United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Second Amendment supporters will be dealing with primary elections for federal, state, and local offices soon. There will be a lot of those elections in 2022, notably the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 34 seats in the Senate, and roughly three dozen governorships.
That’s a lot of seats to keep track of, even before we get into the down-ballot races in the states. There will be a lot of candidates. Some will be famous before they ran for office, like Dr. Oz. Others, not so famous. One thing each candidate who does not have a track record of being an anti-Second Amendment extremist in office should get from Second Amendment supporters is an open mind. Even Doctor Oz deserves an open mind from Second Amendment supporters. I AM NOT ENDORSING DR. OZ BY SAYING THIS.
That being said, one thing that seems apparent is that he has emerged from the COVID lockdowns with a new level of skepticism of government overreach and public health “experts.” He’s also repudiated his statements backing the lockdowns. Despite past statements on gun control that raise concerns, perhaps he has evolved similarly.
After all, six years ago, Donald Trump was a celebrity candidate with similarly questionable past statements on gun control.
All he did as President was put three justices on the court who are likely to deal a blow to “may issue” gun laws in less than two years after he left office. It wouldn’t hurt to just ask Dr. Oz a few questions and hear him out while vetting him. If you’re not happy with him, there are other candidates running in the primary.
Now, some unrelated issues may disqualify a candidate for office, even with a good track record on the Second Amendment. Liz Cheney rapidly comes to mind on that front. Adam Kinzinger has resolved the conundrum he created for Second Amendment supporters by retiring. Good riddance to him, and hopefully, we will be able to say the same to Liz Cheney. It should take a lot to reach that point. This will be a big question for Second Amendment supporters to answer in Missouri vis-à-vis former governor Eric Greitens.
We’ve learned lessons from 2021, 2020, and 2018. Some of these lessons came after victories we fought hard for. Others came from defeats that must be learned from. But if those lessons are applied while vetting candidates and keeping an open mind, Second Amendment supporters can defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels and secure the Second Amendment for future generations.
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.
Harold… you are doing it again. Like the serpent in the garden. Oz is a gun grabber from way back. If he changes his rhetoric for the moment, his history is clear.
95% of the House and Senate are corrupt criminal sleezebags who care more about money and power than ANYTHING ELSE. They will sell their vote in a heartbeat, and are accurately said to work for their corporate sponsors rather than their so-called constituents. They lie every time their lips move, and their arrogance knows no bounds. Neither party represents the average American citizen.
Then why don’t you begin work to start removing them from office?
AS IF we had open, honest and transparent elections. The only way we’re going to get rid of all of these traitorous and tyrannical politicians is a way that Ammoland would probably censor me for. Instead, I’ll post a meme to get my point across:
An “open mind”? Harold, Harold, Harold. What gun voters should do — MUST do — is to research the history of a given candidate, i.e. voting records, bill sponsorship and survey results, and then make an informed decision on whether or not to support said candidate. “Open minds” have nothing to do with it.
Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
That is what keeping an open mind means. I agree it is important to keep an open mind. However to follow Harold one must open their mind to point where there brains fall out.
As with national borders, openings must be controlled and entry provided only to that/those which are beneficial
That is most humorous.
“Even Doctor Oz deserves an open mind from Second Amendment supporters. I AM NOT ENDORSING DR. OZ BY SAYING THIS.”
Wow. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth! Oz is a leftist slimeball who hates guns! Yet Harold tells us we should ignore the evidence and have “an open mind”… If you keep your mind wide open, your brains will fall out, as he has amply demonstrated!
Harold, you don’t belong on Ammoland or ANY other 2A related site. We’re sick of your BS and pray for the day when Ammoland kicks you to the curb!!
Harold, you might have mentioned that everything is won or lost in the primary elections. What I mean by that is that we are stuck with whomever the democrat or repub parties pick, unless we primary in a pro-gun candidate. If our pro-gun candidates win in the primaries then the the various parties are stuck with whomever we picked.
True, except we no longer have open, honest & transparent elections. America is no longer a republic, nor does the government obey the Constitution.
If the entire American people wake up to the deficiencies that you point out, maybe … with work and monetary sacrifice … maybe we can get back to a clean government populated by honest legislators.
I am willing to hold the revolution in abeyance until I see the result of the November 2022 election.
that would take a real insurrection with gallows ,and walls full of holes. problem is not just “elected people” but bureaucrats that redefine words so law fits their ideas of control fbi and atf are great at this
Yes, the bureaucrats. Federal bureaucrats belong to the executive branch. GS 14s and on up, and the Senior Executive Service, by law, sit at the pleasure of the president and are only entitled to two weeks notice.
The president could fire them all in a single memo to the Office of Personnel Management. Those bureaucrats could do a lot of damage in two weeks. So they would have to be kept away from their computers and cell phones, somehow.
I’m usually a wait-and-see kind of guy, too. Sometimes a good result happens that might not have, when one just exercises a bit of patience.
If the commiecrats rig the 2022 election and pull another false-flag attack like the J6 Reichstag Fire, then we will know it’s time. And it won’t take the entirety of America, but only 3%. Three percent who are willing & able to do the right thing.
Yes, we must use our time wisely. Three percent would be about nine million three hundred thousand persons to feed, arm, train and deploy. I guess, between now, and the time that the balloon goes up, we should probably think about how to do that.
Could we get by on one percent?
Possibly, but I’d prefer 2% minimum. My thoughts are we will need those millions, led by ex-cops and ex-military, not just because we will need overwhelming numbers but because these former LE/MIL can train everyone who steps up to save America. We’ll get the remaining 1-2% when these tyrants call in UN “peacekeepers”, which would almost absolutely be Chinese. At that point, regardless of politics, EVERYONE would turn on this illegitimate regime and their hired thugs. It would be a dark time for America, and no sane person wants it (except the other side does). But as always, Americans who… Read more »
Some of Harold’s columns are less offensive than others. This one reminds me of the one he wrote instructing us to seek out pro-gun democrat candidates to vote for.
I hope that when Harold writes on other venues that he does not claim to be the voice of gun owners. There have been many calls to get rid of Harold here.
I imagine they will keep him to cause argument and division.
“Even Doctor Oz deserves an open mind from 2A supporters. I AM NOT ENDORSING DR. OZ BY SAYING THIS.“ -Harold The Strategist
Oh, how delightfully coy!
Oz is a gun-grabbing slimeball. Stop trying to think, Harold. It’s dangerous in your case. You have a pretty mouth going for you though, which is nice.
STRIKE GROUP REAGAN!
Ah yeah, good ole Trump! Made a lot of political hay in 2016 talking about the need for Nationwide Reciprocity but what we got instead was a bumpstock ban and calls for red flag laws and raising the age to buy long guns, which he dropped when enough hell was raised. Yes, he supposedly appointed some lower court judges that were better than the ones they replaced and he gave us three new Supremes of questionable leanings. Dr Oz, I cannot bring myself to trust any further than I could throw him. He gained fame and fortune through Oprah, who… Read more »
“Trump took credit for the “incredible speed” & his partnership with pharma.
“People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.” [Yep! Just <48hrs later]
“I came up with 3 vaxes in <9 mos. All are very, very good. It was supposed to take 5-12 yrs. [for safety] The vaxes work. The ones who get very sick don’t take it. If you take it, you’re protected. If you get it, it’s a very minor form.”
Trump said despite inoculations working, he’s against mandates. “People have to have their freedom.”
i.e. You can be idiots if you really want to.
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-pushes-back-candace-owens-144156635.html
Now that is funny. Look at the down votes against Trump, because Russn8r is merely quoting Trump’s words. Must be Trumpbots or numbskulls. Yes, the vaccines were developed in record time and given emergency authorization. Unfortunately, that leaves safety wide open especially when there is no liability for big pharma. The vaccines have proven not to be safe and in many cases have become ineffective. Yes, some people are dying both from the vaccines and after being vaccinated due to the Chinese virus. All three are not “very, very” good and have flaws. Meanwhile big pharma does all it can… Read more »
The shots {I wont call it a vaccine because it is not} like with many other things definitions now seem to be fluid ,what it is, is gene therapy. so with this not fully understood cellular key they have made more people have auto immune disorder , the heart problems and clots could be a sign of worse to come, sad part is there is two (that i know of) vaccines under trial both room temp stable ;one is a inhaler ,the other a pill . you dont hear about science and truth when big money is involved.. var c… Read more »
I’m going to be honest and say what I’ve felt for a while. I hope Trump doesn’t run in 2024. I voted for him in 2016 and 2020, but split Presidential terms isn’t what this country needs. We need a solid 8 years of Conservative leadership to correct all the problems the Obutthead and the Demented One have and are causing. 4 years isn’t enough. I like Trump, though he didn’t keep his word on gun control issues. I like what he did for the most part. But even if both House a Senate stay with GOP leadership, the Democrat’s… Read more »
“Perhaps he has evolved similarly?” Are you kidding me?
Unless he comes forth with unequivocal statements supporting
the 2ND Amendment, we should get rid of him in the primary voting process.
Hey! There are even leftists and Democrats who, “support the Second Amendment”. It’s called, “paying lip service”. As for Republicans, if a GOP contender is kinda non-commital or on the fence, what are you going to do? Not voting for him will surely elect a Dem.
Voting RINO in primaries surely elects Dems or worse: Traitors in our tent are more destructive than the open enemy outside.
I remain highly skeptical of Dr. Oz but voters in PA need to consider 2 questions: 1) Is there a candidate for the Senate who is a true 2A advocate AND capable of defeating the presumably anti-2A Democrat candidate? If Oz is the Republican candidate, will he be the lesser of two evils? Why does a Missouri resident even care? Other than the obvious, because until a couple years ago I wanted to move to the beautiful countryside of PA and a Senator can help set the political tone for the entire State. However, a little research showed that Pennsylvania’s… Read more »
I believe Harold may have brought up Missouri because of Eric Greitens’ political past. Although he’s a former Navy SEAL and Republican Governor, he left office early under pressure of a Soros lead attack (he was cleared of all charges) but has recently come out against Missouri Pro 2A law banning local and state LEO from enforcing or helping to enforce federal anti-2A laws. He has backed a number of Sheriffs who complain that they will lose revenue due to this law. Boo-Hoo. Nothing like having an elected official beholding to the feds… Kind of like Crenshaw…
Being a SEAL, having a prestigious education, and winning a gubernatorial election is no guarantee of moral integrity or even just basic honesty. Greitens is a born politician, was never a strong advocate for the Second Amendment, and the least likely candidate to win my primary vote.
Texas is calling!
Anyone who reads these articles and comments regularly knows I rarely agree with anything Harold has to say. This is one of those rare occasions when I do somewhat agree with some of what he said. Primary elections are far more important to “us” than most people think! The primaries are where we need to get rid of RINOs and support the best available candidate. At the same time we have to recognize that the “best available” candidate might not be everything we would dream of. The problem is often with deciding what “best available” really means. If your litmus… Read more »
Fits with calling pro-gunners idiots who think Baldwin’s guilty of manslaughter under basic rules of gun safety.
Preachy pseudo-prag sophists who vote in primaries for Undocumented Dems like gun grabber Oz – based on a self-fulfilling prophesy that only a RINO can win – ensure that we win nothing even if he wins – and we keep losing even when “we” are in the majority, as in Trump’s first 2 years.
“People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.” -Donald Trump, did a lot of good things, collaborated with DiFi & Schumer for “reasonable” gun control, now an accomplice to mass murder
Odd? I thought the Surgeon General and the head of the Department of Health and Human Services were tasked with these issues?
In essence, you are correct. Trump is pro Vax in a big way. He did sit down with gun grabbers and discuss “Common sense” gun legislation. I still wanna vomit when I see the pic of him and Feinstein laughing about it. He did ban bumpstocks while the fudd community applauded. He did say he “didn’t like” suppressors. Yes I would consider another candidate.
But which other candidate?
DeSantis
I seem to recall some Ammolander warning us that DeSantis is no friend of the Second Amendment, but I truly do not remember who that was.
I see no evidence DeSantis is unfriendly to 2A, just smear by TEX et socks. OTOH to get Abbott’s # just browse TexasScorecard.com
The problem’s Hammer & LaPierre. FL could’ve had true CC decades ago if it weren’t for their corruption & support of “gun free” zones.
Question shouldn’t be who, but how. No evidence presented. Just smear by a foul mouth thug with multiple sock pups – i.e. dishonest person.
Ahhh, I see.
Poor weather on the way. Spent all morning, after feeding adding thick bedding to every stall, dog house, pen, and rose bush.
Happy New Year’s worth of guns and ammo to you and all the Ammolanders!
straight and honest wow, people forget he is a product of new york city so he will have that slant, ronald reagan signed the worst gun control laws he spent too much time in comifornia
Yes and let’s not forget his little fix NICS that took gun rights from many Americans for misdemeanor crimes . He was not a strong second amendment supporter but he was very good for the economy as he is a businessman and not a career politician ! The rich all fear the common man being armed and able to defy them !
Spot on Harold
I think more of a near miss. I will have to get my caliper.
Giving gun grabbing RINO Oz an open mind is spot on? Let’s give Schumer & DiFi an open mind too! They worked with Trump for ‘reasonable’ gun control. ‘Strategists’ like HH & the tools who buy his crap are why the R party’s infested with Undocumented Dems & we keep losing even when in the majority.
OK FUDD