Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler
Peter Ambler GIffords
Peter Ambler (courtesy 8 NOW Las Vegas, YouTube)

“We need to understand that nobody has a crystal ball right now. There are not a lot of people who have a lot of confidence about the way things are going to shape up,” says Peter Ambler, the executive director of Giffords’s gun-safety organization. Squinting for a silver lining in the crisis, he told me that so many people staying at home has meant a drop-off in mass shootings, although the panic-buying of guns has spiked at the same time. It’s also meant that shelter in place is no longer a term used only during shootings. Maybe all the focus on public health will get people thinking differently about gun safety, perhaps the clearest example of American politics’ failure to produce policy that aligns with public opinion.

“At a time when [Americans’] health and safety is at greater risk,” Ambler said, “I do think that gun safety’s going to continue to break through as a kitchen-table issue.”

– The Coronavirus Killed the Policy Primary

Translation: “gun safety” in this case means, at minimum, an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, waiting periods and “reg flag” laws.

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119 COMMENTS

      • But they never give up! Cause they live in Fantasyland and don’t want to deal with reality. That’s why WE will never stop fighting back.

        • In their minds it is NEVER because they went too far. It is because they didn’t go far enough.

      • We have not failed my friend! And, the only thing I realize is that you’re a lying dummy pants!

        Eric Swalwell 2020

    • The people flooding the gun stores buying all they can are kinds of people they would want to own guns – proven non-felons, with a ‘background check’…

    • They’re just following Hilda Beast Cliton’s Saul Alinsky’s playbook derived from the Karl Marx Manifesto.

    • “The executive director of Giffords’s gun-safety organization. Squinting for a silver lining in the crisis, he told me that so many people staying at home has meant a drop-off in mass shootings,”

      You can bet he said that in a sad tone, these people love tragedy as it gives them an excuse to push their agenda.

    • I would not suggest that HE has failed, until I knew how much the looney tunes are paying him.

  2. In other words we were so wrong for so long it’s hard to find a purpose for our cause.

  4. Hoping any increase in suicides or domestic violence can be blamed on guns, I’d wager.

      • Just saw that in Lockport,ILL. It’s not our fault! And violent crime is down. Mebbe it’s the shooter and not the gun…

      • Yes, it is perfectly possible that people living in a state of panic will kill themselves. Panic is already a loss of cognition, a failure of rational thought, their ability to reason is compromised. So, sure, why not some weak minded idiot in a state of panic decides he and his wife are going to die horribly by the ALIEN VAMPIRE ZOMBIE VIRUS APOCALYPSE, and so he does her in first then himself?

        Never be surprised by what crazy persons and those living just a mere panic step away from crazy may do.

        Has nothing to do with guns, it’s all about the crazy.

        We need a vaccine for that too you know.

        • People really need to turn off the 24×7 News-Entertainment Fearporn. There are fates worse than death and, whether knowingly or unknowingly, far too many people seem intent upon experiencing this first-hand.

    • the escalation of simmering, under the hat spousal abuse to full blown rage is inevitable as bread winners soon can’t and “the other” is the safety valve.
      wannabes get tough when their badges make them answer those calls.
      hard road for many, both sides.

      • Most people don’t speak “crazy”. Can you elaborate or give some context to that nonsense? …. the other?… badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!

    • Bingo! They are just waiting for the smoke to clear a little so they can create headlines at the appropriate time.

  5. “Maybe all the focus on public health will get people thinking differently about gun safety, perhaps the clearest example of American politics’ failure to produce policy that aligns with public opinion“

    Delusional even in the end, he still refuses to accept that public opinion in this country favors owning guns.

    • They think 90% of voters want to disarm others. Maybe they do but not If they themselves can’t own what they want. In the end the positions are incompatible.

    • Most people don’t care either way. What we’re seeing now is a bunch of people in that camp who may start caring. And it’s not going to be people suddenly thinking we need more gun control.

  6. Make NO mistake. While the 2A is winning the fight. Now. There are those within the populace and even more dangerous. Those within Government. Who are salivating at the possibilities to push even more Draconian measure. Over and above Anti 2A laws. At this very moment. There is a concerted attack on the 1st A, The 4th A and the 5th A. Not to mention the surveillance of the populace. With the use of cell phone tracking. Yes it is happening in OUR Nation and has been for some time. So while it’s very important to keep an eye on the 2A ball. Don’t let that focus. Allow even more nefarious things push. Our nation into the Dystopian Society many have been working to attain. Continue to be Safe Out There. Maintain OP SEC and as always Keep Your Powder Dry.

    • @ Darkmam

      Agreed,a concerted effort by the Left that has been occurring for decades,on the entire Constitution,the Republic and the freedom and liberty of we the people of America,reminds me of Dr. Franklins warning “A Republic If You Can Keep It.”

      • A lot of lefties are in favor of 24/7 surveillance – but so are a lot of righties. There’s money to be made in surveillance, quite obviously in the advertising industry. And, the intel communities today put East Germany’s Stasi to shame. Don’t just blame the left-tards, there is blame to go around.

        • Conservative politicians create destructive tools so they can be seen conserving something (anything…) and then progressives weaponize them. Wash, rinse, repeat.

  7. Only had we focused on Virus Control , sorry did I cough on you, Virus Safety, we would be in a better position for the public to believe our BS firearm safety propaganda.

  8. “has meant a drop-off in mass shootings”

    They love focusing on mass shootings don’t they?

    Funny how he just admitted there are more guns, but fewer shootings. Maybe it’s a people problem?

    • We found the cure for school shootings. Close the schools. How many other types of mass shootings are that easy to fix?

    • He may have a point here. There won’t be 4/20 Columbine copycats or fantasies of end of year revenge on bullies and people that didn’t stop bullying. These events are so rare that any change can’t be proven as statistically significant. They may have to lay off staff. NRA couldn’t fundraise by selling annual meeting booths, and antis won’t get TV time to dance in the blood of victims.

    • Tiger King: Carol fuckin Baskin is a comin to take your guns.

      Carol Baskins: Hey all you cool cats and kittens, it wasn’t me who wants to take your guns.

      ……which one to believe??????

  10. “I do think that gun safety’s going to continue to break through as a kitchen-table issue.”

    He’s likely right but probably not in the way he’d like.

    Somehow I doubt he’s hoping for discussions on safe handling of the new gun that’s on the kitchen table.

    • If he thinks guns are safe only when nonexistent he needs to look at the line outside gun stores

      • when people get scared…or at least concerned about their own safety…buying a gun for protection becomes a viable option…and politics and the leftist agenda be damned…it’s time to get practical….

    • You cant make this stuff up. Legal system so afraid of covid they wont arrest criminals and they let criminals out of jail so they wont get covid, yet instead of just declining to break up a funeral, they call in ADDITIONAL LEOs, further risking the infection and transmission to even more, to enforce what IMO is an unconstitutional order, and one certainly not fitting to enforce in this case.

      Too many in law enforcement have chosen to side with totalitarianism. Even with vocal support for the 2A from so many agencies and Sheriffs, their agents are all too willing to destroy good peoples lives by enforcing “the law”.

      • They let the prisoners out not because of Covid, but so they don’t have to pay for the treatments – very expensive. It has nothing to do with “compassion” or anything, it has to do with finances. Marketing vs reality.

      • One thing that should be pointed out, they’re not enforcing any law at all. They’re enforcing an executive order issued by a governor.

      • DY- That vocal support is only because they understand that they would be the first to be engaged, if Americans invoke their Second Amendment and say no to our corrupt government. They understand many of us go out into the field and use big guns, big distances at small targets, then we make all traces of that game animal disappear in our garages, before the third soda is gone.

        Plus, they are smart to understand they are deep six committed to a corrupt government. No patriot would allow a cop next to them if the Constitution is being restored with force. The patriot is supposed to trust the cop to defend the Constitution, now that they are not being paid to violate it. That would be the moral equaivalent of saying a convicted child molester would make a good a babysitter.

        “I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means. Except getting off his back” Tolstoy nailed the corrupt government employees character with that, as did the Founders when they made the use of lethal force the 2nd most important check on government.

        Previous generations off loaded their responsibility to keep civil order, and traded that to duty to a self interested government. Look how conservatives made it to where a cop can murder us Citizens, simply because We a are armed. Conservatives also don’t think that We have the right to defend ourselves from cops, who have the moral code of just following orders, which is the exact moral code the 2nd Amendment is to protect the Citizens Liberty from.

      • This crisis (hate using that word) kind of tips the hand of LEO’s around the country. You get to see who your friends are/aren’t.

    • I see Supreme Court cases in the future. Once the virus has been beaten or run its course and society returns to normal, some of those people arrested under these unconstitutional decrees/laws will be fighting back. For example, those men arrested in New Jersey? Both the US and State of New Jersey Constitutions enumerate the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

      It was plenty stupid of them to do so, but other then calling the fire department to hose them down with a fire hose, I don’t see any police action needed here.

      Think about it. The typical fire truck holds between 500 and 1000 gallons of water. Add to that 1 gallon or chlorine bleach. That’s a mix ratio of between 0.1% and 0.2%. Which is much less than the typical bathroom disinfectant mix of 3% and far more than the drinking water standard of 0.0004%.

      So, no arrest, but some good odds there on whacking any virus they may have on their persons.

      I’d advise using the blast initially, then adjust to a misting spray. Knock ’em on their dumbasses and then bring the rain.

      Just do not violate Constitutional rights with made up on the spot laws, that’s all.

        • He may well have been a patriot in his love of the USA. He was also a racist POS at the same time. Both conditions are possible, they are not mutually exclusive.

          While there is surely some kidding around in what I wrote, the idea that spraying down morons in a pandemic with a disinfectant is, in my not in the least bit humble opinion, an act of self-defense.

          Non-lethal too!

        • I have seen different ratios from different authorities, but you are right that ratio (4.7%) is from the NIH. Some authorities give rations up to 6%.

  12. The dramatic increase in gun-ownership is a win for us. But it is a battlefield victory; the war will continue. For many, memories are short; when the crisis is over and they are not afraid, we need to keep them involved, practicing, learning how to be their own first line of defense.

    The Lame-Stream media will continue to beat the gun-control/confiscation drum. Facebook, Google, Apple, Netflix, Disney, will all continue their anti-2A rhetoric, spend, and censorship. Unless Trump does something about the CDC leadership, doctored statistics will continue to be published.

    Let’s rejoice and welcome our new gun owners. Let’s encourage them to join GOA, 2AF, and their local gun groups. Encourage them to train and read TTAG. Keep them involved. Let’s celebrate the recent victories over Governors who attempted to shut down gun stores.

    Let’s stay vigilant; the war is not over. (But winning is fun!).

    • I wonder how many “coronavirus converts” will turn into closet gun owners? Like “Oh yeah, I’m all for gun control!” Will keep the bumper stickers and go to rallies with thier buddies but will not vote for or fund it privately.

    • There has been much talk about “battlefield converts” and how fast they’ll revert…. one consideration is that they now have some $kin$ in the game, which may make them a bit more reluctant to call for gun siezures as opposed to “Buy backs” at “fair” prices…. None of these supposedly “wise” individuals want to take a loss of several hundred buck$$ if they don’t HAVE to…. It may not slow their roll but it may muddy their waters for a time…. after all, we don’t know what comes next….. yet.

      • I was about to post the exact opposite thought, those who bought firearms in haste will soon ask government to “buy back” their guns (for the children). They are, for the most part,not typical gun owners but only acting in fear and panic. Many have called for us to embrace these newbies but I think that they (newbies) are not interested in 2A issues even in a pandemic situation and will turn on (or in ) us as soon as this ceases. just my thoughts…………..PM

  13. They’ll do what they do best. Lying their ass off. They’ll try to say that most of the gun purchases are by a small number of people buying lots of guns, and that gun ownership is declining like they always do. They’ll trot out creatively worded push polls that generate a favorable percentage for them to misrepresent as broad support among the public for their nuttiest ideas.

  14. People forget that the Constitution makes certain actions by government, well, illegal. Ya can’t do it. Not here.

    Either change the Constitution or find another country to disarm.

  15. New gun owners didn’t just jump through the hoops to buy a gun and give it back.

    So many lies exposed.

    Coronavirus has been overplayed by the media. Yes it’s highly contagious and serious, but they’ve terrified people with psyops.

    Hopefully many new owners will get some training, at least in safe handling.

    Here’s my snarky comment; hopefully they didn’t all buy Glocks and aren’t appendix carrying. The media would run with that. I told you you’d shoot your junk off.

  16. “so many people staying at home has meant a drop-off in mass shootings”

    I wonder if the leadership at Walmart understands the basic concept that if there are fewer people going in their stores, the odds of getting active shooters in their stores goes down. Seems simple enough to me. It also makes more sense than deciding to no longer sell guns and ammo. But Walmart and Dicks both probably think they have decreased domestic violence with their decisions.

    This simple statement is interesting in the lie that exists between the lines though. The truth is that an armed population does not mean more people are killed. It has never meant that. Having more guns in the hands of responsible private citizens reduces violence. They will even say as much in this very statement. It just never is understood that violence is going down because more people are armed. Not as a result of taking everyone’s guns away like O’Rourke wants to do (or Biden, Sanders, Pelosi, Feinstein, Clinton, etc.).

    Keeping everyone armed and the monsters locked up is the best way to ensure the fewest problems for the most people where violence is concerned. Well, that and making sure everyone is employed.

  17. Two things I’ve been pointing out to anti-gunners for years:

    In the last 30 years the rate of all violent crime has fallen massively.

    In the last 30 years the number of guns in private hands has risen massively.

    Now then, those two trends moving in opposite directions, all the arguments against gun ownership ring false. If guns were the cause of violence, if all the terrible predictions were true, then the three-fold rise in guns owned would see routine municipal trash pickup including a daily “BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!” service.

    The bodies would litter the landscape, what with all those guns on the loose.

    Except, bodies do not litter the landscape. There is less crime, less killing, not more.

    Less.

    • Since the early 2000’s, I’ve been saying this to anti-gunners:

      “Proving a causation from a positive correlation in social science statistics is often a tall job. It is possible, but it takes work to prove causation. What you need to do, however, is prove that a negative correlation results in a positive causation – ie, that the increased number of guns is causing an increase in crime, when the crime is actually declining…”

      This is too complicated for most people. The best thing to be done here is given people a picture – a graph – and it is worth thousands of words. Plot the crime rate for serious crimes, taken from the FBI UCR, and then plot the increased ownership of guns. NB, the anti-gunners gave us the tool to do this with the NICS system – we now know how many new guns are being sold. We know, from the same agency that tracks national crime, how many guns are being sold. It isn’t “gun industry data,” it isn’t “NRA data.” It’s from the FBI.

      When in public debates, I’d flip up the chart with serious crime (with a scale usually on the left side), and number of guns sold, showing where our data firmed up due to NICS reports. Plotting the decline in crime since about 1991-1992, and the rapid increase in gun ownership in the late 90’s, the lines on the chart form a broad ‘V’ – and then finally the math-ignorant public started to go “Huh… he’s right… the lines don’t track each other! One is going down, the other is going up!”

      • Yes, agreed. Wish we could post such images easily here. The Simple Machines forum software provides for that, hope we get that soon.

    • The other thing that is dropping is accidental deaths. Hopefully, new owners get educated and that trend continues.

  18. Actually there is a silver lining to this. The majority of these new gun owners are going to be hypocrites come November. Most of them are still just as anti-gun as they ever were before. And the vast majority of them will still vote Democrat. Oh sure they might not be calling for the banning of entire classifications of firearms for a few months but they’ll still support everything else. I suspect a few of them if not most of them will have the ‘for me but not for there’ Mentality and still openly call for the banning and confiscation of all firearms not understanding that they would have to kill millions of to people to do it. Or maybe they do understand and their partisanship makes them hope for such a result with orgasmic glee.

  19. At a time when [Americans’] health and safety is at greater risk,” Ambler said, “I do think that gun safety’s going to continue to break through as a kitchen-table issue.”

    Indeed. Witness the relationship between Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke. The winning of the southern primaries was no coincidence. These two will continue to politicize the need for gun control and will win in November because of their focus on the issue. They will sweep to victory winning every state except Utah and Wyoming. The title of gun czar will become synonymous with Beto as he leads the country away from the violence of assault weapons and fringe rightists who believe that guns mean freedom. The only freedom that guns represent is the freedom to create havoc in a peaceful society.

    • Huh?
      Are you expressing your “feelings”, misinformed, ignorant, or just plain stupid?

    • @ Kimber
      Pretty words but steeped in wishful thinking with a splash of stupidity. Listening to the MSM and getting saturated by its agenda doesn’t equate to reality. The 2016 election was testament to that.

    • “…create havoc in a peaceful society.” That little old coronavirus did a bang up job of creating havoc…and didn’t use a gun.

    • Guess you’ve never READ the 2nd Amendment?? It does NOT GRANT The People the Right to Own guns…. it RESTRICTS the Government from INFRINGING upon a Right granted to all men BY GOD. Stupid IS forever!

    • That’s a good one! A real thigh slapper. A “peaceful society”! This guy is killing me.

    • Hey @Kimber:
      Put down the crack pipe!
      As for your Vlad impression: YAWN……

  20. Gun Grabber’s time would be better spent if the filled out an application for assisted suicide.

  21. This article is my definition of a delicious irony. I’m an RN on a covid-19 floor and my own irony is seeing the one positive of this terrible situation. Those many vocal people who readily lend their support to the removal of an inalienable right are now stacked around the block trying to exercise it. My advice is to forgo the gloating, sarcasm and told-you-so poison and be encouraging and generous with teaching and advice. When this is over, the difference between those converts reverting or staying “woke” might be the goodwill shown to them.

    • AMEN! This is where we need to not let a crisis go to waste. Be kind, helpful, even comforting to these ‘new to 2nd A’ people. It’s a chance to show them they were lied to about us. Won’t win every one of them, but we’ll take all we can get.

    • “When this is over, the difference between those converts reverting or staying “woke” might be the goodwill shown to them.”

      Oh, that’s so cute! Do you also believe in the Tooth Fairy?

      When the current insanity is over, most of the panic-buying gun owners will go back to being the same tools they were before. You can’t fix stupid.

      • And they will most likely push for a federal “buy back” to recover at least some of their money spent on those icky guns in a moment of weakness.

      • Ralph
        Taking them (the newbies) under your wing and showing them gun safety and taking them out to a range will make converts of them if you do it right. Show them that with proper training and firearm discipline that guns do not make you want to go out and shoot people just for poops and grins. Do it so that innocents do not get shot by paniced newbies that have no gun control.

  22. The REAL silver lining is that all of those former hoplophobes who suddenly felt the need to arm themselves in the face of an uncertain future, aren’t going to be inclined to support those who are visibly attempting to deprive them of their rights during the next election.

    • I think your optimism in unwarranted. Right now, the economy has been trashed, but not by a virus. It’s been trashed by our governments. And the people are loving it and begging for more.

      Once the current government-made emergency is over, the G will create another one, and the fools who tried to buy in a panic will go back to being the tools they were before. Nothing will have changed.

  26. This man is a STING-ker with a STING-kee brain and a STING-kee mode of thinking.

    (paraphrase #5, “Short Circuit”) “STING-kee, Stephanie!”

  27. They need to take a pole of how many of the grabbers bought guns, against their own gestapo ideals?

  28. People should be ashamed of using a victim of violence not to go after dirtbag perps and Gun Free Zones but to go after a cherished Constitutional Right.
    As I recall the spaceman Gifford stooped to show how easy it is to purchase an AR15 and a savy firearms dealer caught him and denied the purchase. The uppity spaceman walked out empty handed and looking ridiculous. Instead of learning a lesson the spaceman plows on passing bloated anti gun gas all while giving violent perps who will use anything they can get their criminal hands on a pass.

  29. I walk into a store wearing a mask, gloves, hoodie and gun, Couldn’t do that three weeks ago.

  30. Sadly Gifford;s husband, Mark Kelly, is running for Senator from Arizona. He is also a militant gun grabber and being funded by Bloomberg’s many pacs.

    • If any of these new gun owners in Arizona have any desire to make it mean something, they can prove themselves by getting him out.

  31. The country is flat broke, we just have not realized yet, I’m sure the cops don’t want everybody have a gun and ruining their job security.
    In the meantime, I have to take more refrigerator trailers to New York

  32. An optimist Anti gun activist would say there are now more guns to grab.
    A pessimist anti gun activist would say that grabbing guns increases risk of being shot.
    A person with common sense would say that now criminals misusing guns are more likely to be stopped.

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  34. Turns out when one thing kills maybe 10k a year, and something might end up killing >100x that, it concentrates people. Plus the rapid deterioration of law and order…

    Makes them sound way more shrill bleating about gun control when most people are realizing they are on their own to protect themselves (or if not completely on their own, will be soon).

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