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By Larry Keane

We are a little over a year away from the 2020 presidential election and the mainstream media is clamoring to know where every candidate stands on the myriad of different gun control measures that have made their way into the national conversation. Earlier this week, for example, the New York Times published the responses from all 19 Democratic presidential candidates to a survey on gun control policies.

Candidates’ responses, which ranged from thorough to partially complete, revealed what many gun rights voters already know from following the news or watching the hours of incessant squabbling that some call the presidential primary debates.

For example, most of us already knew that former Congressman Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke wants to confiscate modern sporting rifles already legally purchased by millions of responsible gun owners or that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to raise taxes on firearms and ammunition, effectively pricing low-income Americans out of their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

On the Record

What the New York Times has done, however, is put these candidates on the record stating just how, and to what degree, they want to infringe on the right of millions of Americans to keep and bear arms. While the New York Times most likely did not publish these survey results with the intention of holding gun control advocates accountable for their extremist policies that will do nothing to protect American communities, NSSF has done exactly that. Our #GUNVOTE  presidential candidate tracker succinctly keeps track of what every candidate for the highest office in the free world has said about your Second Amendment rights.

In our current political environment, operating inside a new cycle that yields a new, outrageous statement or event every 24 hours and then is quickly replaced by the next, it is nearly impossible to keep track of one person’s statements and to form a holistic opinion of one’s platform for political office.

Without #GUNVOTE, it would be reasonable for the average voter to forget that Sen. Kamala Harris is “sick of waiting for Congress to act” because she would rather act like a dictator than wait for the legislative branch of this great country to dutifully consider new laws that concern the rights this country was built upon.

Without #GUNVOTE, one could also be forgiven for forgetting that Sen. Cory Booker is determined to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce Act that protects firearms manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits when criminals wrongfully use guns in a crime. No one would dream of suing Ford Motors if someone drove drunk and crashed their Ford Focus, yet Sen. Booker thinks it appropriate to accept that exact same legal precedent when it concerns firearms manufacturers.

Stay #GUNVOTE Informed

Despite the alarming stances many Democratic candidates are pushing, #GUNVOTE will arm you with the information you need to make the right choice come Election Day. It will make it easy to ensure you are registered to vote and that you know where your closest polling location is. Don’t risk your rights®, make sure you, your family, and friends utilize #GUNVOTE before Election Day.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel at National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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53 COMMENTS

  2. It isn’t that complicated. There’s no reason to vote for a democrat these days if you value your freedom. Gun issues are just the tip of the iceberg. You won’t be able to afford firearms after they tank the economy, eliminate fossil fuels and tax and regulate the firearm industry into oblivion.

    • It’s not *quite* that easy, because Republicans suck too.

      But you can get 90% of the way to a government that respects your First and Second Amendment rights (and fourth, fifth, and sixth to an extent) just by NEVER VOTING FOR A DEMOCRAT. NOT EVER.

      And I say this as an independent who used to vote D quite frequently not very long ago.

      • I shouldn’t say 90% of the way to a gov’t that actually respects all your rights — because again, both political parties suck ass — but that you’d solve 90% of the *current* problem.

        • That’s why I don’t like the “Two Party System,” never have, never will. There’s a better way. Why run as an independent at all, unless you just want to say that you did. It shouldn’t be that hard to come up with much better system to select the person for the most important position in the U.S.A..

          • But that’s why we have primaries, so we can sort out the best liars and then the best liar from each party go mouth-2-mouth. Isn’t this how it should be done?

        • @LLRNR
          George Washington warned us in his Farewell Address that the 2 Party System would be the undoing of our Nation. Most people with whom I discuss this believe that the two party system is entrenched in the Constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth.
          It was written in “cursive” I am told is why no one can read the Constitution.

      • Think we need a ” Constitutionalist party ” to vote for. I think it was George Washington that said to not have a political party system, he was right !

        • Many of the founders feared the development of a two party system, but couldn’t conceive of a way to prevent it from happening. Before the ink was even dry, factions were forming. Although I’ve read and studied the how and why and when of it developing, the only conclusion for why its happened I can grasp, is rooted in compromise itself. Indeed, our Civil War developed from a compromise. Many of the problems we faced as a country and still face today are bound to compromises that were made years before.

  3. So strange that we let one of our fundamental rights be questioned when the problems associated with the liberty are essentially from suicide and black on black crime and perhaps “gun free zones” making target rich environments for the many psychopaths out there. Although the latter is really just a media circus and not statistically significant. Outside of those issues, guns are a statistical NON issue. But it’s a good distraction for the Mono Party to dangle in front of the tax cows, as they continue to eat out our substance.

    • Y’know, that is a gross and succinct summarization, but I can’t really find fault in it.
      It’s essentially true, and just points out the stupidity of it all.

    • Exactly!!!!…. Thank you for that accurate summation….
      There is a large portion of the population that won’t accept your summation though…. what to do with these people? Keep in mind, they will NEVER accept reality because they live in a blue pill world!

  4. “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1776

    • Amen to all of above. The worst enemy gun owners have is bound up in the democrabic party. They would gladly take away the 2nd Amendment so that only they and their “favored sons” would be able to be armed, along with their armed security officers.

    • Keep attacking the left at their Achilles Heel. Abortion!
      Just keep wondering what “Do it for the children is supposed to mean?”
      Unfortunately those who keep the statistics are very inconsistent (any surprise?)
      CDC surveillance reports
      Year Number of abortions reported to CDC (Induced abortions ratio per 1,000 live births)
      2013 664,435 (200)
      2014 652,639 (193)
      2015 638,169 (188) the last year statistics are available
      Total 45,789,558
      In 2017, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 39,773 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC.In 2017, six-in-ten gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (23,854), while 37% were murders (14,542), according to the CDC. The remainder were unintentional (486), involved law enforcement (553) or had undetermined circumstances (338).
      Mass shootings, 373 people died in these incidents in 2018.
      I see a real serious problem. Nearly 20 to the power of ten more children die every year via homicide via abortion than the number of all people who die of firearms related homicide for all ages and all causes.
      Mass shootings involved in a statistically insignificant number in relation to either of the former.
      Obviously we have a serious problem killing off our children! And it is not vaccines!

  6. i am not a one issue voter. i have spent the last 30+ years in the firearms industry in several states. i am a firm believer in the right to bear arms.
    however if a politician from whatever party is pro gun but is against most other things i believe i would be more likely to vote for the other person running that might be anti gun but their other beliefs are more in line with my own.
    it is often a very hard choice to make!
    i see far too many people that regularly vote against their own best interest because they are a one issue voter and cant see past the single issue to see the whole picture.
    you really need to balance all of the persons views before voting. if both people are very close to your beliefs other than gun control, abortion, ecology taxes ect then by all means your single issue is a good tie breaker.
    to reject a person out of hand because of their view on any one topic is very lazy and a poor use of your cherished vote!

    • I agree with you in a general sense, but the two issues of abortion and gun rights are indicators of a candidate’s views on the wider swath of life. If someone will not advocate for the protection of the innocents within his/her community (and who is more innocent than a pre-born baby?), then I do not trust anything else that person says.

      • Probably a “but muh socialist healthcare” voter, without realizing the lefts beloved example of European socialist healthcare can’t work here. Before any of you socialists out there chime in, (Not you Haz, obviously) I’ll go ahead and step on it now. Europe gets socialized healthcare because we, the American tax payers funds it, through the US defense of Europe and the Middle East. Europe, no longer has massive militaries to pay for and instead uses that money for social programs. It now relies on the US for stability and defense, and it also relies on the US to keep the Middle East stable for them. If this US didn’t have to fund a literal global empire, then maybe we could start talking about such programs. But you lefties seem to panic everytime we pull out of somewhere or talk about drawing down NATO or cutting UN support.

        • The “own best interest” line is always code for “free shit.” Funny, that “free” shit always seems to come at the highest costs imaginable.

    • Gun rights are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. I for one never met any politician that was all for 2A freedom, but against other human rights. “Right” to make other people to serve you and give you their stuff is not a right.

      There must be something wrong with your values if today’s Democratic party represents them.

    • I don’t understand, what do the Democrats offer other than socialism, baby killing, hypocrisy, illegal immigration, racism, & gun laws that protect criminals?

      • You get to join in with the “cool kids” and call people that think differently than you horrible names, all while patting yourself on the back for being so inclusive and virtuous. It sounds crazy, but it’s very appealing for some people.

    • So what exactly is it about ANY democrat you find appealing? They’ve all proven themselves to be without a doubt downright batshit crazy over the last few years. If there’s things you believe in that you think they’re correct in then you need a serious course on history and deep introspective look into your soul. These democrats are some of the most twisted, stupid, and downright evil individuals in all of human history.

    • I lean left on most issues, but until the left’s gun control boner subsides, I’m gonna have to vote the other way.

      Once gun rights are gone, there’s a good chance they won’t be coming back.

        • I wouldn’t agree with that. Gun rights could disappear tomorrow, legally, if Democrats gain majorities and the presidency. In 6 months new elections might be held due to a very high mortality rate in DC, whereupon gun rights may reappear almost immediately. With essentially no opposition.

          • And Unicorns would be with us today IF they had boarded the Ark instead of ignoring the warnings and continuing to “horse around”…

    • People like you will cost us our rights…. you will have to accept some things that might not be “in line” with your beliefs to save the 2A….
      Give them an inch and they WILL take a mile….
      You can play Russian roulette with your rights, BUT I’LL BE DAMNED IF I DO!

    • Crazy Gunsmith i hate to tell you this but if gun rights are lost you can very quickly thereafter kiss all other rights goodbye so as far as balancing rights if they are not a strong supporter of gun rights then i would not vote for them. If they are against gun rights even a little chances are they are a predator/dictator/snake/wolf in waiting.

  7. Considering all the Democratic candidates and, collectively, all of their proposals and statements concerning gun laws, health care, immigration, border security, environment, taxes etc., you will notice that all the proposals are socialistic in nature; that is bigger government, dictatorial enforcement through the tax code, reduction in property rights (gun confiscation), and not understanding the relationship and purposes of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. There only concern is to manipulate the Restrictions placed on the Government by the Constitution inorder to implement those ideals they want or feel we need because they say so. No Democrat from the current crop of Candidates should ever be near or involved with a governmental decision making process for non of them can be trusted.

  8. As all the candidates with perhaps Tulsi Gabberd as the exception are Communists and there fore should be disqualified for running for office in a Constitutional Republic.

    • Nonsense, there is not a single Communist running in this election.

      What we do have is every single Democratic candidate espousing new gun control laws as a panacea for crime and human violence.

      Which makes them wrong on this issue, not Commies.

      • Not quite yet, but when you look at the ideas being proposed by these guys, it’s certainly the trajectory.

        “A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people”

      • Every one who espouses “free college”, “free medical care”, “free housing”, etc, subsidized by the US taxpayer, IS A COMMUNIST!!! Regardless of their position on guns. And that is damn near all of them.

    • If it weren’t for Gabbard’s aforementioned gun control boner, she mighta gotten a vote out of me.

  9. Being a Conservative leaning independent and an “informed voter” I personally don’t NEED #GUNVOTE to keep me informed about these radical Socialist, tax and spend, gun grabbing, free shit for everyone Clown party candidates, however I hope that those left leaning low information sheeple that normally vote the straight party line can glean enough from articles like this to understand what they are actually surrendering if they allow one of those commie assholes to even get a faint smell of the Oval Office…

  10. There are no good or least odorous candidates for President now in the running from any party. It is going to be a very ugly election no matter how it plays out.

  11. Illinois has anti-gun super majorities in both houses, and both my representative and senator are pro-2A republicans in gerrymandered districts. Why should I vote? Nothing will change.

    • What happens when all my candidates for all offices suck? The (R) suck and the (D)”ARE EVEN WORSE” Do those last three words NOT answer your own question? Why would you vote for “EVEN WORSE”?

      • This is why this nation is on a downward spiral. 10% garbage is better than 90% garbage, but either way the garbage builds up. It’s only a question of how fast.

        • If you are in such a quandary I would suggest you take a trip to say Cuba or perhaps Venezuela or even the PEOPLES REPUBLIC of China to get a better grasp on where this current group of Democratic Socialists really want to take us, if that does not help clear your thought processes then just stay home on election day and then later you can pretend you voted and bitch about the way our country is headed anyway… What the hell, who’s gonna know? Oh by the way 90% garbage piles up a hell of a lot faster than 10% garbage and is a lot harder to get rid of..

        • It’s not a quandary; just an observation. Since the only candidates that can win are either 10% garbage or 90% garbage (and it’s painfully obvious which is which) that choice is pretty clear.

          The quandary lies in getting candidates who actually understand and respect freedom and the Constitution. I want ZERO percent garbage. Trump is the closest we’ve come in decades — nearly a century, actually — and that’s just sad.

        • As I see it you have only 2 options, don’t vote and give up all rights or if you believe that enough people hold your same positions on the issues run for office.

  13. Don’t matter which party. They all lie, but you can bet your farms ass that they will back whatever bills that come up that are in their own best interest and put the most money in their own pocket. If that sounds cynicle, the truth sometimes is.

  15. I’ve been a one issue voter for at least 30 of the 40+ years I’ve been a voter. That issue comes down to the candidates stance and record on the 2nd Amendment. Why? That it’s the 2nd and not the 1st was merely because the majority of the delegates felt it was too militant to be the first. If a candidate is willing to discard or compromise the very thing that keeps us a free people so willingly and gleefully, they’ve no business even being in the race. The Oath, taken before taking a seat, states very clearly that whomever “…will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign or domestic…” It doesn’t say ” only those parts I agree with” anywhere in there. Based on that alone, most of our Congress has violated their oath and should be expelled. Half of our Governors should be out on their arses, and our city councils and mayors on boats to Russia.
    That same document that we’ve sworn to protect and defend, also states (although not quite as bluntly as I am) that if We the People decide that any or all of the three branches of government are tyrannizing us, it’s our solemn and God given duty to remove the tyrannts by force if necessary.
    That’s why I’m a One Issue Voter!

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