New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu just did something that infuriated the gun prohibition lobby, while providing Second Amendment activists some hope that at least one politician isn’t buckling to the anti-gun-rights agenda in the wake of three high-profile shootings for which American gun owners are not responsible.
Last week, Gov. Sununu vetoed a trio of gun control measures, declaring all three to be infringements on the rights of Granite State gun owners. In his veto message, the Republican governor observed, “New Hampshire is one of the safest states in the nation, and we have a long and proud tradition of responsible firearm stewardship. Our laws are well-crafted and fit our culture of responsible gun ownership and individual freedom.”
Writing over the weekend in the National Review, John Fund observed, “After the El Paso and Dayton shootings, most Republican politicians broke for the tall grass. There was talk of a wholesale collapse of GOP support for gun rights in the Senate, and President Trump promised to support “meaningful” changes in federal gun policy. There was little discussion of whether these would actually work to decrease the number of mass killings… But Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, didn’t join the call for retreat even though the state leans left…”
A few lines later, Fund added, Sununu “noted that similar measures had been tried elsewhere and done nothing to stop mass shootings.”
That’s the kind of candor gun owners expect from any politician trying to garner their votes. It’s the kind of message gun owners in other states—Washington, for example—would like to hear from their political leaders.
When Initiative 594, the so-called “universal background check” measure, was passed by voters in 2014 on the promise that it would help prevent tragedies, opponents correctly predicted it would do no such thing. Eighteen months later, in the summer of 2016, came the triple slaying of three teens at a party in Mukilteo and about three months after that five people were murdered at Burlington’s Cascade Mall.
Instead of admitting that I-594 failed, the gun control lobby ramped up demands for more anti-gun-rights legislation and then pushed through another gun control initiative, I-1639, passed by Washington voters last November.
The Hill is reporting that “five factors” will determine the gun control debate when Congress returns next month, and into 2020. The newspaper lists those five factors as Public Sentiment, President Trump and Mitch McConnell, the National Rifle Association, Impeachment and Time.
Democrats are taking advantage of the mass shootings to press their gun control agenda. Politico quoted Iowa State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, who acknowledged, “The climate, if we take advantage of it, is better than it’s ever been before. If we don’t take advantage of it, then we miss. And that means our children’s grandbabies will be holding rallies like this.”
It also means that the children and grandchildren of today’s gun owners and Second Amendment activists will still be fighting this battle, which is not only about guns, but about rights.
