courtesy nbcnews.com

“Gun advocates face another problem: the complacency that sets in on the right when there’s a Republican in the White House, which suggests the paradox within which the NRA always exists. The organization and its patrons in the gun industry never do better than when their allies are out of power and they are able to cry ‘They’re coming for your guns!’ But when there is a Republican in the White House, only the most gullible gun nuts believe it. Since Trump was elected, the industry has experienced what some call a ‘Trump slump,’ a dramatic slowdown in gun sales. As of yet, we don’t see signs that the aftermath of the Parkland shooting and the dramatic increase in liberal activism has convinced gun owners they need to be afraid of sweeping new laws.” – Paul Waldman in This is a bad time for Trump to appear before the NRA [via washingtonpost.com]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

44 COMMENTS

    • Then join the military, because unless you’re lucky enough to find somebody selling a select fire rifle, and they’re legal in your state, and you’re willing to pay $30k or more for it, the military is the only place you’ll get an assault rifle.

      • It’s my understanding that the military doesn’t even use the label “assault rifles.”

        Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy Center did/does and he is credited with creating one of the most successful examples of labeling to influence opinion that I have ever seen in modern politics. He’s even got a lot of Gun folks using it. The Antis love turning words against us. It’s what they do best. When you don’t have to bother with facts and logic I guess you have a lot of spare time for that.

        • “Assault rifle” was a term coined by Hitler for propaganda purposes to describe the new select fire, gas/recoil operated, detachable box magazine, intermediate caliber rifle. Like John Thompson who invented the term “sub-machinegun” for marketing purposes, the informal term stuck for a class of weapons. “Assault rifle” was redefined in the 80’s (again for propaganda purposes) and has become a real legal term in some states (I.E. California). What ever it was before, the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Truth have successfully made it mean something else by codifing the term in statutory law and even in English dictionaries.
          http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/31/merriam-webster-online-dictionary-changes-definition-assault-rifle/

        • “Assault rifle” is a technical term that is defined as a rifle that fires an intermediate-power cartridge and has automatic fire capability. “Assault weapon” is the politically-created term by Josh Sugarmann.

        • They don’t use the term, “assault weapon”, they use the term “assault rifle” for the “poodle-shooter” the military’s smallest “modern [select-fire] battle rifle” that uses the smallest [intermediate sized ammo] RIFLE ammo that allows a professional shot, to take down an enemy target in a called shot.
          . . And also will take down such a target in a burst-fire snap shot.

        • The Germans created the only “assault weapon”. The StG 44 (abbreviation of Sturmgewehr 44, “assault rifle 44”) is a German selective-fire rifle developed during World War II. It is also known under the designations MP 43 and MP 44 (Maschinenpistole 43 and 44).

          The StG 44 was the first successful and widely produced design to use a new shorter cartridge, which permitted controllable automatic fire from a weapon more compact than a battle rifle, coupled with the recognition that most aimed rifle fire in combat situations did not exceed a few hundred metres.

          By all accounts, the StG 44 fulfilled its role effectively, particularly on the Eastern Front, offering a greatly increased volume of fire compared to standard infantry rifles. It would go on to influence the AK-47 in the years following shortly after the war. However, it came too late to have a significant effect on the outcome of the war. Its lasting effect was its major influence on modern infantry small arms development.

          The US Military never used an assault weapon until the development of the SAW (Squad Assault Weapon). The M-16 was never known as an assault rifle. The military classified it as a “rifle” in official literature, and the military never adopted the AR-15. It took Feinstein to change the nomenclature of the AR-15 from a hunting rifle “good for small game and varmints on ranch and farm”, to a pure bred military weapon.

    • :But when there is a Republican in the White House, only the most gullible gun nuts believe it. ”

      Says the people who did not see all the laws passed by turn coats

      “Since Trump was elected, the industry has experienced what some call a ‘Trump slump,’ a dramatic slowdown in gun sales.”

      Bullshit…

      “As of yet, we don’t see signs that the aftermath of the Parkland shooting and the dramatic increase in liberal activism has convinced gun owners they need to be afraid of sweeping new laws.”

      Yeah because their isnt anyone wanting to use this preventable event to take our rights away, right?

      ” – Paul Waldman in This is a bad time for Trump to appear before the NRA [via washingtonpost.com”

      If a leftist says something is a bad idea, its a great idea and must be done.

      Donnie or Eric, we know you or someone close to you reads this blog, dump the bump stock ban, just humble yourself before your base (us) and we will look past this….

      We have so many other issues we need to deal with, (invasion on the border, activist judges, deep state, GOP turn coats, demographic shift, etc) we do not need to waste time or poltial capital on a non issue that just turns your base into felons, gives the enemies of freedom more power/tools to harm Americans…

      Donnie, their is still time to stop the keys from turning…To walk it back, and unite your base and independents, no one will even remember you killing the bump stock ban, mid terms and other new will sweep it under the rug and if you do so on a late Friday night before your talk with NK, it will not even be noticed….Listen to your base, not that fool Wayne and Cox at the NRA…

  2. I live in the Parkland area. As I see it gun ranges are as busy as ever. Guns are flying out of stores. Other then the same libitard screaming..Things are back to more or less normal.

  3. Ive bought two guns since Parkland. Both were sort of spite buys, but 1 was an M1 carbine that I’ve always wanted.

    • Them M1 carbines used to be two hunert dollar guns, I traded mine for a Carcano. Mistake # gazillion.

  4. Still complacent? Yup. The push for the SHARE Act and National CC Reciprocity has been made 1000% more difficult by not striking when the iron was hot before Vegas, Sutherland, and Parkland. Everybody got lazy and rested on their laurels waiting for “Daddy Trump” to dispense goodies.

    We need to stop playing defense and always be on the offensive.

    • Ever notice how these last several mass shootings occurred right at critical time points with pro 2A Amendment legislation pending?

      • Once is misfortune. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

        We’re still at coincidence.

      • Many, if not most Progressives, can justify the murder of millions of the unborn for simple convenience. What makes you think there are some that could not justify the murder of a relative few that have survived the womb, to push forward their need for more power and control?

        Because in the end, the progressive elite have complete contempt for the masses, the “useless eaters and breeders”. Only the collective, of which they want to be in complete control, is of any importance to them. And for the truly devout progressive, the ends justify the means. Simply look at the record of progressivism and its roots in communism/marxism to see the hundreds of millions of those “useless eaters and breeders” murdered to fulfill their dream of utopia.

        So were these last couple of mass shootings done on purpose, “false Flags”, if you will? I’m not proposing that they were, but if future evidence were to show that this was the case, I would not be shocked nor surprised. .

        So do not be naive, just because you or I would not be able to murder an innocent for personal gain; history in general, and communism,/marxism/progressivism in particular, shows that the murder of the innocent for the agenda of complete control over others, is the norm.

      • I wouldn’t put it past the Deep State elements at the FBI to have slow walked the numerous Parkland warnings or to have “misplaced” the paperwork documenting the leads to follow up on; hoping the killer would do it and they’d get the anti-gun legislation they wanted. However, that’s the extent of my conspiracy mindedness on that matter. I certainly don’t believe that the government was actively involved.

        • Hmmm, to me, kind of a “lawyering” point you make J-T.
          If I was to find that was the case, that some individual(s) in the FBI or other “deep state” organization actually did ignore the Parkland shooter, (the young man that stated he wanted to be a professional school shooter), hoping that he would end up committing a mass shooting, I would think of these deep State individual(s), as an active participant, if not out right instigators, in the event. I believe most other people would see it the same way.

          So what is the law about such a situation? If I discovered by chance, a person who was planning on committing a mass murder, and did not report him hoping that he would commit this mass murder, and it could be proved that this was my intent in not reporting him, could I be charged as an accessory to the event? Maybe those knowledgeable about the law comment

        • *devils advocate* you can say the same thing for the gun industry and NRA. When ever gun industry stocks start to slump and people start to lose interest in the NRA, there’s a mass shooting and the numbers skyrocket….. I know the uptick in numbers is due to the post incident gun-control saber rattling. But it has almost become automatic at this point since the antis follow a sort of script. Even more so since we see *our* representatives caving to the (unarmed) screaming mob…. I’m of the mind that politicians should be scared of the silent mob that is armed to the teeth (us), but we live in upsidedown world now where boys are girls and dogs pee in the litter box.

  5. Ya, overreaching state gun control laws, media pushing kids who call gun owners murderers, Trump himself waffling or appearing to waffle in support of gun control laws, and the thought of Dems flipping the House and maybe even the Senate has no impact at all.

    Long as you can ignore the NRA’s bump in membership and tripling of donations, ignore the fact the enthusiasm gap is closing, ignore the generic candidate preference for Dems has dropped to single digits, ignore that even Millennial preference for Dems has dropped 9 points, and ignore the record and near record NICS checks happening the last few months anyway.

    But who cares about facts? Just keep saying that you’re winning and doing what you’re doing and claim the other side isn’t going to show up and it’ll be as true this time as it was in 2016.

    • This site tends to ignore when pro-gun forces rally. That people are complacent even when they’re not. So all the things you bring up TTAG ignores it. I guess to try and motivate us. a lot of gun owners don’t know what’s going on in there own states. Only on the federal level. And if the democrats are in control you can have 100% of the gun owning population become politically active but democrats don’t care. They will push it anyway.

  6. Complacency about the potential for “Sweeping new gun laws” aren’t the problem for the time being, the wholesale assault on our privacy as gun owners by the banking industry *is*.

    Read this, it will scare the living hell out of you in it’s implications –

    The Wall Street Journal article is paywalled, the linking article provides the gist of this new attack :

    “Credit-Card Companies Explore New Ways To Monitor Gun Purchases”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/banks-card-companies-explore-ways-to-monitor-gun-purchases-1525080600

    “One bank has even had conversations with lawmakers about a bill to require merchants to report ALL purchases of certain “gun-related” products.

    Currently, card companies, including networks and banks that issue credit cards, have little to no insight into gun purchases. Gun sellers fall into broader categories such as sporting-goods retailers or specialty retail shops. Big-box retailers that also sell guns are often assigned codes that include “variety” or “discount” stores.

    An area of discussion, according to the people familiar with the talks: How far reaching a new MCC would be. This code could identify purchases made at gun dealers—but not at merchants that primarily sell other products, such as Walmart Inc.

    Some talks have gone further. At least one large U.S. bank has had early conversations with lawmakers about potential legislation to require merchants to share information about specific gun-related products consumers are buying with their cards, according to people familiar with the matter.

    As WSJ reminds us, banks have at times blocked purchases of certain items that they believed to be risky, or part of a legal gray area. They also act as the front-line of defense in monitoring payments for suspicious – possibly terrorism-related – activity. And in rare instances, banks have stopped doing business altogether with politically unpalatable groups like the government of South Africa during the apartheid era.

    Citigroup has already started restricting purchases of guns using its credit cards to users over the age of 21 (because the last thing these banks want to see is the next mass murderer using a Citigroup-branded credit card to make a fatal purchase).

    This would also open up a new can of worms, as banks would encounter similar problems to those facing Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies as they decide how they should handle all the sensitive user data they are collecting.

    “A bank could say, ‘We’re not going to do business with gun manufacturers,'” said Jeremy Stein, a former member of the Federal Reserve board of governors who currently is an economics professor at Harvard University. “But when it gets into using the information, you’re getting into the same issues Facebook and others had problems with.”

    A dividing line, he added, would be whether banks are monitoring transactions for criminality. “If it’s just a policy objective, even if I liked the policy objective, I’d think it’s worrisome,” Mr. Stein added.

    Divisions exist within the financial-services industry, which previously has resisted pressure to restrict purchases of controversial products such as tobacco.

    “We don’t think it’s a good idea for banks to decide what products and services Americans can buy,” Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan said at the bank’s annual meeting last week. “It should not be up to me, to us, to decide that. It should be up to folks following the laws and folks making decisions.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-30/credit-card-companies-explore-new-ways-monitor-gun-purchases

    • This problem is easily dealt with. Gun-owning families can simply stop using credit-cards. Use your debit-card to get cash and spend that cash – EVERYWHERE. A gun owning family probably spends 98% of their credit-card purchases on merchandise other than gun-stuff. A drop in credit-card usage by a good solid minority of gun-owners will pinch the credit-card companies where it hurts.

      • Mark, the fact that they are even *discussing* doing this scares me.

        The 2A is a CIVIL RIGHT. That is no different to me than if lists were being made of who is Black and who is White in the 1950’s, before de-segregation laws.

        We need the very fact those lists are being made in the first place STOPPED!

        This is a dangerous segregation of America, and it’s about time we start treating it as such…

        • Any time they start discussing tracking data in this kind of detail it should scare people.

          It doesn’t matter if it’s guns, axle grease, books, porcelain cat sculptures or brussel sprouts. Personal data on this sort of level being collected is fucking dangerous.

    • I don’t see how Citigroup is going to monitor credit-card ATM withdrawls, unless they remove all the ATM machines!

      DrDKW

  7. Way too many are just couch sitters. Way too many are FUDDS. Way too many just don’t give a shit, cause “I got mine”. Yes, COMPLACENT TYPES are destroying the 2A just as the lefty progressive control freaks are.
    Sadly, there’s not a damn thing we can do to wake/shake these fools up.

  8. Yes, gun owners and the NRA were complacent. They failed to anticipate the back stabbing esp in Florida where Republicans passed a ban on rifles for 18-20 year olds, among other things. Giving the left a massive cultural victory.

    NRA was too busy selling concealed carry insurance for a bill (reciprocity) that failed to materialize. NRA needs to get its head out of its ass.

  9. The Anti’s are pursuing an anaconda strategy; making the most of every mass-shooting, visual, argument that they can think of. We People-of-the-Facts are fabulous at ignoring the most obvious facts.

    2/3’rds of gun deaths are suicides. A single-shot gun will suffice.
    1/3’rd of gun deaths are homicides, overwhelmingly 1-on-1 or 1-on-few. A revolver or pocket gun will suffice.

    Each individual suicide is a candidate poster-child. Each 7-11 robbery is a candidate poster-child. Until they have strangled ALL revolvers and single-shots, there will remain sympathetic pleas for more gun-control.

    The Antis may be eating your guns last; but they have already made their desert selections.

    If we believe that gun-owning families are 40% of the total then we OUGHT to already have the votes. Why don’t we? Because complacent gun-owners (satisfied that theirs will be eaten last) remain un-activated.

    Ironically, the place to begin is where we HAVE ALREADY WON! There are 40 Right-to-Carry States. Imagine if just 1/2 of the US Senators from these States were solid pro-gun. Just 41 Senators can filibuster most bills. Imagine if just 5/8’ths were solid pro-gun. Just 51 Senators can stop any bill or Presidential appointment. That’s enough to stop any gun-control bill. If they were willing to flex their muscles, it would be enough to pass gun-rights legislation (under threat of stopping other legislation that everyone else must-pass).

    Gun-owning voters in these 40 States are – I suggest – complacent. Constituting 49% of the voters, their position in the State legislatures is strong enough to maintain what they have; they don’t want much more. So, they are not motivated; they are especially not motivated to ensure that gun-rights is preeminent in electing Congress-critters.

    If gun-owning voters in the Right-to-Carry States activated they could move their adequate minority of 49% to a controlling majority of 51%. From there, it’s a few more steps to a compelling majority of 55%; then a commanding majority of 60%. No Congressman from such a State – having aspirations of running for Senate – would stray from the path. No Senator would risk his re-election.

    Controlling the US Senate is key to liberating the last 10 Won’t-Issue States. Carry in these States is the ONLY path to normalizing guns among the electorate in general. We can’t get urbanites interested in hunting; nor marksmanship; nor sporting clays. The only positive role guns can play in their lives is self-defense. We need to move from ZERO % carry in these States to 0.1% -> 1% -> 10%. That goal – a modest 10% of adults carrying – would immunize the 2A. A majority of voters would know at least one friend/relative who carries; which would be just enough to undermine the Progressive message that guns shouldn’t be owned – to say nothing of carried – by civilians.

    Complacent gun-owners would rather watch passively as the war-to-defend the 2A rages on; assuming that the Progressives will eat their guns last. If those complacent in the Right-to-Carry States activated, the war would – fairly swiftly – resolve to a mopping-up action.

  11. Not me oddly enough, I actually got off my ass and went to my first 2nd amendment rally last weekend. Been sending letters to legislators and proselytizing to my very apathetic co-workers. This is new behavior for a reclusive Asperger’s person. I think I looked like Rainman at the rally.

  12. Will the MSM ever hear the (bleeding out of their privates) whimpering cry of their missing colleagues? How many in Mexico, how many in points elsewhere. When will the stupid lying conniving rat-ass motherfucker MSMs wake up to the danger of inciting the conservatives and right-wing, and gun-toters amongst us, who, after also suffering the slings and jabs of the motherfucking POS evil satan’s cack-sacker gun grabbing leftist (D) turn on the media and we all put whatever the fuck we don’t burn and feed to your dogs on a pike in the town square on a 18′ pike as a notice to others?

    F em all

  13. I’ve NEVER been complacent. I live in Illinois and it sucks big time. Mountains of BS since I got into guns about 7 years ago…
    .

    • Oh get over it, other than SBRs and silencers, the rest of Illinois laws hardly more that road bumps (if you live in Cook, well that get to be fun). I have lived in a lot of different states, and other than AZ, most have has one ‘issue” or another, including MOST pro gun states.

      • Yeah, other than SBRs and silencers, Illinois is shooter’s paradise.
        And FOID of course. Needed to be able even touch a gun and for any ammo purchase.
        And no open carry.
        And very expensive concealed carry license with 16 hours training required.
        And plethora of gfz.
        And no guns under 21 bill in the pipeline.
        But other than that, it’s great!

  14. Donald Trump is the devil. He doesn’t really love guns, like how Jesus loves guns. Jesus in heaven has a large collection of ARs because in heaven there are no gun laws and no assault weapons bans. Donald Trump probably doesn’t own an AR.

    • Lol! Now that is funny! Speaking as I am as a born again Christian. You know that scene in The Matrix when Neo says “I need guns, lots of guns!” and then they have those racks of all different kinds of real full auto select fire assault weapons rushing down and they’re surrounded by all these guns? now that was a little bit of Heaven to Me!

      • Hmm, at first I was thinking that there wouldn’t be any AR’s in heaven, but there is the last days and the battle of Armageddon still ahead of us; maybe some of the Lord’s hosts will be armed with the M27 phased plasma pulse rifle in the 40 watt range, or it’s equivalent. Nothing more appropriate than Satan and his minions struck down with bolts of lightning! Now that would be cool! Hey, in heaven, anything is possible!

  17. There is a Republican in the WH? I missed that. I would expect a real Republican to be fiscally conservative and not add 1T$ of more in debt on dubious tax cuts and a bad budget. I would expect at least a slightly higher level of truth telling and morals… and not a level equally as low of perhaps even lower than Bill Clinton’s was. I would expect more respect for the legislative process and for the POTUS to show he knows how to bargain and legislate… and not an executive order machine. Other than Eisenhower, governing via large numbers of EO has been a Democratic POTUS thing which Republicans have sorely complained about. I would have expected a true Republican POTUS to do some work and spend some capital on the main 2A legislative bills….. this one has given it nothing but Democratic style lip service. As I look what has happened in general I would swear we had a NYC Demopublican in office that has really delivered nothing except for gravy to his friends, allies, and backers…. NYC style.

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