But are we listening? Whatever else you think of Donald Trump, you can at least be reasonably confident that his support of Second Amendment rights is likely to be far better than his opponent’s. And now that Hillary Clinton is officially the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, we need to assess the likely result her election could have on all of us who own firearms.
Obviously, you shouldn’t need a Doctorate in Political Science to know that Hillary Clinton hates guns, and by extension, gun owners. But until lately, she has been very crafty about concealing her real views from the public, sticking to vague statements about “gun violence” and “protecting children.”
However, she recently made an unusual appearance on FOX News in which she told reporter Chris Wallace that she “didn’t want to take anyone’s guns” and otherwise denied any intention to violate the rights of law-abiding Americans. Sounds good, right?
But her newfound candor reminded me of that famous quote from “Hamlet” which is often paraphrased slightly inaccurately as “Methinks he doth protest too much.” The phrase has come to mean that when one asserts too strongly one’s innocence, guilt may very well be inferred.
Interestingly, what Shakespeare’s character (Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother) actually said was, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” making it perfectly applicable to Ms. Clinton.
After all, for years gun rights advocates have watched how anti-gun Democrats have been reinventing their messaging on guns. They have scrupulously avoided mentioning things like “gun control” in favor or focus-group tested words and phrases like “gun safety” and “keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have them.”
But a recent undercover video interview of a Clinton supporter simply underscores what most of us already knew: behind the “touchy-feely” rhetoric, the gun control agenda remains as entrenched as ever. The now-famous “Project Veritas” filmmaker, James O’Keefe, posed as a Clinton supporter to ask about potential gun legislation under a Hillary Clinton presidency.
In the video, Mary Beyer, a Hillary Clinton Alternate Delegate, openly discusses how the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton hide the fact that they want to ban all guns. She explains the language Hillary Clinton and other Democrats will use to gain public support that will eventually lead to banning all (yes, all) guns.
Just to be sure that Ms. Beyer was not exaggerating, O’Keefe asked her specifically: “Would Hillary Clinton actually support banning ALL guns?” She replied, “For sure…[but] you have to take that sort of moderate ‘We just wanna have common sense legislation so our children are safe!’ You say s–t like that, and then people will buy into it.” Pressed further, she said, “No, right. You got to say you want ‘common sense’ gun legislation.”
When O’Keefe asked if she personally supported such a ban, Ms. Beyers replied, “Oh absolutely, I’m totally against them.”
In my May 20, 2016 commentary (“Gun Safety” – Putting New Lipstick on an Old Pig), I detailed the Democrats’ revamped anti-gun crusade and the language they are using to move it along. Young gang members shot in drug disputes become “children killed by gun violence” and “gun deaths” are inflated by including suicides. And the drumbeat for more and more gun regulations will continue.
The upcoming election will be one of the most controversial in recent history. Just remember that your rights, like the Supreme Court, hang in the balance.
