Amid lawsuits challenging shutdowns of gun shops and shooting ranges under so-called “Stay Home” orders, the Second Amendment Foundation has launched a new outreach program, timed perfectly for COVID-19 shut-ins, called “2A Gaming,” and it is already getting attention, according to SAF Director of Outreach Andrew Gottlieb.
He described the new project as a way to expand Second Amendment knowledge among people whose firearms experience might actually begin with video games.
“We also hope that we can bring more awareness to the fact that the gun community and gaming community have more in common than they might think,” Gottlieb says in a short introductory video now gaining traction on social media.
Gottlieb is the son of SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. He explains the project in this short video:
The project is sponsored by Rainier Arms, a Washington State-based company located in Auburn, a community south of Seattle.
According to a news release, due to the coronavirus outbreak, “the number of hours watched for game streaming has skyrocketed.”
“With the lockdowns spreading across the country,” the group says, “more people are watching what lawmakers are doing in terms of their freedoms. As you might have seen in the past month we have seen numerous attacks on the Second Amendment during a time that more people than ever before are looking to exercise their rights.
“Video game streams are a great way to help draw in a younger audience and help educate them on what rights they have as well as why those rights are important,” says SAF.
By no small coincidence, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday evening in a short address that the lockdown in his state, where SAF’s national headquarters is located, might begin to ease a bit starting May 4, but he emphasized that restrictions will likely remain in place beyond that date, as noted by the Seattle Times.
In response, Republican gubernatorial candidate Joshua Freed filed a federal lawsuit asking for an injunction that would “lift a portion” of Inslee’s March 23 “shelter-in-place” order banning “all public and private gatherings and multi-person activities for social, spiritual and recreational purposes,” according to KCPQ News, the Fox affiliate in Seattle.
Inslee’s main problem at this point is convincing his constituents that he actually has a plan to put the state back to work. As it stands, that appears to be a bit nebulous.
Famous Bull Run Cancelled
On a lighter note, one can judge the seriousness of a pandemic by the impact it has on tradition. This week, The Guardian reported that the Festival of San Fermin has been suspended and there will be no “running of the bulls” through the streets of Pamplona, Spain. The late Ernest Hemingway must be doing summersaults in his grave, for it was against that backdrop he wrote “The Sun Also Rises,” one of the great stories of our time.
An acquaintance of Liberty Park Press actually had plans to attend, and that is now out of the question.
