Gabby Giffords
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

By Larry Keane

National gun control activists are having a hard time keeping their messaging to the American people straight ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence is only the latest example and the breathless hyperbole and hypocrisy coming out of their press releases and campaign emails makes it abundantly clear. They are hypocrites.

The presidential election is razor thin as early voting has started across the country and the campaigns are making their closing pitches to undecided voters. Former President Donald Trump made his Second Amendment pitch clear, telling voters in a social media post his stance.

“Gun owners must register to Vote, TODAY, if you want to save your guns. Our Second Amendment is under Siege by the Democrats. They want to confiscate your guns. BE SMART. VOTE!!!,” the former president messaged.

On the flip side of the coin is Vice President Kamala Harris. She supported gun confiscation before she didn’t, including handgun bans in San Francisco and using unconstitutional executive overreach to confiscate Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) before walking that back as well. Now, she admits she owns a handgun that is largely off limits to law-abiding Californians given that state’s strict gun control. But as always, it’s “Gun control for thee, not for me.”

Not to be left out of the hypocritical fun, Giffords has jumped in.

Blind to Crime

Giffords can’t keep track any more if crime is down or up and whether Americans are allowed to be concerned about their safety. Just one month ago, they joined the chorus in repeating President Joe Biden’s claims that violent crime in America had been greatly reduced because of his gun control agenda.

“President Biden is right: ‘If you’re trying to talk about reducing crime and violence in America, you need to talk about guns in America.’ [President Biden] has taken historic action to keep guns from falling in the wrong hands. Thanks to his leadership, violent crime is down,” the gun control group posted on social media.

As the saying goes – garbage in, garbage out. It turns out gun control groups and the Biden-Harris administration were crowing loudly about data that was severely flawed. Last week, a Real Clear Investigation report revealed the FBI “stealth edited” crime data back in 2021 and 2022 which led to their 2023 report showing crime had in fact increased recently by 4.5 percent, compared to the originally stated 2.1 percent decrease. Don’t hold your breath for Giffords or The White House to issue corrections.

However, the “crime is down” narrative regurgitated by Giffords wasn’t the same message that they recently voiced in a press release attacking U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).

“Today, the national gun violence prevention organization GIFFORDS, founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, criticized Rep. Mike Lawler for accepting financial support from the corporate gun industry’s trade association while gun violence remains a threat to families in the Lower Hudson Valley,” a press release noted.

The group is attacking Rep. Lawler – one of the most bipartisan Members of Congress – in hopes of knocking him off in favor of their endorsed candidate former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.).

Apparently, all the gun control laws that Giffords pushes on law-abiding New Yorkers haven’t made them any safer, according to their own press release. Don’t forget former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the founder of her namesake gun control group, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul during a recent gun control bill signing ceremony.

Dollars and Sense

The hypocrisy of Giffords’ latest ploy doesn’t end there. They also made an additional attack that makes even less sense. Remember, this is Giffords we’re talking about. For all intents and purposes, they have plenty of money to throw around at the candidates they choose to help.

In the same press release attacking Rep. Lawler for standing up for his law-abiding constituents, Giffords tries to claim he’s somehow “bought” by the firearm industry.

Giffords criticized Rep. Lawler for accepting a contribution from the firearm industry trade association’s political action committee. “The contribution from NSSF PAC was unearthed in Lawler’s third quarter campaign financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission,” the Giffords release breathlessly reveals.

Giffords uses the word “unearthed” as a different way of saying they looked at the publicly disclosed campaign finance documents that every candidate and political action committee – like they, themselves – make public. It’s true – NSSF PAC contributed $1,000 to Rep. Lawler.

What did Giffords do for former Rep. Jones?

“Last month, GIFFORDS PAC announced a $1 million investment in the race to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District as part of its $15 million commitment to electing and supporting gun safety champions in 2024,” their release stated. “The NY-17 effort includes cable and digital ads in support of former Rep. Mondaire Jones and in opposition to Rep. Mike Lawler.”

That was quickly followed up by Giffords throwing another $1.8 million to target Latino voters for Vice President Harris in both Michigan and Nevada, just the latest in the $15 million total for this election cycle to push gun control. With less than two weeks until election day, Giffords is spending “bigly.”

Don’t Be Fooled

The New York congressional race is not the only example of gun control groups spending millions – in the case of Micheal Bloomberg and his Everytown for Gun Safety, it’s billions with a B – for gun control while turning a blind eye to their own hypocrisy. But law-abiding Americans must be educated when they head to the polls in less than two weeks or while sending in their mail ballot.

It’s exactly why NSSF released its 2024 Congressional Report Card covering current U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators to show voters where their Members of Congress stand on firearm and ammunition industry issues.

It’s also why voters need to visit www.GunVote.org to be educated and #GUNVOTE® on Nov. 5 so they Don’t Risk Your Rights™.  Gun owners can also support NSSF’s Protect Liberty PAC by going to www.ProtectLibertyPAC.com. This election, the Second Amendment is on the ballot.

28 COMMENTS

  1. What the disarmament crowd fail to understand are the simple fact none of their ideas to take firearms from the law abiding will do nothing to curb violent crime. Unless and until the actual people committing the violent crimes held accountable and removed from society, nothing will change.
    As always, it’s the human behind the gun and not the gun itself.

    • that’s why trump appointing a replacement for the current a.g. is so important.
      they’re not disarming to reduce crime, it’s to reduce resistance.

      • And they are trying to accelerate as their ability to do so is threatened. Going to be a wild few weeks coming. Ah well got enough time off to take an extended absence at work if needed (assuming it matters).

        • Watch for more “mostly peaceful protests” by black wearing people holding red and black flags.

          • More concerned with unmarked box trucks dropping off construction supplies around liberal riot friendly cities in the early morning.

        • We’ve distributed, as of this morning, ~2.3 million rounds of ammo just in case. More going out tomorrow. And we distributed more than 200 ‘defense packs’ to various people and organizations. For our own use I’ve broken out the boxes of already loaded mags and staged firearms and ammo on and off property.

          Yeah, one could say “nothings going to happen” and I hope it doesn’t. But I’d rather be prepared and not use it than to not be prepared and need it. There are just too many crazy Kamala-hyped up liberal left wingers around here been threating, and that’s one of our main possible threats here aside from ANTIFA a few towns over being allied with them, and other criminal elements trying to take advantage, to not be prepared in a case like this especially when they are threatening already.

  2. The left/dems would have likely been better off had they decades ago kept their mouths shut. It is as if they thought there would be no resistance to their anti-2nd amendment policies.

    • Up until fairly recently there really wasn’t. They overplayed their hand with the AWB and never backed off long enough for people to forget.

      • I remember when highly conservative WW2 vets were talking about the need to make centerfire rifles very hard to get – and college kids, so radical that Mao wasn’t strong enough for them, were certain handguns would be banned by 1980 at the latest. And Hush is right, they thought resistance would be minimal.

        You youngsters don’t know how close you came. Thank the NRA, and send them some money for Christmas. Even if you hate them.

        • Probably one of the few that still do re NRA. Mostly because NYSRPA still needs the backstop with the cases in play but prior to the AWB yeah they were the only game in town. As to the rest that would explain the abundance of fudds over earlier decades. Odd how it’s still college kids being the radicals….. almost like something is directing them at our expense.

          • When “West Side Story” aired on TV, it created a panic. My 3 blade Case knife was A-OK in class, but add a button and a spring, it was a crime anytime, anywhere. People who owned milsurp 45s and deer rifles were terrified of zip guns made from car antennas. People were stressed about a way to dispose of used bike chains without potentially creating social problems. It was weird. Looking back, the very common use of “harmless” sleeping pills and diet pills wasn’t helping keep public sentiment sensical….

            Then along came Charles Whitman.

            You have no idea how close you came.

            • Do you forget where I live? I am still right there with being a few stupid votes or bad court decisions at the state level re losing everything. Of more relevance is what we already lost with the patriot act for the 4th 6th and arguably the 3rd. I know exactly how close we came on one and watched us lose several others. Oh and don’t forget that whole air raid/MAD thing for the trauma based operant programming you guys had. My end was initially terrorists then school shooters to program people to comply.

              • Lol, yeah, they made us crawl under our desks for the nuke attack drills. Seemed like satire, even at the time.

                The progressives launched a sort of Pearl Harbor style attack on the Second post-Whitman. Most do not realize it, but the 68 GCA was very close to absolute best case at the time in re protecting the 2nd, politically speaking. I think it safe to say that the Second was not Earl Warren’s favorite amendment, and the main reason no one tried to repeal the 2nd was they thought they did not need to.

                I realize the fight has continued, with perils aplenty, but few understand how close they came to having nothing to fight for, in the 60s.

                One thing I would bequeath to the future is the understanding that the 2nd and the 4th are inextricably linked tactically, and any rhetoric that defends the blessings of liberty in terms of the 2nd should include the 4th.

                A safe place to stay, and the means to defend it are critical to those blessings. Rephrased, meaningful selfdefense requires a safe place to sleep, and a safe place to sleep requires the means to defend it. Be it from bandits, government, or government bandits. One without the other ain’t no fun at all.

                Carry on.

              • No argument re 4th being critical I just wish more realized the scope of what was lost over 20 years ago.

    • Although I generally like the idea of near misses counting, my throwing arm ain’t what it used to be. So no.

  3. Crime is down?
    Ohhhh, I guess we are not to believe our lying eyes and instead believe the FBI.
    Absolute faith in our government. I’m soaking up the propaganda like a sponge.
    Kamala and Tim are going to make the world a better place you just wait and see.
    Long live the Queen.

  4. Let’s never forget how the spaceman half of giffords Gun Control Inc. was denied purchase by a savvy FFL who caught the spaceman trying to make an AR straw purchase. That’s a big no can do Flash…

    h ttps://youtube.com/watch?v=kS7gSuseE0s&feature=shared

  5. Gabby Giffords attended the Helldorado Parade in Tombstone AZ about two weeks prior to her being elected to the House in 2008. A local couple – both Democrats – asked her how she felt about guns. “I always carry mine” as she displayed what appeared to be a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. They voted for her.

    Related to me by that couple after she had been shot. The couple were neighbors of mine.

    • To try to be fair – Giffords suffered extreme trauma a lot of surgery and a severe brain injury. For a significant time, her entire being was in the hands of people who very likely are very antigun. Presumably incuding some who think that the mere desire to own a gun is a symptom of mental illness. It is not surprising that she has changed.

      • Yes, but the same doctors that saw drunk driver victims didn’t want all of the cars taken off of the roads, nor all of the liquor stores boarded up to treat the repeat drunks causing the carnage that they patched up. So why can’t they draw a parallel and recognize the cause of shooting victims? And no one resorted to calling drunk driver collisions ” Vehicle Violence “

  6. The stealth correction indicating a rise in crime proves that even more gun control is necessary; a win either way.

    The end was written long, long ago.

    • Yeah, yeah, yeah – “This generation shall not pass before”, etc…

      That generation passed many generations ago.

      • “That generation passed many generations ago.”

        Don’t even need to go there. Where are the “great” empires of history? All of them come to an end, and never recover from their fall: British; Mongol; Russian; Qing; Spain; France; Yuan; Japan; Han; Ming; Ottoman; Macedonia; Rome; Persia; Assyria; the list goes on.

        The US is an empire, and like all others, it will fall. We are seeing it in real time.

        Yes, the future of the US was written long ago.

  7. Methinks that this “safety” focus of these anti Constitutional gun fud groups is simply a cover for total disarmament. The Nazi’s did the same song and dance of safety as a reason for disarmament.

  8. Report: Harris Campaign Manipulates Reddit with Sophisticated Astroturfing Plan. > h ttps://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/10/29/report-harris-campaign-manipulates-reddit-with-sophisticated-astroturfing/

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