By Tim Andrews
On September 3, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution, “declaring that the NRA is a domestic terrorist organization.” We’ve heard similar statements from others but what’s significant about this one is that it is coming from a government body. If you are an NRA member who many of us are, you are now labeled as part of a terrorist organization.
Yes, it’s only the San Francisco Board of Supervisors but how far are we from similar action by New York State’s legislature or our governor? Governor Cuomo has already told us we aren’t welcomed in New York. Even on the federal level, of the current slate of Democratic candidates for president how many of them would disagree with the action taken in San Francisco? My guess is not many, if any.
It’s becoming apparent that radical extremism is ruling the day and its foot is in the door of governments across the United States.
It’s not just guns, it’s issues like illegal immigration and infanticide, even killing babies after they’ve survived an abortion. This is just a sample of the extremism that grips our country today. Make no mistake there is a movement and an effective one, to totally change our culture, our traditions and ultimately our constitution. It is not hyperbole to say the Democratic party is quickly becoming a radical extreme left party.
It’s not just guns, many Democrats are now calling for abolishing the electoral college. If they’re successful, our federal government would look more like San Francisco and New York City. The large urban areas of the United States would likely elect future presidents, and middle America would be forgotten. The Second Amendment would eventually disappear, and American’s gun rights would be gone forever.
It wasn’t long ago when gun grabbers would always couch their rhetoric by telling us they weren’t out to take guns away from law-abiding citizens, some would even claim they supported the Second Amendment. Well, no more, the veil is off, countless politicians and gun control groups are now calling for gun bans and confiscations. Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke in a presidential debate flat out told us if he’s elected, he’s coming for your AR-15’s and AK-47’s. With the unSAFE Act and the recent red flag law, we already have confiscation laws in New York State.
New York’s recently enacted red flag law not only attacks Second Amendment rights, but it also undermines due process rights as guaranteed under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments as well. Think about it, rights given to ruthless criminals are now being denied to law-abiding American citizens. Furthermore, if you are wrongly accused, your accuser under New York’s law, faces no criminal repercussions. Under New York’s red flag law your firearms can be confiscated even if you haven’t been convicted of a crime or even had your day in court. Your day in court will come only after you’ve had your guns confiscated. Whether or not you ever get your guns back may very well depend on your ability to pay for a defense.
For years we’ve dealt with gun prohibitionists in the media as well as politicians using the smokescreen of public safety to advance their agenda. They’ve used emotion over intellect to convince a naive public that guns are the problem. What’s totally ignored is the breakdown in our education system, mental health, and law enforcement. Just about every mass shooter can be connected to one or more of these failures and the gun grabbers have no interest in addressing any of these bureaucratic failures. It’s fair to ask, why not? What is their end goal? If it was really about safety and protecting lives why aren’t they addressing issues other than guns that clearly play a role in crime and violence? It’s simple, it’s about control, every tyrannical government in history began with gun confiscation. That is why we have a Second Amendment.
If you think that’s not true read the following from Democratic Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968, "Certainly, one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. ... the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." Humphrey was a Democrat who clearly understood the purpose of the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment first and foremost is about protecting us from politicians like Beto O’Rourke.
When it comes to the future of our country we live in perilous times. And the sad fact is most gun owners are missing in action (MIA) in the fight for our gun rights. For example, it’s estimated there are well over one hundred million-gun owners in the United States. Of that number, the NRA touts their membership at five million, at best a meager 5% of gun owners. I believe many of those gun owners who are MIA, just don’t recognize the threat. Many are hand gunners, shot gunners or guys with Remington 700 bolt actions who don’t think they’ll ever come for their guns. Well, the game has changed; under red flag laws, all gun owners are in jeopardy of losing their guns. You couldn’t be more wrong if you think politicians like O’Rourke are going to stop with ARs and AKs. If half the gun owners in New York and around the country joined the fight we could win the fight. Politicians like New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand would probably even become pro-gun, again. Excuse my sarcasm but given her record of hypocrisy that’s probably accurate.
The current attacks on our Second Amendment rights are unparalleled in our history. Based on the action taken in San Francisco you, if you’re an NRA member or if you simply support in the Second Amendment, are now considered a terrorist. This is a call to action, in the words of Ben Franklin, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
This is more than a war on our gun rights; it’s a war on America, our culture, and the principles of our country’s founding. I have never seen a time when our rights as citizens have been in more jeopardy.
