AG Report 4.20.2023

Forgetful Gun Activists

A primary reason gun control activists struggle to gain any traction in their crusade is that they aren’t honest about their goals. What they truly want is a complete ban and mass-confiscation of guns, but that isn’t likely to happen in a country with widespread gun ownership. So instead, they engage in a disingenuous pattern of pretending that their incremental proposals will magically solve problems, blaming those who notice for not just playing along, and developing amnesia about past compromises. We see the same cycle after every mass shooting, something that’s consistently abetted by the media.

A few examples from recent weeks: 

June 4, 2022: After the Uvalde attack, San Antonio Spurs Coach Greg Popovich received media praise for attacking Republicans and demanding they “do something” about gun control.

June 25, 2022: Congress passes an NRA-opposed gun control bill with the help of Senate Republicans. Popovich says nothing.

April 9, 2023: Following the Nashville shooting, Popovich goes on a 9-minute viral rant attacking Republicans for refusing to pass anything.

This isn’t an isolated incident:

After the Parkland shooting in 2018, gun control activists excoriated Republicans and the NRA. Activist and Parkland alumnus David Hogg said Republicans had blood on their hands and referred to then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott as “the devil.” Then, Scott went against the NRA and passed a bunch of new gun restrictions for the state. 

Skip ahead to this past week: now Sen. Scott announces that his friend has died in a shooting. Hogg replied by saying Scott was “complicit” in his friend’s death. Other gun activists and liberal pundits also ghoulishly chose to dunk on Scott for discussing his friend’s death. 

See the problem? Although congressional Republicans and Scott made substantive concessions that were unpopular with their side, activists who demanded they “do something” went back to pretending they did nothing as soon as those concessions were made. That’s because what they did wasn’t nearly as effective at stopping school shootings as had been suggested.

lIt turns out that people who are already eager to break laws and kill people are not easily stopped by a few more gun laws — especially when the same people advocating for those laws often support DAs who don’t enforce them.