will be basically fighting each other to see who can be the most insane and rabid destroyer of our rights and freedoms. The libtard voting bloc is even waking up to this now surprisingly.

Bob Koceja

Shame on every gun owner who votes Democrat.

FB

Do they exist?

FB

Maybe montana?

Wallace Curry

In a field of morons, Swalwell is the high bar by which all others are judged. His miniscule intellect is only overshadowed by his total lack of integrity and utter willingness to sell his opinion to the highest bidder.

John

Notice how all these dems try and out do each other for attention. This self serving servant now claims he is receiving death threats, yep more media attention as a result.

Advocate gun confiscation and those who refuse to succumb become felons – exactly how is it the exercise of a Constitutional Right is now being converted into a crime?

Free Helicopter Rides For Commies

Swallows-well doesn’t get it. Not just that there’s a REAL tiger out there called GOA, but that there are an even greater number of gun owners who don’t belong to any 2A organization, but who are willing to go to WAR and kill every last tyrant and jackbooted thug trying to take our guns. Swallows-well doesn’t grasp that if he doesn’t get shot on the spot for treason, he may instead swing from a streetlamp. Gun owners are angry. They’re ready to FIGHT. And you can’t nuke them, Mr. Swallows-well, because Trump holds the nuclear codes – not you –… Read more »

JoeUSooner

Thank you. Excellent points! (DemoKKKrats should – should – pay attention… but they won’t)

Joe Wright

If they try to take fire arms away from citizens, then the citizens have a right to fire defend the Constitution. I wonder how many prosecutor’s and law enforcement officers will say “not here” ?

Rich

So many lamp posts, so few politicians…

Gene Ralno

When one of his listeners warned him that his programs would start a war, his precise response was, “And it would be a short war my friend. The government has nukes. Too many of them. But they’re legit. I’m sure if we talked we could find common ground to protect our families and communities.” He claims it was a joke but I guess I missed the punchline. Doesn’t sound much like a joke, an allegory or even some weird symbolism, to me or anyone I know. This moron clearly is megalomaniacal and dangerous. He’d fire on 120 million of us… Read more »

Clark Kent

Presidential material? YES; according to the Dumbocrats. Don’t underestimate this bozo.

Get Out

The California buffoon who famously suggested last year that gun owners could be nuked, wants to take guns from millions of law abiding Americans. Yeah that tactic will work, threaten people and they’ll give you non-compliance every time. Nowhere in his rant does he even suggest enforcing current gun laws.

Stripeseven

There is an Oath of Office to be taken if a person is to serve the people. Serve not Rule.. Everyone knows what happens when you knowingly lie in a court under oath. Knowingly breaking your sworn commitment to the American people and Constitution should be no different…

Mike

Amen

m.

keep pushing, d-suckers

Tionico

oh put yer willie back inside your skirt already. We all know you”ve a fetish with that thing.

m.

sorry, sir no fetish – just realistic description of people who will do anything – they are probably for pedo-rights

m.

replacement: keep pushing, clowns. better now?

m.

apology to clowns. replacement: keep pushing, Constitution-traitors. better now?

eaglesnester

How many Americans is this asshole willing to murder to enforce his diktats

Will Flatt

Everyone who is a conservative. Liberals have made that clear on college campuses, saying that conservatives all need to be sent to concentration death camps.

That’s why they so desperately need to disarm us first: we will not get into the boxcars willingly.