Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are doing their best to play down their anti-gun activism these days, but they can't stop their friends and allies in the gun control movement from showing their true colors.
While the Democratic candidates are claiming they're not interested in taking anyone's guns, groups like Giffords are reminding voters that gun bans aren't the only thing they're interested in. They want to denormalize gun ownership altogether. Getting together with fellow Second Amendment supporters to watch Tuesday's night debate, for instance, is now a "horrific and insulting" activity... at least if it happens in Georgia.
Donald Trump and the RNC are hosting a debate watch party at a Georgia gun superstore less than an hour away from Apalachee High School—where last week two students & two teachers were killed in a mass shooting.
— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) September 10, 2024
This is horrific and insulting to a community healing from tragedy. pic.twitter.com/t2kJgSwYis
According to Google Maps, Adventure Outdoors is a 59-minute drive from Apalachee High School (without traffic). At times, it's closer to two hours.
Less than an hour away? It's literally on the other side of Atlanta. Stop it. 🤡 pic.twitter.com/XVqs0KR1RZ
— MOAR GUNS, LESS TAXES! (@ThenAlexSaid1) September 10, 2024
Less than an hour away. So what would be inappropriate distance? 3 hours? 14 hours? My guess is, it could be on the other side of the state and you would complain that it was in the same state.
— 🏴☠️AlphonseC🏴☠️ (@BPoppagiorgio) September 11, 2024
It doesn't really matter how close or how far away the gun store is from Winder, Georgia, to be honest. Giffords is desperate to portray gun owners, Trump supporters, and Second Amendment advocates as cold and heartless monsters, and this was a cheap (if not particularly effective) way to smear them.
Oh yes, no one should date exercise their rights anywhere in GA going forward. The endless fake outrage is insanely tiresome.
— Military Arms (@MAC_Arms) September 10, 2024
I don't know that I'd call the outrage "fake". I'm sure that there are plenty of Giffords staffers who were genuinely incensed that any gun store was hosting a debate watch party, especially one within a two-hour drive of a recent high-profile shooting. But that just goes to show how extreme these folks really are.
This isn't about "gun safety". It's not even about gun control. It's about demonizing gun owners... or at least those gun owners who don't buy into the idea that we'll be safer once our rights are turned into privileges to be doled out by the state.
Given the overwhelmingly negative response to Giffords' tweet, I don't think the post had the impact the anti-gunners were hoping for. In fact, they ended up giving Adventure Outdoors some free advertising. My colleague Tom Knighton, who lives in southern Georgia, hadn't heard of the Syrmna superstore until he spotted the gun control group's post, but now he plans on checking out the shop the next time he makes the drive up to the Atlanta area.
The Harris/Walz campaign is hoping to convince gun owners that they're not the enemy, but the fact is that outfits like Giffords do view Second Amendment supporters as their existential foes, and their throwing their weight behind the Harris/Walz campaign.
Harris can claim to own a gun. She can refuse to outline the specifics of her gun ban plans or explain why she's supposedly no longer in favor of a mandatory "buyback" of semi-automatic long guns. She can try to run away from her history of anti-gun extremism, but there's no way she'll distance herself from her friends in the gun control movement and their animosity towards lawful gun owners and our right to keep and bear arms.
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