Anti-gun-rights California Congressman and presidential wannabe Eric Swalwell’s gun control-based campaign is getting a boost from The Guardian one week after the tragedy in Virginia Beach as he argues for a ban on so-called “assault rifles” while the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby is promoting a “wear orange weekend.”
Gun control proponents a few years ago appropriated fluorescent orange—the color worn by hunters for several years to promote safety and reduce accidents in the field—as their way of pushing their gun control agenda.
Buried in The Guardian’s story is an interesting statement from Swalwell:
“Assault rifles may account for a small number of gun violence deaths but they account for 100% of the fear that kids have. That’s the weapon they saw used in Parkland, they’ve seen used in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and Las Vegas. They’re afraid of this particular weapon. So it’s not just the lives you save, it’s the peace of mind you bring.”
This amounts to an acknowledgement that this hand-wringing over modern semiautomatic sporting rifles is an invented crisis. After all, the May 31 mass slaying of a dozen people in Virginia Beach didn’t involve an “assault weapon,” yet anti-gun-rights Gov. Ralph Northam wasted no time dusting off his personal gun control agenda, including a call to ban such rifles.
With their rhetoric, Swalwell and Northam, and people like them, might easily be accused of fomenting fear where none need really exist.
According to The Guardian, “Swalwell believes a majority of Americans supports stricter gun restrictions.
“[Most people] believe you can keep your pistols, keep your shotguns, keep your rifles, but get dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people,” Swalwell reportedly said.
Second Amendment activists say that is suspiciously reminiscent of ex-President Barack Obama’s claim about his disastrous “Affordable Care Act,” which turned out to be no so affordable at all. In many cases, people couldn’t “keep their doctor” or “keep their plan,” as Obama had asserted in his sales pitch.
Anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and its subsidiary, Moms Demand Action, are encouraging anti-gunners to wear orange today and this weekend. Some gun rights activists on social media are suggesting gun owners wear hunting garments, perhaps with gun company logos, as a counter protest.
Several gun control activities are planned this weekend. Find one near you here.
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