U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Democrats Should Ditch the Anti-Gun Rhetoric If They Want to Survive 2022,” attorney, author, and former NRA lobbyist Richard Feldman asserts in a Tuesday opinion piece for Politico. “Key components of the party — women, Black people and Latinos — are increasingly gun owners.”
Feldman, for those who have not been following gun issues for years, was the “architect” of the agreement with the Clinton White House to have major handgun manufacturers “voluntarily” include trigger locks with new guns. He’s also the author of Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist.
Say what you will about the man, and I’ve had occasion to disagree with him over the years, you have to admit his indictment of NRA’s “financial bloodsucking” and “scare tactics to keep the money pouring in so that its executives can pay themselves vast salaries” now seem prophetic (not to those of us objecting at the time, but to NRA donors surprised by revelations of the extent of Executive VP Wayne LaPierre’s high living at their expense).
“As the recent election results in Virginia and New Jersey showed, Democrats have a growing problem with rural and working-class voters. They also have a problem with Latino voters and independents and non-college-educated women. ” Feldman observes. “[I]f Democrats want to repair their relationships with these key voter groups there’s another issue that can do it. It’s not climate change or Covid vaccines or even child tax credits. It’s guns.”
That’s an interesting admission on the importance of growing awareness by a significant portion of the electorate that traditionally votes Democrat. But even though inroads have been made with women and minorities, they haven’t been enough to make a truly significant difference with key demographics.
NBC News’ Virginia election results bear that out. Women voted Democrat 53% to 46% Blacks did so by 86%, Hispanic/Latinos by 66%, and Asians by 67%. They are holding on to their political biases despite the self-interest of being new gun owners. Nonetheless, Feldman’s advice is one of messaging and moderation.
“Democrats need to learn how to talk about firearm rights and crime issues without demonizing millions of voters who own guns,” he counsels. “Refocusing the debate on policy solutions to violence, not regurgitating knee-jerk slogans such as ‘banning assault weapons,’ can provide the margin of victory for Democrats in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and make them far more competitive in Florida, Ohio, and Missouri.”
Feldman calls on Democrats to support “a sensible ‘national carry’ program,” to “fund firearm safety education,” to head ATF with “professional law enforcement … not political hacks with axes to grind,” and “to support the import of long guns for self-defense (currently only ‘sporting use’ is allowed).”
“After they put these items up front, they can also talk about background checks in all commercial transfers of guns, and some other fixes that can benefit gun owners and law enforcement professionals,” Feldman advocates. How is unclear, since even the National Institute of Justice admits background check “Effectiveness depends on the ability to reduce straw purchasing, requiring gun registration…”
Unfortunately, his link to those “other fixes” doesn’t include priorities Democrats must currently demand in order to stay on the “good side” of the gun-grabbers they suck up to. So we get no insights on things like “ghost guns” or “red flag” laws with “boyfriend loopholes,” or “No Fly/No Buy,” or ATF arbitrarily changing the rules to suit the disarmament agenda, or “disarming hate,” or “may not issue” carry permits (or permits to buy), or…
He’s recalling a “kinder, gentler” time when he could commiserate with supposed “pro-gun” Democrats like Jack Brooks and John Dingell. He’s not acknowledging that when push came to shove, they chose party “loyalty” over their stated electioneering principles, and stabbed their gun owner supporters in the back, with Dingell resigning from the NRA Board after he and Brooks voted for the Clinton gun ban.
The other thing not being acknowledged here is that no moderation in tone or rhetoric is going to change the ultimate goal of citizen disarmament: a monopoly of violence. And every compromise given to those bent on total control, even something as seemingly trivial as a concession on trigger locks, is one less obstacle for them to overcome, and one more objective secured from which to launch their next incursion. Denials and ridicule of those exposing the end game to the contrary, they really do want to take your guns.
Don’t expect the gun prohibition fanatics and their media cheerleaders to lighten up for a moment, not on the obnoxiousness of their smear attacks, or on lies they tell to spook the underinformed and swindle them out of their birthrights. Their “foot soldiers” have proven to be neither disciplined nor mature enough to engage in reasoned discourse instead of aggressive tantrums.
This isn’t about the “commonsense gun safety” being “demanded” by useful idiots, it’s about total power. It’s not about guns, it’s about freedom. That’s something the totalitarian minds behind citizen disarmament understand completely.
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. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
You notice the effort here isn’t spent on making sure that actual Democrat principles, programs, and priorities towards gun owners actually change… it’s all stated in terms of soft-pedaling all those things so as not to endanger electability. The goal isn’t representation and service, it’s gaining and retaining a position of power so they can do what they want. And most telling is that Feldman proposes all this without appearing even to realize that his priorities are backwards. To him, it’s just business as usual.
Of course! Power is the only thing democrats/ the left/ socialists crave.
They do not care for the welfare of Americans. They want to rule!
Just as the socialist/communists have managed to infiltrate most of the icons of our society, they have also slimed their way into the Republican Party, and why shouldn’t they ? That tactic has worked for them in education, media, unions, corporations and local political offices.
Ditto republicans!
I would rather the Democrat Party continue to espouse their principles, so that people have a clear choice, rather than have them obfuscate their positions only to get elected. There are enough people now who simply listen to the talking points at the moment and never bother to research the “man behind the curtain”.
Very good column.
There is nothing ‘common sense’ about malice.
Another good article, Mr. Codrea. I actively and deliberately renounced the State’s monopoly on violence years ago, in so many words.
Feldman is the perfect example of what has been wrong with the NRA for a long time, especially under LaPierre’s reign of corruption.
lt’s NOT about saving the children, reducing crime, lowering the murder rate, etc. NEVER has been. lt’s about incrementalism. Slowly taking American’s guns inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, step by step. 3 steps forward, one step back. Always marching on with the confiscation agenda, NEVER relinquishing any gained ground.
Too many people have a simple and basic misunderstanding about “gun control.” “Gun control” is not now, and has never been, about crime or criminals. Quite frankly, the Left couldn’t give a rat’s behind about crime or criminals. Gun control is, and has always been, about disarming the citizenry so they cannot represent a threat to the government once the Left establishes the dictatorship they have been working toward for well more than half a century and, thanks to the stolen elections of November 2020 and January 2021, are now in the process of consolidating. The key word in the term… Read more »
Yes, but on that day only 3% of We The People will show up to the fight. The other 97% will “ go along to get along “ . Complacency is the REAL enemy.
If the “balloon” goes up, I really do believe there will be more than 3% of us. If not, then, “We shall all hang separately”!!!!!
“Every Communist must grasp the truth, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party.”
Totalitarian Marxist Democrats work to force total citizen disarmament, for all the same reasons that totalitarians have always disarmed citizens.
“Public safety” is nothing more than THE DECEPTION pushed forward, to incrementally achieve that goal!
Mr. Codrea, I read your articles here all the time, all of them are very weel written and factual. My own opinion here is that the Democrats have been wanting to disarm us law abiding citizens for years. The late Mass. Senator Ted Kennedy was major gun control proponent before the days of Handgun Control and all the other antigun groups and the politicians at all levels of government that support their anti gun agenda. A very good book to read on gun control is a book titled Gun Control by the late Robert Kukla printed in 1973. very informative.… Read more »
Still shilling for the NRA I see.
David Codrea has NEVER shilled for the NRA. I’m gonna guess you simply scanned over the article rather than actually reading it. Also, you confused Codrea for ACTUAL NRA SHILL, Harold Hutchinson.
Go cry somewhere else
Awe, does your vagina hurt?