The message from two active gun prohibition lobbying organizations could not be more clear: The Donald Trump-Mike Pence ticket evidently scares them.
They’re wasting no time in telling the world, couching their remarks in rhetoric clearly designed to demonize the prospective Republican ticket. At the same time, Trump and GOP officials are preaching unity.
The Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility has circulated two email appeals for money, both last Friday, in which they declared that the Trump campaign “just got a whole lot more dangerous.” They complain that if Pence is elected vice president, “the gun lobby will have a booming voice in the West Wing” and elsewhere that “our White House could become Enemy #1 in our efforts to keep our communities safe from rampant gun violence.”
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence asserted that, by choosing Pence as a running mate, Trump has shown that “gun violence is not an issue he takes seriously,” according to Breitbart.com.
For the past eight years, the gun prohibition lobby has considered the White House “theirs” because of the man in the Oval Office and his running mate, a man who infamously once advised people that the best way to deal with burglars is to go outside and discharge a double-barreled shotgun.
In May, Trump was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and Pence has consistently gotten “A” ratings from the organization. His selection as a running mate shores up Trump’s standing with many gun owners and fiscal conservatives.
The Brady Campaign also injected a racist element in its commentary, asserting that, “Donald Trump will waste no time arming those who share the kind of anger, racism, and hate he preaches. And in Mike Pence, he’s found the perfect partner in crime.”
There is one thing about the two groups’ messages. They can’t get their counts right. The Brady Campaign laments “the deaths of 90 Americans every day.” The Alliance is upset that “89 people die daily from gun violence.” Which number is correct, and how many of those people are suicides, accidents, self-defense and justifiable homicides by police?
Second Amendment advocates might see things considerably different, having endured almost eight years of efforts to erode their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. And the Democrat who plans to succeed Barack Obama in the White House has made gun control a centerpiece of her campaign.
