Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
It feels like the country and Constitution are at an inflection point. On the one hand, the restoration (not “expansion”) of our right to keep and bear arms is underway with several court victories. On the other hand, many states are going full bore and trying to pass as many gun control laws as they can, clogging up the courts and dragging things out.
The buried lede in the gun controllers’ strategy is the hope that by delaying justice, they can run out the clock, so a change in the composition of the Supreme Court via court packing or the deaths of older originalist justices will allow them to resume bleeding the Second Amendment to death with a thousand legislative cuts.
Gone are the days of deception and dissembling with, “We support your gun rights, but only want common sense gun reform.” The new breed of gun controller has dropped his or her charade altogether. Beto O’Rourke, standing on the Democrat presidential debate stage, openly said, “Hell yes, we’re coming for your AR-15,” while the audience cheered wildly and the other candidates on stage stood quietly without a peep of protest. The White House under Joe Biden has repeatedly tweeted about banning “assault weapons,” whatever that nebulous term means. Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who is the head of the Giffords gun control group, recently said, “Guns, guns, guns. No more guns. Gone.”
One upside to the post-Bruen judicial landscape is that the gun controllers have realized that their previous incremental approach is seen as unconstitutional by the courts under the Bruen standard, so they are backing up their open threats by pushing for a constitutional amendment, like Gavin Newsom’s idea for a 28th Amendment.
All their political bloviating aside, gun control funding and the organizing has ramped up significantly over the past decade. Not since Prohibition has a movement been laser-focused not on furtherance of freedom, but with the explicit goal of destroying it.
There is billionaire money behind it. An old Fortune article lists the deep pockets behind the new push for gun control. Combining that with what we know from the Oregon Measure 114 fight, Washington Initiative 1639, and other shenanigans, here are some of the billionaires working on attacking our right to keep and bear arms (in no particular order):
Michael Bloomberg (net worth $94.5 billion)
Bill Gates (net worth $115.4 billion)
Warren Buffett (net worth $116.7 billion)
Oprah Winfrey (net worth $2.5 billion)
Steve Ballmer (net worth $101.8 billion)
Rupert Murdoch (net worth $17.4 billion)
George Soros (net worth $6.7 billion)
Pierre Omidyar (net worth $8.3 billion)
Nicolas Hanauer (net worth $1 billion)
John and Laura Arnold (net worth $3.3 billion)
Money doesn’t vote but it makes a difference. For example, Oregon Measure 114, which barely squeaked by with 50.65% of the vote, saw gun controllers spend $3,174,984.38, while the pro-Second Amendment side spent barely $187,855.26. The gun grabbers outspent the gun rights side almost 17-to-1.
There is no way We the People can stop these meddlesome billionaires from throwing their cash around. All we can do is be active and engaged. And it does help to pitch in. We may not be rich, but every bit helps. Besides, there is strength in numbers.
There are tens of millions of us who own guns and care about our rights. If each of us sets aside the cost of a box of ammo, once a month, and sets up a recurring donation to one or more gun rights groups, that will make a big difference. Your 1st or 4th or umpteenth gun or optics purchase is made possible because our rights are being protected by these groups. So, it’s incumbent upon you and me to support them.
Note that donating the cost of a box of ammo is not my original idea. I credit this to Tom Gresham at Guntalk, who has mentioned it on his podcast.
Here is a list of gun rights organizations that you should consider setting up a recurring donation to. This is not an exhaustive list; these are the ones I’m listing from memory.
There are state-specific organizations that you should research and consider joining and supporting. A lot of the fights are at the state level, and those are extremely important too.
Sometimes the best way to deal with someone who keeps messing with you is to teach him a lesson he’ll never forget. Consider your donations and civic engagement the lesson that will teach the billionaire class to stop messing with our freedoms. Yes, they’re rich, and we’re happy for their good fortune, made possible by the American system of liberty, justice, and the rule of law. But we are free and equal citizens. They don’t own us, and they should stop acting like they do.