With all of the attention on the upcoming presidential election, it’s easy to ignore more immediate threats to our liberties right in our own backyards. The old saying, “All politics is local,” is as accurate today as ever. And gun control fanatics have seized on a clever vehicle to do an end-run around state legislators: the ballot referendum.
You may recall that in 2014, a majority of voters in Washington State approved just such a ballot measure, requiring that all sales of firearms, even sales between individuals, have to go through an FFL dealer. Note also that the massive ad campaign in favor of the bill was heavily funded by billionaires like Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Michael Bloomberg, who spent millions of dollars to push the bill.
Their tactic was perfectly explained in a Time Magazine article following the referendum:
“The new national strategy is to largely bypass Congress, where recent gun control efforts have gotten little traction even in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. Instead, gun control activists say they are redirecting their attention and money to states—and to voters directly.” [Emphasis ours]
As usual, proponents deceptively referred to the initiative as a “universal background check”—a canard, since you and I know there is not now, nor will there ever be, any such thing. Violent gang members and dope dealers are not suddenly going to start buying their guns legally. Nor are domestic terrorists inspired by ISIS going to submit to ANY background check. Even a majority of Washington’s county sheriffs opposed the measure, arguing (correctly) that it is “completely unenforceable.”
But no matter, because there were sufficient numbers of people who were naïve enough about the issue and were thus easily persuaded by the $10 million avalanche of emotional propaganda. Interestingly, approximately half of the money came from just a dozen people, and the overwhelming majority of contributions came from only a dozen zip codes in and around Seattle.
Well, they’re back. The Alliance for Gun Responsibility (AGR), formerly the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility and the same organization that pushed through the “universal background check” referendum, is now advancing yet another, potentially even more insidious, proposal.
This time AGR is seeking to create a new “extreme risk protection order” law similar to one adopted in California in reaction to the Santa Barbara killing spree. Their goal is to put the issue on the November, 2016 ballot.
According to the AP:
“The extreme-risk protection orders are modeled after the well-established domestic violence protection orders. The group says they would empower families and law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily suspend access to guns if a person threatens violence.” [Emphasis ours]
Note that they admit that there already are “well-established domestic violence” statutes that deal with domestic violence. Obviously, such a policy would do little to prevent a committed killer from getting, and using, any gun he or she wants. But such laws, no matter how innocent sounding, create an enormous opportunity for abuse—all without due process.
The United States is a Constitutional, Representative Republic, and not, as some still persist in falsely claiming, a “democracy.” The founders knew that pure “democracy” is simply mob rule. A referendum can too easily become just that.
“All politics is local.” So, stay vigilant, stay informed, and stay involved with everything that is going on in your state. Your rights depend on it.
Watch your “Six.”
