U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) made public what had been expected and announced a challenge to Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio ahead of the 2022 elections.
The very first question at the very first debate needs to be this.
“Has your stolen service weapon been found? Can you say with certainty your stolen service weapon has not been used in a crime, or worse to injure someone?”
Given her law enforcement background, the pending nomination of gun control lobbyist and activist David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the current surge in criminal firearm violence, the question demands an answer.
With the Senate deadlocked at 50-50 and antigun legislation being debated in both chambers, flipping a Senate seat for gun control means severe consequences on law-abiding gun owners, Second Amendment supporters, and the entire firearm industry.
The History
Rep. Demings has served in Congress since 2016 and has a long record of supporting strict gun control and receiving endorsements from major gun-control groups along the way. Before Congress, her career was with the Orlando Police Department. She started there in 1983, rising to become Chief of Orlando Police in 2007, and retiring in 2011. It was in 2009 when then-Chief Demings made the news. Not good news.
Using the excuse that she was expecting visiting family guests with young children in her home, Rep. Demings placed her OPD service firearm in a duffle bag and left it out in her vehicle. Apparently, neither Rep. Demings nor her sheriff husband, believed in the effectiveness of safe and secure home firearm storage as is emphasized by the firearm industry.
Overnight, the car was broken into and the firearm was stolen. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the theft wasn’t made public until weeks afterward when a tipster alerted media. Rep. Demings was consequently censured and additional reporting shows the firearm has never been recovered.
If At First, You Don’t Succeed
Rep. Demings tried to use her gun control bona fides to vault into higher office once before. She was a contestant in President Joe Biden’s Veepstakes pageant led by Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action, which is part of antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety gun control group. The virtual town hall events were viewed as auditions for prospective vice presidential candidates.
During her audition, Rep. Demings touted a congressional hearing on gun control and described how she proclaimed to a witness, “I’ve enforced the laws. And now I write the laws!” She continued, “And believe me it makes such a difference to understand, to have seen up close and personal what some of the vulnerabilities were or some of the loopholes were in the laws during the time I enforced the laws.” President Joe Biden wasn’t impressed and passed on Rep. Demings, choosing then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) instead.
The Stakes Ahead
Now Rep. Demings is hoping to bring that personal experience to the upper chamber by replacing Sen. Rubio. The contrast couldn’t be more obvious. Sen. Rubio co-sponsored S. 1522, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, and scored an A+ on NSSF’s 2020 Senate Report Card. Rep. Demings is an ardent gun control advocate, who earned an “F” from NSSF on the same report card. To boost her support from antigun groups eyeing the race she recently introduced a package of gun control laws, including closing non-existent “gun show” loopholes, regulating so-called “ghost guns,” restricting lawful firearms already included under the National Firearms Act, and more.
Rep. Demings has also made it clear she supports President Biden’s executive actions on gun control announced earlier this year saying, “President Biden’s orders are measured, evidence-based, and carefully targeted. They will crack down on gun trafficking, ghost guns, and gun modifications…They will help local law enforcement remove guns from volatile situations before violence can erupt. Simply put, they will save lives.”
Those orders include banning the most popular selling semiautomatic rifle being purchased by law-abiding Americans today, promoting “red flag” laws that deny citizens Due Process, closing so-called loopholes (numerous fact-checkers flagged the president’s claims as false), and nominating the antigun lobbyist and activist David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). If Rep. Demings were today Sen. Demings, she could cast her vote that would confirm Chipman’s pending nomination.
The 2022 elections will include several hotly contested races. With Vice President Kamala Harris casting any tie-breaking votes, Republicans need only to net gain one seat to win back control. Second Amendment supporters will be closely watching key races, but Rep. Demings challenging Sen. Rubio in the Sunshine State is one that could have an outsized impact on the rights of lawful gun owners for years to come.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
How stupid of this woman to put her handgun in a bag then place it in her car just because little kids were coming for a visit, she could have unloaded it and put the ammo somewhere away from the handgun and left it in the house until the kids were gone.
I guess she doesn’t own a gun safe of any kind or even a fireproof box.
It’s bad enough she is a United States Congresswoman, now she wants to be a Senator, wake up Florida voters.
hazcat nailed it. little marco co-sponsored red flag laws and endorsed the state one passed here in fl. after parkland, in which law enforcement didn’t do their job and them and politicians blame the law-abiding citizens. i hope he gets challenged in the primary by a Constitutional conservative.
Rubio is also a co-sponsor on the Federal ERPO (Red Flag) law so tell me just how he gets an “A+” rating?
Seems to me NSSF is just as duplicitous as the NRA.
But unlike the NRA, at least the NSSF admits it. They make no pretense of not being a paid subsidiary of the manufacturers. The NRA claims to be reprenting their members, while at the same time banning members that don’t kiss their vice president’s ring.
Worse than a trade representative by far. The NRA is now a religion, not a rights and liberty supporter.
Yep. Unlike Red Flag, which has commie-lib support, S1522 is RINO kabuki. Rs could’ve passed it in Trump’s 1st 2 years. But their game is do nothing when in power, tiger talk & sponsor go-nowhere bills when out.
Once again people telling others what “They must do” while ignoring their own mandates. Sounds like a Democrat.
Sounds like many government employees – Democrat politicians, Republican politicians, law enforcers, low-level bureaucrats, etc. Many law enforcers believe they are the only ones “professional enough” to have firearms. Despite the lack of proficiency (procedures for securing access, handling skills, shooting skills, when to shoot, when not to shoot, etc.) of many law enforcers, they have convinced a large percentage of Americans that ownership of firearms by non-government employees should be heavily regulated. Not only are they the ones who will be enforcing the new gun laws (and they will enforce them), to a large extent they are the ones… Read more »
nut job looking for a fruit cake should send her to comifornia
2009; merely 12 years ago. Should not be difficult to perform a “receipts and disbursements” audit of her and hubbie’s personal. and her campaign finances. …
Of course the weapon will never be found as the serial number has no doubt been obliterated, and it’s likely no longer in the country.
Now I must ask, if a “private citizen”, neither LE nor politically connected were to “lose” a handgun in Florida (Orlando) or Washington DC what would be the consequences ?
Also, why is Rep. Byron Donalds, also from Florida, not welcome in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) ? He’s “black” but a Republican: is there a “religious test” to become a member of the CBC ?
jim crow lives in cbc
i believe it is an anti-religious test.
I agree. … Though my sarcasm refers to the apparent fact that “government” has become the “established religion”.
Consider that there is no statutory definition of “religion”, nor one in Case Law. The IRS has a carefully crafted “administrative” set of characteristics, but the “government” cannot define “religion” without describing the current pervasive institutions, values and mores that are promoted by the demorats in particular and describe the “theocracy” that is the Federal Government.
“Rules for Thee and Not for Me!”…just another typical dumbocrap liberaturd! As the ‘chief’ LEO, I find her actions irresponsible and criminally negligent not properly securing a loaded weapon in her vehicle! Mayhaps she should arrest herself!!
God forbid the CRBs should gain more power.
Never , I repeat, never vote for someone who doesn’t have the mentality of America first. It makes no difference whether Repubs, or Dems. The scripture call these CRBs as Creatians, slow bellies who are only interested in filling their own desires.
Hmm – maybe a good followup question after “hey val where’s your gun” would be does she take advantage of the provisions of LEOSA to ‘protect’ herself. She certainly is a poster child for laws proscribing the Rights of Law Abiding Citizens but likely not herself.
Get a rope! She’s on the list.
vacuous val is nothing but a race baiting antigun skank.
The mistake you people keep making is in assuming that your rights are up for debate among politicians. You aren’t fucking subjects. Quit acting and thinking like subjects. Grow a pair of balls, acknowledge reality, and move forward. All this fear-mongering is pathetic, and is the pastime of women.
Just say no. Our Founding Fathers did so. The vast majority of them paid a dear price for their liberty. But they died free. Just say no.
Stop suckering loyal Americans, Keane. You’re so hot for Cabana Boy, cough up your cash for his campaign. Micro Rubio should be bounced in the primary. My donations go to hard-ass USA-1st conservatives, not foam party RINOs who bend us over every chance they get. Gang of Ocho waterboy for the “cheap labor” mass immigration & amnesty that’s “transforming” so many formerly conservative states like Virginia into 3rd-world S-h0les like Calizuela. S1522 is kabuki for chumps. Cabana Boy Micro & C0rnh0e Cornyn (“R”, Tx) could’ve passed this in Trump’s 1st 2 years. Their game: Do nothing but backstab when in… Read more »
both rubio and cruze act like castro plants would not surprise me if they were. any one who comes from a place with such government subversion and control, lack of any rights ,is either is either absolute will die for rights or part of the problem lie cheat attack others
I doubt Micro Rubio’s a closet-commie, even though his policies advance communism. Just a corrupt little foam party Cabana Boy.
Why are bash Ted Cruz? He was one of the two key leaders of The Magnificent Six who bravely stood on 1/6, opposed The Big Steal, voted not to certify the electors of BOTH Arizona & Pennsylvania.
This should be fun to watch. Macro will finally get his justice from the bogus CNN “Townhall” lynching after Parkland. His revenge will come in the form of Demings hide on his barn door.
Micro is a RINO. S1522 is a typical RINO kabuki fundraising tool to chump Florida conservatives into forgiving Cabana Boy’s many treasons again instead of bouncing him in the primary as they should. Typical “Republican” horseshit: Talk tough & introduce go-nowhere conservative bills when out of power, DO NOTHING but backstab when in power. They could’ve passed this in Trump’s first 2 years.
Wow. Such angst. The point of the article was basically pointless. A stolen handgun (not ‘Missing” as the title notes, there is a difference) remains stolen. Understood. Not unusual. That she was dumb enough to store it in her vehicle (almost certainly an unmarked police vehicle, as all Command Staff are commonly issued) is nothing new, plenty of cops do it regardless of whether it violates policy or not…including me on occasion over my 25 yrs of service just south of where she served. I wouldn’t be surprised if in her mind one or more of her ‘relatives’ were so… Read more »