United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- It will not be long before state legislatures start their sessions for 2022. There is going to be a big question: What should Second Amendment supporters urge their state lawmakers to do?
This is a high-stakes question, if only from the fact that in many cases, the upcoming 2022 elections and the resulting primary campaigns will make getting a lot of legislation passed very difficult. With the exceptions of Virginia and New Jersey, every state legislature has significant seats up for grabs.
With a lot of priorities, which should be the first? When it comes to elections, the task is obvious, defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal state, and local levels. But what about legislatively?
At this point, Second Amendment supporters should play an “offensive defense” when it comes to legislation. The biggest threats are financial deplatforming, “bounty hunter” litigation from the likes of Gavin Newsom, campaign “reform” schemes like the For The People Act, and Silicon Valley censorship,
While passing legislation like constitutional carry, the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act and the Restoring The Armed Career Criminal Act at the state level would not be bad things – a state-level version of the Freedom Financing Act is probably the most important piece of legislation that a state legislature can pass and send to a governor’s desk. If gun manufacturers and FFLs get deplatformed by the financial services industry, those other bills won’t matter.
The “bounty hunting” bills are not likely to pass in most states with a pro-Second Amendment governor or a pro-Second Amendment state legislature. Campaign “reform” schemes are being bottled up by the filibuster for now. As for Silicon Valley censorship, it may be less of an issue a year from now, as the efforts of Donald Trump and others to build a competing infrastructure for technology, payment processing, and social media take off.
It never hurts to be on the field and to actually get out there. When arenas like education, pop culture, and academia were effectively ceded to anti-Second Amendment extremists, the only cause that was hurt was the cause of defending the Second Amendment.
On a similar front, as they get ready for the election fights ahead, pro-Second Amendment groups need to get our message out to everyone. One key move that should have been happening immediately after this past November 2nd was the hiring of translators. As the 2021 election shows, we miss out on 100% of the votes we don’t fight for, and the NRA on Wayne LaPierre’s watch has been blowing this opportunity for over two decades. THIS HAS TO CHANGE.
Second Amendment supporters have a lot to do in 2022. The task of defeating anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local levels via the ballot box will not be easy, but it has to be done. But those wins will be hollow without dealing with the big threats we face.
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.
Priority number 1 in 2022 , take house and Senate and stifle the ilegitiment clownshow Biden and his communist minions . Then it will be 2 years of a braindead lame duck , limp dick in the oval office ! Let’s go Brandon #FJB
They will merely EO everything and/or have agencies regulate us to death. Corrupt SCROTUS will defend them. OnIy Iead will right this Iisting nation.