Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) was recorded lashing out at both her constituents and the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Tuesday evening during a town hall aimed at curbing gun violence.
&#8220;This is why the NRA has got to go,&#8221; <a href="https://pluralist.com/haley-stevens-town-hall-gun-control/">Stevens shouted</a> as pro-second Amendment advocates made their voices heard. &#8220;The NRA has got to go!&#8221; she screamed a second time.
An estimated 200 people attended the hour-long event, which was held at the Multi-Lakes Conservation Association in suburban Detroit. Interestingly, the venue is home to pistol, shotgun, and rifle ranges and many attendees showed up open-carrying their own firearms.
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📢<a href="https://twitter.com/RepHaleyStevens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepHaleyStevens</a> shouts: The NRA has got to go📢 <a href="https://t.co/Vpnun5vwN5">pic.twitter.com/Vpnun5vwN5</a>
&mdash; Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) <a href="https://twitter.com/MIRisingAction/status/1179392984518942720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The town hall was organized as a question-and-answer style format and was intended to cover a variety of gun-related topics spanning from protecting victims of domestic abuse to firearm storage, reported <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/01/haley-stevens-holds-gun-violence-town-hall-at-gun-club/3834884002/">The Detroit News</a>. In addition to Stevens, Michigan&#8217;s House Democratic Leader Christine Greig and Democratic State Rep. Robert Wittenberg were also in attendance.
During the contentious town hall, many of the attendees booed and shouted &#8220;NRA,&#8221; showing their support for the gun rights organization, and some held signs that said &#8220;Vote out Haley Stevens — a liar.&#8221;
The event was hosted by the left-wing activist group Fems for Dems, a grassroots organization focused on electing progressive lawmakers in the state of Michigan.
&#8220;Representative Haley Stevens revealed her true intentions during her unhinged outburst directed at her own constituents,&#8221; Tori Sachs, the executive director of Michigan Rising Action told The Daily Wire. &#8220;[She] may have run as a moderate who would support &#8216;common sense&#8217; gun reform, but it&#8217;s now clear she&#8217;s joined the gun-grabbing radical left trying to completely dismantle the NRA and take away 2nd Amendment rights from law-abiding citizens.&#8221;
&#8220;It makes sense that Haley Stevens would be widely out of touch with her constituents after living in liberal cities like Chicago and Washington D.C., only moving home to Michigan recently so she could run for office,&#8221; Sachs added.
Stevens was elected to the 11th Congressional District in 2018, when Michigan experienced a swing to the left following President Donald Trump&#8217;s surprise victory in the Great Lakes State in 2016. The seat was previously held by former Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI), who opted not to seek re-election after serving for two terms. While Trump won the congressional district in 2016, Stevens was able to flip the consistently red district blue.
Some of Stevens&#8217; Democratic colleagues in the state have been distancing themselves from the anti-NRA outburst as the video continues to circulate online.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to find a way to restore some sense of community, that we can disagree,&#8221; Rep. Debbie Dingell said on a <a href="https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/611315">local Detroit news show</a> while discussing Stevens&#8217; outburst. &#8220;We all have different life experiences, we have different perspectives, we&#8217;ve had different experiences. Instead of screaming at each other all the time, how do we listen to each other?&#8221;
&#8220;I made some stupid comments about the NRA when I was young, too, because I was afraid of them, and didn&#8217;t understand everything,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;But if we could find a way to listen to each other more and to take some of the drama out.&#8221;

Haley Stevens

WATCH: Democratic Lawmaker Screams At Constituents Over NRA Support

Michigan

National Rifle Association (NRA)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution last week declaring the nation&#8217;s most influential pro-Second Amendment advocate, the National Rifle Association (NRA), a &#8220;domestic terrorist organization&#8221; and urged the federal government to do the same. On Monday, the NRA filed a lawsuit against the far-left city for violating the organization&#8217;s free speech rights for political purposes.
In a <a href="https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&amp;amp;ID=7568748&amp;amp;GUID=DF64490F-D8BC-4BF7-A43D-287F02BECCCA">resolution</a> passed Tuesday, the board of supervisors &#8220;declared the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization.&#8221; The City and County of San Francisco &#8220;should take every reasonable step to assess the financial and contractual relationships our vendors and contractors have with this domestic terrorist organization,&#8221; the resolution states, and they &#8220;should take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization.&#8221; The resolution also states that the municipalities will &#8220;encourage all other jurisdictions, including other cities, states, and the federal government, to adopt similar positions.&#8221;
&#8220;The National Rifle Association musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence, and the National Rifle Association spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence, and the leadership of National Rifle Association promotes extremist positions, in defiance of the views of a majority of its membership and the public, and undermine the general welfare, and the National Rifle Association through its advocacy has armed those individuals who would and have committed acts of terrorism,&#8221; the resolution charges. &#8220;All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association&#8217;s influence.&#8221;
The NRA immediately fired back, blasting the &#8220;ludicrous stunt&#8221; and calling out the city&#8217;s leaders for failing to protect its residents by allowing rampant crime and homelessness. &#8220;This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime, to name a few,&#8221; the NRA said in a statement reported by <a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/san-francisco-board-of-supervisors-designates-nra-domestic-terrorist-organization">KTVU</a>. &#8220;The NRA will continue working to protect the constitutional rights of all freedom-loving Americans.&#8221;
On Monday, the NRA took its response further, filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing San Francisco officials of violating the organization&#8217;s First Amendment rights and blacklisting those associated with the group, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nra-sues-san-francisco-terrorist-declaration-65498939">ABC News</a> reports.
&#8220;This action is an assault on all advocacy organizations across the country,&#8221; said NRA lawyer William A. Brewer III in a statement. &#8220;There can be no place in our society for this manner of behavior by government officials. Fortunately, the NRA, like all U.S. citizens, is protected by the First Amendment.&#8221;
ABC notes that the NRA &#8220;has been battling a number of challenges to its operations in recent months, including an investigation by the attorney general in New York, where its charter was formed, and the attorney general in Washington, D.C., where authorities are questioning whether its operations are in violation of its non-profit status.&#8221; The group has also faced national boycotts targeting companies associated with the group organized by gun control activists.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51440/hammer-san-francisco-has-beclowned-itself-labeling-josh-hammer">HAMMER: San Francisco Has Beclowned Itself By Labeling The NRA A ‘Domestic Terrorist Organization’</a>

NRA members are seen checking out weapons and accessories

NRA Sues San Francisco For Labeling It ‘Terrorist Organization’

First Amendment

Gun Control

Guns

Second Amendment

On Sunday, the two top Democratic congressional leaders issued an open letter to President Trump that makes an open attempt at appealing to his ego, pleading with him to seize this &#8220;historic opportunity&#8221; and take &#8220;urgent, personal action&#8221; on gun control in defiance of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
In a joint letter sent to Trump Sunday and published by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/schumer-pelosi-trump-gun-control-letter.html">The New York Times</a>, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Trump that he is &#8220;uniquely poised&#8221; to answer the call of the American people, who are &#8220;crying out for their elected representatives to stop the epidemic of murder and mayhem that is shattering families and communities across the country.&#8221;
Quoting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stating recently that he would be &#8220;happy&#8221; to put gun control legislation on the floor &#8220;if the president took a position on a bill,&#8221; Pelosi and Schumer told Trump that he has a &#8220;historic opportunity to save lives,&#8221; particularly by supporting the House-passed universal background check bill, which many Republicans and the NRA have strongly criticized.
As an example of why the background check bill is so crucial, Pelosi and Schumer cite the claim that the Odessa, Texas shooter obtained his gun through a private sale, a claim that has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51445/breaking-report-refutes-cnns-claim-odessa-attacker-ryan-saavedra">refuted</a> by the Wall Street Journal, which reported that law enforcement officials suspect that a man &#8220;in the business of manufacturing or selling guns without a license&#8221; illegally sold the shooter the gun.
&#8220;We implore you to seize this moment when your leadership and influence over Republicans in Congress on the issue of guns is so critical,&#8221; the Democrats&#8217; letter reads. &#8220;Please do not squander it by acceding to NRA-backed proposals or other weak ideas that will do nothing to stop the continuing, horrific spread of gun violence and may, in some cases, actually make our communities less safe. We believe you have a unique opportunity to save American lives by giving political cover to your fellow Republicans to finally pass meaningful gun safety legislation. The time for you to act is now, before more lives are lost.&#8221;
Below is the full text of the letter:
<blockquote>Dear Mr. President:
We are writing this letter because your urgent, personal intervention is needed to stem the endless massacres of our fellow Americans by gunfire. In the month of August, 51 Americans were killed in mass shootings alone, and many others were killed in the daily tragedy of gun violence in our communities. We have a responsibility to make our schools, shopping centers, houses of worship and other public places safer. The American people are crying out for their elected representatives to stop the epidemic of murder and mayhem that is shattering families and communities across the country. You are uniquely poised to answer their call.
On September 3rd, Majority Leader McConnell made the following statement: &#8220;We&#8217;re in a discussion about what to do on the gun issue in the wake of these horrendous shootings. I said several weeks ago that if the president took a position on a bill, so that we knew we would actually be making a law, and just having serial votes, I&#8217;d be happy to put it on the floor. The administration is in the process of studying what they&#8217;re prepared to support, if anything, and I expect to get an answer to that next week.&#8221;
Leader McConnell&#8217;s statement demonstrates that Republicans in Congress are now prepared to follow you on the issue of gun safety. This is a significant change because in the past, their fealty to the National Rifle Association prevented Republicans from supporting gun safety measures advanced by President Obama and every other president who has attempted to confront this issue.
Just last month, you expressed support for stronger background checks which the NRA has long opposed. You now have a historic opportunity to save lives simply by indicating your support for H.R. 8, the House-passed universal bipartisan background check legislation currently being blocked by Leader McConnell and the Republican majority in the Senate. This bill would close the gaping loophole in the law that allows private gun sellers to evade exisiting background check requirements. While closing this loophole will not stop every shooting, it will undoubtedly save many lives by helping to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. In fact, this is the very loophole that reportedly allowed the gunman in the Odessa, Texas shootings to buy the assault rifle he used to murder seven people and to injure more than 20 others on August 31st.
We implore you to seize this moment when your leadership and influence over Republicans in Congress on the issue of guns is so critical. Please do not squander it by acceding to NRA-backed proposals or other weak ideas that will do nothing to stop the continuing, horrific spread of gun violence and may, in some cases, actually make our communities less safe. We believe you have a unique opportunity to save American lives by giving political cover to your fellow Republicans to finally pass meaningful gun safety legislation. The time for you to act is now, before more lives are lost.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Nancy Pelosi
Charles E. Schumer</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51445/breaking-report-refutes-cnns-claim-odessa-attacker-ryan-saavedra">Report Refutes CNN’s Claim That Odessa Attacker Bought Weapon In Private Sale</a>

President Donald Trump Announces State Opioid Response Grants

Democrats Make Open Appeal To Trump’s Ego For ‘Personal Action’ On Guns

Charles Schumer

Donald Trump

Nancy Pelosi

Trump Administration

As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51366/cliff-san-francisco-board-supervisors-names-nra-hank-berrien">reported</a> yesterday, the comically leftist Board of Supervisors for the city of San Francisco took it upon itself to deem the nation&#8217;s oldest continually operating civil rights organization a &#8220;domestic terrorist organization.&#8221; That organization, of course, would be the <a href="https://home.nra.org">National Rifle Association</a> (NRA) — a group originally founded in 1871, following the nadir of the Civil War, to help promote rifle marksmanship. At the time the NRA was founded during Reconstruction, white supremacists in the South were still engaged in a systemic and conscientious effort to deprive blacks of their Second Amendment rights — rights which had only recently been secured for free blacks via the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 and overruled the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision of 1857. As then-Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in <a href="http://keepandbeararms.com/silveira/enbanc.asp">a 2003 dissent</a> from a denial to rehear a case en banc:
<blockquote>Disarmament was the tool of choice for subjugating both slaves and free blacks in the South. In Florida, patrols searched blacks’ homes for weapons, confiscated those found and punished their owners without judicial process. See Robert J. Cottrol &amp; Raymond T. Diamond, The Second Amendment: Toward an Afro-Americanist Reconsideration, 80 Geo. L.J. 309, 338 (1991). In the North, by contrast, blacks exercised their right to bear arms to defend against racial mob violence. Id. at 341-42.</blockquote>
Put another way, at the time the NRA was founded, its mission to promote rifle marksmanship was inextricably linked with its activism in helping promote the inalienable right to self-defense for the nation&#8217;s most vulnerable population — a population unconscionably subjected en masse to chattel slavery during the first seven-plus decades of the American republic, and whose abolition had just torn a beleaguered nation asunder and resulted in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51234/hammer-washington-post-contributor-compares-pleas-josh-hammer">deaths of over 600,000</a>.
Indeed, to this day, the NRA, in addition to its much-ballyhooed pro-Second Amendment lobbying presence in the nation&#8217;s capital and in state capitals across the country, <a href="https://firearmtraining.nra.org">helps train</a> and <a href="https://gunsafetyrules.nra.org">educate the public</a> in terms of gun safety, competency, and ownership responsibility. Anyone who has ever visited a firing range has likely seen advertised the presence of a &#8220;<a href="https://www.nrainstructors.org">NRA-certified instructor</a>.&#8221; In terms of national firearms training certifications, there is likely no more universally recognized or prestigious honor. The NRA remains the gold standard certifier for the noble business of assisting Americans in the exercise of one of their cherished, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment">textually enumerated</a> constitutional rights.
Alas, the radical Jacobins on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors do not care about any of these niceties. As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Hank Berrien reported, the Board&#8217;s farcical resolution concludes: &#8220;RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco intends to declare the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization … the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to assess the financial and contractual relationships our vendors and contractors have with this domestic terrorist organization … the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization … the City and County of San Francisco should encourage all other jurisdictions, including other cities, states, and the federal government, to adopt similar positions.&#8221;
It is nearly impossible to describe how reckless this stunt is. Planned Parenthood, the nation&#8217;s largest abortion mill, is systemically engaged all across the country in the shameless promotion and enactment of taxpayer-funded prenatal infanticide. If anything, that <a href="https://time.com/4081760/margaret-sanger-history-eugenics/">eugenicist</a>-inspired genocidal organizational history might theoretically lead a conservative city, such as Oklahoma City or Wichita, to declare in a resolution that Planned Parenthood is a &#8220;domestic terrorist organization.&#8221; But the careful reader will note that, to date, that has never happened. And it is shameful for the woke white liberal denizens of San Francisco to disingenuously defame a decorated, longstanding civil rights group — one founded in the aftermath of the Civil War to, in part, secure the newly enshrined constitutional rights of black freedmen — with such a label.
Our collective rhetoric comprising the national discourse is dangerously overheated in this country. As I <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/50303/hammer-our-national-discourse-dangerously-josh-hammer">lamented</a> last month, &#8220;Our markedly polarized polity — divided like never before between the monolithically anti-Trump bi-coastal clerisy and the deigned rubes and yokels of the American heartland — feels like it is at a breaking point.&#8221; Via such a disdainful, divisive, and utterly dishonest resolution, the uppity white leftists of San Francisco — the very embodiment of that &#8220;bi-coastal clerisy&#8221; that looks scornfully upon the gun-owning &#8220;yokels of the American heartland&#8221; — have done their small part to only further tear apart our nation&#8217;s social fabric. We conservatives, who are <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17662/stop-alinskyization-american-right-josh-hammer">less cynical and morally superior to our leftist brethren</a>, have a general responsibility to refrain from engaging in such unscrupulous tit-for-tat crossfire. At the same time, conservatives can only be expected to unilaterally disarm so much. With each grievous blow leftists deal to our polity&#8217;s sense of unity and camaraderie, the closer we inch toward a <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/08/06/igniting-civil-war/">dark outcome that all parties should surely wish to avoid</a>.
At a bare minimum, in the year 2019, is it too much to ask that everyone refrain from labeling as &#8220;domestic terrorist organizations&#8221; those groups founded to secure for a free citizenry one of their constitutionally enumerated rights?

The TransAmerica Building, San Francisco

HAMMER: San Francisco Has Beclowned Itself By Labeling The NRA A ‘Domestic Terrorist Organization’

Leftism

San Francisco

Terrorism

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, eager to join far-leftists around the country who harbor a virulent hatred for the National Rifle Association, passed a resolution that calls the National Rifle Association a &#8220;domestic terrorist organization.&#8221; Not satisfied with that, the board also called on the federal government to name the NRA a terrorist organization, as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/san-francisco-board-brands-nra-a-domestic-terrorist-organization">Fox News</a> reports.
The <a href="https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&amp;amp;ID=7568748&amp;amp;GUID=DF64490F-D8BC-4BF7-A43D-287F02BECCCA">resolution</a> starts by citing the Declaration of Independence&#8217;s statement that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights before seguing to the Constitution stating that the United States was founded to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare.
The resolution turns to the Department of Justice defining terrorist activity as &#8220;The use of any &#8230; explosive, firearm, or other weapon or dangerous device, with intent to endanger, directly or indirectly, the safety of one or more individuals or to cause substantial damage to property.&#8221; The resolution states that the DOJ &#8220;includes any individual or member of an organization commits an act that the actor knows, or reasonably should know, affords material support, including communications, funds, weapons, or training to any individual has committed or plans to commit a terrorist act.&#8221;
Then, the attack on the NRA: &#8220;The National Rifle Association musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence, and the National Rifle Association spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence, and the leadership of National Rifle Association promotes extremist positions, in defiance of the views of a majority of its membership and the public, and undermine the general welfare, and the National Rifle Association through its advocacy has armed those individuals who would and have committed acts of terrorism.&#8221;
The resolution opines, &#8220;All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association&#8217;s influence.&#8221;
Then, the critical statement:
<blockquote>RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco intends to declare the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization … the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to assess the financial and contractual relationships our vendors and contractors have with this domestic terrorist organization … the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization … the City and County of San Francisco should encourage all other jurisdictions, including other cities, states, and the federal government, to adopt similar positions.</blockquote>
According to <a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/san-francisco-board-of-supervisors-designates-nra-domestic-terrorist-organization">KTVU</a>, the NRA fired back with a statement: &#8220;This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime, to name a few. The NRA will continue working to protect the constitutional rights of all freedom-loving Americans.&#8221;

Golden Gate Bridge.

OFF THE CLIFF: San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Names NRA A Terrorist Organization

Barack Obama

Presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) revealed on Wednesday she believes that instituting both a mandatory gun buyback program as well as criminally prosecuting American’s who refuse to hand those firearms over to the government are both “strong” ideas.
“On the assault weapons issue, you have talked openly about being in favor of an assault weapons ban. I’m interested if you are supportive of a mandatory buyback program for assault weapons,” CNN’s Poppy Harlow asked Gillibrand, noting that the proposal was also suggested by her primary challengers Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
“Some have gone as far as to say not only should it be a mandatory buyback of assault rifles, but there should be criminal prosecution for those who don’t sell them back,” Harlow continued. “Is that something you support?”
“I think we should ban assault weapons as well as large magazines, and as part of passing that ban, do a buyback program across the country so that those who own them can be compensated for their money that they spent,” Gillibrand replied. “But I think both of those ideas are strong.”
The New York senator contended that an assault weapons ban would also require Americans to turn over certain firearms to the government so that so-called “assault weapons” would not be accessible to any people.
“You don’t want people to retain them because if you make them illegal, you don’t want to grandfather in all the assault weapons that are all across America,” Gillibrand said. “You would like people to sell them back to the government so that you can make sure that people who shouldn’t have access to these weapons couldn’t have them.”
“The point is, you don’t want people using assault weapons, and so the point is if you are arrested for using an assault weapon, you’re going to have an aggravated felony,” she continued. “I mean, the whole point is when you make it a crime to own an assault weapon, then if you are found using it, that would be the issue.”
Gillibrand quickly shifted her focus onto the National Rifle Association (NRA), criticizing the famed gun-rights organization for their opposition to banning firearm suppressors.
“It would just be part of your law enforcement in terms of what you have access to in the same way that you need to have a certain certification, a certain approval to have a suppresser on your weapon,” she said. “That’s why the NRA is desperate to make it easier to get suppressors where you don’t actually have to get a specific license or certification to have that suppressor.”
The Democratic presidential hopeful has been a frequent, yet relatively recent, critic of the NRA. While she often touts her F rating from the organization, the NRA notably rated Gillibrand an A up until the year she moved to the Senate from New York’s 20th Congressional District and flipped on her Second Amendment positions.
“[The NRA] just care[s] about gun sales, they care about money,” Gillibrand said. “They are funded by a lot of people including gun manufacturers and gun manufacturers care more about gun sales than the safety of families.”

2020 Presidential Candidates Speak At Iowa State Fair Soapbox

WATCH: Gillibrand Is Open To Criminally Prosecuting Gun Owners Who Don’t Hand Over Their ‘Assault Weapons’ To The Government

2020 Election

Kirsten Gillibrand

On Tuesday night, CBS&#8217; &#8220;The Late Show with Stephen Colbert&#8221; mocked National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswoman Dana Loesch in a controversial sketch which ends with the sound of a gun shooting off multiple times and the activist yelling.
While it&#8217;s unclear from watching the sketch if Loesch is &#8220;shot&#8221; herself, the description of the video from the show&#8217;s YouTube channel certainly suggests she is: &#8220;As the nation&#8217;s prominent advocate for gun rights, you&#8217;d think the NRA would be better at defending itself,&#8221; the caption reads.
Introducing the NRA&#8217;s &#8220;newest charity initiative,&#8221; the actress playing Loesch says the organization is now &#8220;arming stray cats that live on the mean streets.&#8221; The cat has a gun strapped to its back.
&#8220;Now run along, you&#8217;re safe now,&#8221; says the actress. When the cat is put down, gun shots immediately ring out and the fake Loesch screams, &#8220;Oh, God! Oh my God!&#8221;
Loesch has been a prime target for anti-gun extremists. The activist, who is routinely threatened online, was booed and maligned during a CNN town hall event in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, for example.
&#8220;After the broadcast ended, one of my detail had to stop a woman who rushed the stage to tackle me from behind. That is when [Jake] Tapper asked me if I had an escort out. I am positive that CNN&#8217;s cameras, still operational, observed this and would like for them to release the footage,&#8221; Loesch recalled last month. The spokeswoman made the remark after it was amazingly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44857/cnn-brags-about-winning-award-much-maligned-hank-berrien">announced</a> that CNN won the Walter Cronkite Award for the mob-like event.
As <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2018/02/21/insanity-cnn-town-hall-student-questions-loeschs-motherhood">reported</a> by NewsBusters, Loesch was also maligned with shouts of &#8220;murderer&#8221; at the event and had her fitness as a mother questioned by Stoneman Douglas student activist Emma Gonzalez.
&#8220;Alright. Dana Loesch, I want to know that we will support your two children in the way that we will not &#8212; you will not,&#8221; said Gonzalez.
The high schooler went on to ask about gun modifications, such as bump stocks &#8212; which have now been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/bump-stocks-ban/index.html">outlawed</a> by the Trump administration.
As Loesch was answering Gonzalez&#8217;s question, at least three hecklers interrupted, screaming &#8220;Murderer!&#8221; and &#8220;You&#8217;re a murderer!&#8221;
Moreover, when the political commentator left the CNN stage, attendees chanted &#8220;Shame on you!&#8221; and yelled &#8220;Burn her!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Here is some footage where people were yelling to burn me at CNN&#8217;s award-winning townhall where they &#8220;advanced the conversation on gun control.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/EYWWj8KcxN">pic.twitter.com/EYWWj8KcxN</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1108059318203678720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In 2017, Loesch revealed that she and her family had to flee her home after receiving credible rape and death threats from gun control zealots. In a series of tweets, Loesch <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/22291/second-amendment-champion-dana-loesch-reveals-hank-berrien">explained</a>:
<blockquote>
Spent my weekend preparing to move due to repeated threats from gun control advocates. 
One guy hunted down my private cell phone number, called when police were here, threatened to shoot me in my front yard.
Another guy created a string of social media accounts, posted photos of my house, threatened to rape me to death.
Another gun control advocate, after threatening to hunt me down and assault me, dragged my kids into it.
I&#8217;m grateful that my kids&#8217; school worked with law enforcement and private security to ensure campus safety, and work with me. 
</blockquote>
Colbert has increasingly spouted hyperpartisan rhetoric since the election of President Donald Trump. The comedian was called out for &#8220;<a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/5/2/15515066/stephen-colbert-trump-putin-homophobia-late-show">homophobia</a>&#8221; by Vox and other left-wing media outlets after he attempted to mock the president.
&#8220;In a string of insults against President Donald Trump last night, comedian Stephen Colbert lined up what he surely thought was a great, hilarious diss. Instead, he blurted out some homophobia,&#8221; Vox <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/5/2/15515066/stephen-colbert-trump-putin-homophobia-late-show">reported</a> at the time. &#8220;Colbert was in the middle of a monologue launching various insults at Trump, including some fat shaming, &#8216;presidunce,&#8217; and &#8216;pricktator.&#8217; In the course of this, he said, &#8216;The only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin&#8217;s cock holster.'&#8221;
WATCH:
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WATCH: &#8216;Colbert&#8217; Targets The NRA&#8217;s Dana Loesch In Controversial Gun Sketch

Dana Loesch

Stephen Colbert

The National Rifle Association is currently struggling with inner turmoil after former president and current Executive Vice President Wayne Lapierre sent a letter accusing Col. Oliver North (who was, until this morning, NRA president) of blackmailing him into resigning.
The battle is taking place at the worst possible moment for the organization &#8212; right in the middle of its annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. On Saturday morning, North was supposed to appear on a panel alongside Lapierre, but as The Washington Free Beacon&#8217;s Stephen Gutowski reported on Twitter, the former U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel didn&#8217;t show up, instead providing a letter offering his resignation.
&#8220;Breaking: Oliver North is NOT at the NRA members meeting,&#8221; Gutowski tweeted. &#8220;Wayne Lapierre is here, by the way, and came out to a standing ovation.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Wayne Lapierre is here, by the way, and came out to a standing ovation.
&#8212; Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenGutowski/status/1122139391697223685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
An empty spot remained on stage where North should have been.
Richard Childress, former NASCAR driver and CEO of Richard Childress Racing, read a letter from North saying he had been forced out of the organization over his allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual harassment (not from or against him), and excessive expenses.
North had spoken at the NRA&#8217;s annual meeting Friday morning, but was seen leaving the event for the airport, Gutowski reported.
Lapierre, in <a href="https://t.co/1lz3MEJQXT?amp=1">a letter</a> obtained by The Wall Street Journal, accused North of threatening to go public with his allegations if the executive vice president did not resign immediately.
&#8220;I believe the purpose of the letter was to humiliate me, discredit our Association, and raise appearances of impropriety that hurt our members and the Second Amendment,&#8221; Lapierre wrote. &#8220;The letter would contain a devastating account of our financial status, sexual harassment charges against a staff member, accusations of wardrobe expenses and excessive staff travel expenses.&#8221;
Importantly, Lapierre claimed: &#8220;Col. North explained that the letter would not be sent &#8211; if I were to promptly resign as your Executive Vice President. And, if I supported Col. North&#8217;s continued tenure as President, he stated that he could &#8216;negotiate&#8217; an &#8216;excellent retirement&#8217; for me.&#8221;
The accusations were prompted by an NRA lawsuit against one of the organization&#8217;s vendors, Ackerman McQueen (AM). Lapierre alleged in his letter that AM joined North in blackmailing the executive vice president.
After a phone call with North, Lapierre wrote, &#8220;others informed me that I needed to withdraw the NRA lawsuit against AM or be smeared.&#8221;
Lapierre went on to write that the allegations against the organization that would be contained in a damaging letter were never made during his 40-year relationship with AM. &#8220;They are conveniently making them now &#8211; only as they face scrutiny in a Virginia court and the prospect of having to comply with our demand for books and records,&#8221; Lapierre wrote.
The New York Times then <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/business/nra-wayne-lapierre-oliver-north.html">reported</a> that North had &#8220;created a committee to review allegations of financial improprieties that threaten the NRA&#8217;s status as a nonprofit organization.&#8221;
In its lawsuit against AM, the Times reported, the NRA alleged the firm was overbilling the gun-rights organization and that North had a conflict of interest in the matter because he was also paid by AM. The lawsuit claimed AM refused to provide financial records as part of the NRA&#8217;s &#8220;review of contractors it was conducting amid the threats of aggressive regulatory action,&#8221; the Times reported.

Oliver North Absent From NRA Members Meeting Following Accusations Of Blackmail

Wayne LaPierre

Speaking at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum in Indianapolis, Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence declared that the Trump administration is not backing down from its strong support of the Second Amendment and law-abiding citizens. 
&#8220;You know, the president and I stand with the NRA because, like all of you, we stand for freedom. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a freedom that is at the heart of the American story,&#8221; Pence said. &#8220;Our Founders won our independence with the power of their ideas and with the powder in their muskets. Our pioneers won the West with their daring, their courage, and their Springfields, Winchesters, and Colts.&#8221;
The vice president praised the gun rights organization and its five million members &#8220;because the National Rifle Association stands for freedom.&#8221;
Pence challenged the notion that increased gun ownership leads to higher crime rates in communities and promised that the Trump administration will protect law-abiding gun owners.
&#8220;Nowhere is this ongoing struggle for freedom more visible every day than in the struggle to defend the Second Amendment. Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens don&#8217;t threaten our families, they protect our families. And we know that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens make our communities more safe, not less safe,&#8221; he said. 
Pence continued, &#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll make you a promise: Under this president and this vice president, no one is taking your guns. Under this president and this administration, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.&#8221;
The vice president also discussed the Trump administration&#8217;s support for law enforcement, as well as their signature policy of enforcing the border. 
Video and transcript below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YXraPH3zNWc" width="853"></iframe></div>
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>
Well, hello, NRA! Thank you, Chris, for that great introduction. Chris and I have been friends for a lot of years. I have great respect for him. But he knows the introduction I prefer is a little bit shorter: I&#8217;m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.
And as Vice President of the United States, it&#8217;s my great honor to be back home again in Indiana with so many freedom-loving Americans at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association. Welcome to the Hoosier State.
It really is great to be here with so many friends. Chris, and Ollie North, and Wayne LaPierre, and, really, with some outstanding leaders that we respect greatly and admire every day, like Governor Eric Holcomb of Indiana Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky, and so many distinguished members of the United States Congress, including the House Minority Whip, the courageous Steve Scalise.
And speaking of friends of mine, it&#8217;s especially great to be here with another friend, a great champion of freedom who I can tell you personally gets up every day and fights to keep the promises that he made to all the American people. I can&#8217;t wait to join you to welcome the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump back to the Hoosier State.
You know, the President and I stand with the NRA because, like all of you, we stand for freedom. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a freedom that is at the heart of the American story.
Our Founders won our independence with the power of their ideas and with the powder in their muskets. Our pioneers won the West with their daring, their courage, and their Springfields, Winchesters, and Colts.
Our forebears have fought our nation&#8217;s wars and defended our way of life with the skills they learned on the rifle range, in a deer stand, at the knee of a father, a mother, or a grandparent back home.
And in our own day, there are no greater champions of America&#8217;s tradition of responsible gun ownership than all of you and the 5 million proud men and women of the NRA. Thank you for your stand.
And I&#8217;m here today to tell you: We&#8217;re with you. President Trump and I are with the NRA today, and tomorrow and always, because the National Rifle Association stands for freedom.
Nowhere is this ongoing struggle for freedom more visible every day than in the struggle to defend the Second Amendment. Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens don&#8217;t threaten our families, they protect our families. And we know that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens make our communities more safe, not less safe.
You know, at this podium, nearly two decades ago, Charlton Heston said those famous words, and I quote, &#8220;I&#8217;ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.&#8221;
Well, I&#8217;ll make you a promise: Under this President and this Vice President, no one is taking your guns. Under this President and this administration, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
And the truth is, from the first day of this administration, President Trump has been fighting for freedom, and you all know that. And, really, I couldn&#8217;t be more proud to be Vice President to a President who fights every day not just for freedom but for those who defend it.
I mean, think about it: This President stood with those who defend our freedom when he signed the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan.
Thanks to the President&#8217;s leadership, we&#8217;re once again giving our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard the resources and the support they need to accomplish their mission and come home safe.
And this President has stood with those who defend our freedom her at home, who protect and serve on the Thin Blue Line. And under President Trump&#8217;s leadership, we&#8217;re giving all the men and women of law enforcement at every level the resources and the respect that they deserve every single day as they protect our families.
I know there&#8217;s a lot of law enforcement members who are here today, who have taken time to be at this convention. Why don&#8217;t you all just show them how much we appreciate the men and women who serve on the Thin Blue Line and protect our families every day? (Applause.) God bless you all.
And this President has stood for freedom in the American economy as well. President Trump has already cut more federal red tape in the last two years than any President in American history. We&#8217;ve unleased American energy. And President Trump signed the largest tax cuts and tax reform in American history. (Applause.) And the results are in: Businesses large and small have created 5.5 million new jobs. More Americans are working than ever before. And it was just reported this morning: The American economy grew by 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019.
And beyond our security and our prosperity, this President has also strengthened the very foundation of our freedom. At this point, President Trump has already appointed to our federal courts more principled conservatives in the last two years than any President in American history. And they are all conservatives who will uphold the God-given liberties enshrined in our Constitution &#8212; like the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms. It&#8217;s an incredible group.
But despite the fact that this President has faced unprecedented opposition, obstruction, and resistance, I believe that when this President&#8217;s story is written, when he finishes his term in office, six years from now I believe history will record: No other President in all the modern era has done so much for so many in so little time. President Donald Trump has delivered.
So, under the President&#8217;s leadership here at home and around the world, America is winning again. But to keep on winning, I came here today to say that we need you to stay in the fight. Because the truth is, we live in a time when freedom is under assault. And it&#8217;s not just the freedom that the NRA so nobly defends, but the freedom to live, to work, and to worship God are all being threatened by the radical Left every day. It&#8217;s true.
And the same people who threaten your right to self-defense want to stifle our economy by raising taxes and increasing regulation. The same people who want to take away your unalienable rights routinely denigrate the faith of millions of Americans and advocate late-term abortion and even infanticide.
But I&#8217;ll make you a promise: Under this President and this administration, we will stand without apology for the sanctity of human life.
But our freedom is under assault every day in other ways. The same blue states and cities that are trying to bankrupt the NRA have become sanctuaries for illegal immigrants, including dangerous gang members and human traffickers. And the same people who want to restrict the right to keep and bear arms of law-abiding citizens believe the Boston Marathon bomber should be given the right to vote on death row.
I got news for you, Bernie: Not on our watch!
Violent convicted felons, murderers, and terrorists should never be given the right to vote in prison &#8212; not now, not ever.
You know, I heard the other day that another Vice President actually said that &#8220;we&#8217;re in a battle for the soul of our nation.&#8221; And, for once, I agree with him &#8212; but not for the reason he thinks. We are in a battle. We&#8217;re in a battle for the soul of America, but it&#8217;s a battle between liberty and tyranny. As the President has said before, it&#8217;s a battle between independence and government control. And, ultimately, it&#8217;s a battle between freedom and socialism.
You know, under the guise of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, the same Democrats who want to take away your freedom openly advocate a failed economic system that has robbed the liberty and impoverished millions of people around the world.
But let&#8217;s be clear: It was freedom, not socialism, that gave us the most prosperous economy in the history of the world.
It was freedom, not socialism, that ended slavery, won two world wars, and stands today as a beacon of hope for all the world.
It was freedom, not socialism, that&#8217;s moving us beyond the prejudices of the past to create a more perfect union and extend the blessings of liberty to every American, regardless of race or creed or color.
And it was freedom, not socialism, that gave us the highest quality of life, the cleanest environment, and improved the health and wellbeing of millions around the world.
You know, what Medicare for All really means is quality healthcare for none. And the only thing green about the so-called Green New Deal is how much green it&#8217;s going to cost all of us if they ever sign it into law.
You know, Margaret Thatcher probably said it best: &#8220;The trouble with socialism is [you] eventually run out of other people&#8217;s money.&#8221;
So I say, from my heart, to all of you freedom-loving Americans gathered here: The moment America becomes a socialist country is the moment America ceases to be America. And as President Trump said in his State of the Union Address, so we must say with one voice: &#8220;America will never be a socialist country.&#8221;
So, men and women of the NRA, the stakes have never been higher, but the choice has never been clearer.
It won&#8217;t be enough just to win the next election; we&#8217;ve got to win the next generation. And this is our challenge. It won&#8217;t be easy. But it never has been.
Thomas Paine explained, during the American founding, that the battle for freedom is always arduous. As he said, quote, &#8220;The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.&#8221; And then Thomas Paine added, &#8220;What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly&#8221; and that &#8220;Heaven knows how to put a [proper] price upon its good[s]; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.&#8221;
It&#8217;s really about freedom that we gather here today, and preserving the freedom that&#8217;s at the heart of America. But as you&#8217;ll hear in just a few minutes, President Donald Trump and I are ready for the fight. (Applause.) We are ready to stand with all of you and fight to defend and expand freedom for every American.
But we can&#8217;t do it alone &#8212; so keep doing your part. Talk to your neighbors and friends and tell them what we&#8217;ve been able to accomplish over the last two years. And tell them about the challenges that we face, and tell them what the opposition offers. I mean, tell them this President and this administration have been fighting for all the liberties you hold dear. Tell them we&#8217;re setting things right in Washington, D.C. Tell them we&#8217;re draining the swamp &#8212;because we are. And tell them the forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more, because it&#8217;s the God&#8217;s honest truth. (Applause.) Go tell them.
So thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. Thank you for coming here to the Hoosier State and giving me a chance to be home.
You know, it&#8217;s amazing for me to think about the journey that my wife and I have been on. Five years ago, when I was governor of the state of Indiana, I stood at this podium in that role. And I have to tell you, for this small-town boy from southern Indiana, the grandson of an Irish immigrant, it&#8217;s hard to describe how humbling it is to have the privilege. So I want to &#8212; I want to thank you for the honor of serving as your Vice President. And I want to thank you for your support.
And because of your support of this President, his Vice President, and this administration, I&#8217;m proud to report America is standing strong again. America is prospering again.
The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States is secure again. And freedom is winning all across America.
And I know we&#8217;re going to keep on winning. I know we&#8217;re going to keep on winning because I have faith &#8212; faith in this President I serve alongside every day. I mean, I got to tell you, somebody said to me the other day, &#8220;Tell the President to keep on going, keep on fighting.&#8221; And I said to them, &#8220;That&#8217;s not something you got to tell him.&#8221;
You know, as we say here in the Hoosier State, all the reverse is stripped out of that pickup truck. It is straight ahead, straight forward. He&#8217;s bringing the energy, the leadership, and the fight for the American people. And I promise you we&#8217;re going to do it every day in the next two years.
But I got faith in my friend. I got faith in conservative leaders that you&#8217;ve helped elect all across this country, who have been standing with us for the principles and the ideals that we hold dear.
And lastly, I&#8217;ve got faith in all of you. As I travel across this country, I see Americans every day who are standing with us, encouraging us. I meet them at grocery stores. I meet them on rope lines at airports. I meet them at rallies and in diners. And they&#8217;re folks just like you and me who always knew that we could be strong again; who knew that we could be prosperous again; who knew that we could be standing tall again. And they&#8217;re standing with us every step of the way.
And so, for their sake, I just want to encourage all of you: Be confident as we go into the days that lie ahead in the next year and a half. Because I have faith that if we hold the banner of freedom high, if we put into practice those words inscribed on the Liberty Bell to &#8220;proclaim liberty throughout all the land [and] unto all the inhabitants thereof,&#8221; those same Americans will rally to our cause again and we&#8217;ll keep on winning a great victory for the American people.
And remember, as you leave Indiana and go to your homes, and all of you that are looking on from afar, remember that when we fight for freedom, we do not fight alone because where the spirit of the Lord is, there&#8217;s freedom. And that means freedom always wins.
So thank you for the honor. Thank you for the honor of addressing you today. Thank you for the stand that you&#8217;ve made and the stand that each one of you take. We&#8217;re proud to stand with you.
And I truly do believe that with your continued support, with President Donald Trump in the White House for four more years with freedom-loving leaders serving at every level all across this nation, and with God&#8217;s help, we&#8217;ll finish what we&#8217;ve started. We will make America safe again. We will make America more prosperous than ever before. And as I know you&#8217;ll hear in just a few minutes, we will make America great again.
Thank you very much. God bless you all. And God bless America.
</blockquote>

WATCH: Mike Pence Affirms Trump Administration’s Pro-Gun Stance At NRA Event

Conservatism

Indiana

Mike Pence

On Tuesday, Democratic president candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell took aim at the NRA, taunting them that they wouldn&#8217;t debate him. But NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch had a swift and blistering response, quoting from Val Kilmer&#8217;s immortal performance as Doc Holliday in the film &#8220;Tombstone&#8221; and firing back, &#8220;I&#8217;m your huckleberry.&#8221;
Swalwell was responding to Loesch pointing out that Swalwell had &#8220;dodged legitimate questions about his gun confiscation-and-jail policy for quite some time.&#8221; Prior to that salvo, she had stated, &#8220;You said you would jail law-abiding gun owners if they didn&#8217;t turn in their lawfully owned firearms. How do you plan to confiscate guns?&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Very &#8220;How do fellow kids?&#8221; Congressman, but instead answer my question. You said you would jail law-abiding gun owners if they didn&#8217;t turn in their lawfully owned firearms. How do you plan to confiscate guns? <a href="https://t.co/9uQ9UBn4Vi">https://t.co/9uQ9UBn4Vi</a> <a href="https://t.co/T6Y506TAJO">https://t.co/T6Y506TAJO</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1118202912348438535?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
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BTW &#8212; <a href="https://twitter.com/ericswalwell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ericswalwell</a> has dodged legitimate questions about his gun confiscation-and-jail policy for quite some time:<a href="https://t.co/lx8r1UJzJn">https://t.co/lx8r1UJzJn</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1118205301478633473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Swalwell responded, &#8220;Ms. Loesch &#8212; I see you&#8217;ve spent another day blowing up my Twitter. Thank you for following! But here&#8217;s the deal, you&#8217;re an <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA">@nra</a> mouthpiece. I don&#8217;t aim down, so I don&#8217;t debate mouthpieces. But send me your president, <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverLNorth">@OliverLNorth</a>. I&#8217;ll debate him anywhere.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Ms. Loesch &#8212; I see you&#8217;ve spent another day blowing up my Twitter. Thank you for following! But here&#8217;s the deal, you&#8217;re an <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nra</a> mouthpiece. I don&#8217;t aim down, so I don&#8217;t debate mouthpieces. But send me your president, <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverLNorth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OliverLNorth</a>. I&#8217;ll debate him anywhere. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EnoughIsEnough?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EnoughIsEnough</a> <a href="https://t.co/hu6eVkMIuL">https://t.co/hu6eVkMIuL</a>
&#8212; Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericswalwell/status/1119200871118667776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Loesch launched the torpedo: &#8220;I&#8217;m your Huckleberry. Unless you&#8217;re afraid to lose.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I&#8217;m your Huckleberry. 
Unless you&#8217;re afraid to lose. 
<a href="https://t.co/0yMLiCBQQp">https://t.co/0yMLiCBQQp</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1119266459253866496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Swalwell, apparently afraid to take on Loesch, sidestepped, &#8220;Here&#8217;s a prediction: the <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA">@nra</a> is afraid to have its president debate me. They talk so tough on Twitter, but when challenged to a debate to defend their advocacy for unrestricted weaponry it&#8217;s just crickets from <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverLNorth">@OliverLNorth</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoFear?src=hash">#NoFear</a>.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Here&#8217;s a prediction: the <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nra</a> is afraid to have its president debate me. They talk so tough on Twitter, but when challenged to a debate to defend their advocacy for unrestricted weaponry it&#8217;s just crickets from <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverLNorth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OliverLNorth</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoFear?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoFear</a> <a href="https://t.co/mxtPpeKnXM">https://t.co/mxtPpeKnXM</a>
&#8212; Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericswalwell/status/1119263909901414400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
If any Republican male rep just told an accomplished woman in a leadership position at a top organization to essentially &#8216;sit down, shut up&#8217; and &#8216;I need to speak to a man in charge here&#8217; he would be forced to resign in less than a day.<a href="https://twitter.com/ericswalwell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ericswalwell</a> owes <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DLoesch</a> an apology.
&#8212; Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadfelixg/status/1119266430808203264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Eric Swalwell Was a Big Tough Anti-Gun Guy Until Dana Loesch Accepted His Debate Challenge <a href="https://t.co/eHOM4LqTod">https://t.co/eHOM4LqTod</a> <a href="https://t.co/jujZtJ3Zlg">pic.twitter.com/jujZtJ3Zlg</a>
&#8212; Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBrandonMorse/status/1119293818312859648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
As <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/16/dana-loesch-eric-swalwell-gun-control/">The Daily Caller</a> detailed back in November, Swalwell and Loesch went at it on Twitter, but in the end, just as happened this week, Swalwell was left denuded:
Loesch started:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
High ranking Democrat Eric Swalwell calls for confiscation of semi-automatic rifles using $15billion of taxpayer dollars to do it and proposes criminally prosecuting those who don&#8217;t participate: <a href="https://t.co/tBzZXztkIU">https://t.co/tBzZXztkIU</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2A?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2A</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1063522073845399552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Swalwell answered, &#8220;She&#8217;s not lying. We should ban assault weapons by buying them back or restricting them to ranges/clubs. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EnoughIsEnough?src=hash">#EnoughIsEnough</a>.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
She&#8217;s not lying. We should ban assault weapons by buying them back or restricting them to ranges/clubs. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EnoughIsEnough?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EnoughIsEnough</a> <a href="https://t.co/XbRpOvXlF3">https://t.co/XbRpOvXlF3</a>
&#8212; Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1063535667249012736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Loesch asked, &#8220;Would you limit the ban and confiscation to semi-auto rifles or would you extend the ban to semi-auto handguns also, seeing as they&#8217;re illegally used many times over more in crimes such as homicide?&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Would you limit the ban and confiscation to semi-auto rifles or would you extend the ban to semi-auto handguns also, seeing as they&#8217;re illegally used many times over more in crimes such as homicide? <a href="https://t.co/Snc8xhXhVp">https://t.co/Snc8xhXhVp</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1063537445902434304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Swalwell answered, &#8220;Fair question. Rifles. They&#8217;re more powerful and cause more carnage when used with a pistol-grip. See <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPelley">@ScottPelley</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/60Minutes">@60Minutes</a> piece. To reduce semi-auto pistol deaths I&#8217;d have universal background checks and mandatory reporting on mental health.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Fair question. Rifles. They&#8217;re more powerful and cause more carnage when used with a pistol-grip. See <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPelley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScottPelley</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/60Minutes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@60Minutes</a> piece. To reduce semi-auto pistol deaths I&#8217;d have universal background checks and mandatory reporting on mental health.
&#8212; Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1063538331475046401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
When he was asked whether he planned to expand his proposal to all semi-auto rifles now, Swalwell replied, &#8220;No different. I interpreted her question to mean semi-auto rifles covered under what&#8217;s considered an assault weapon. cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch">@DLoesch</a>&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
No different. I interpreted her question to mean semi-auto rifles covered under what&#8217;s considered an assault weapon. cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DLoesch</a>
&#8212; Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1063544041147514880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then Loesch asked a question of Swalwell which he did not answer: &#8220;Can you explain to me the difference between assault weapons and semi-automatic rifles? Is .223 ok but 30.06 not? Why?&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Can you explain to me the difference between assault weapons and semi-automatic rifles? Is .223 ok but 30.06 not? Why? <a href="https://t.co/Ew8mYiQewv">https://t.co/Ew8mYiQewv</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1063546675560677377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
When Swalwell wouldn&#8217;t answer, Loesch added on Twitter:
<blockquote>
This simply reinforces my suspicion that Swalwell uses &#8220;assault weapon&#8221; interchangeably with &#8220;semi-auto rifle.&#8221; He wants to legislate based on a rifle&#8217;s appearance and not the actual mechanics or caliber of the rifle. He and others know enough to stop short of saying &#8220;semi-auto rifles&#8221; so they use the vague and non-technical &#8220;assault weapon&#8221; descriptor as though they only mean some rifles and not all of them.
Two problems with this. First, the majority of gun homicide is due to illegally possessed handguns. This is supported by FBI UCRs. Second, the argument is inconsistent. Example: you want to ban a .223/5.56 but not a .308 or 30.06? Have you actually compared these rifles? See photo for reference. You&#8217;re arguing for an unknowledgeable ban of things based strictly on cosmetic appearances. The argument also completely excludes a multitude of contributing variables from consideration, like the recidivism rate, the percentage of homicide driven by prohibited possessors, a cultural rot eroding respect for life, etc etc. Instead, people who claim to care so much for life and solutions, as you will see in the comments, would rather yell &#8220;WHORE!&#8221; and &#8220;TERRORIST!&#8221; at law-abiding gun owners than engage in any real good faith discussion on the issue, which is why we get nowhere.
</blockquote>

Eric Swalwell Taunts NRA That They Won’t Debate Him. Dana Loesch Nails Him: ‘I’m Your Huckleberry’

Eric Swalwell

On Thursday, 2020 presidential contender Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), sensing she is being left behind in the race and eager to burnish her leftist credentials, blamed the NRA for endangering schoolchildren, tweeting, &#8220;Our children shouldn&#8217;t go to school worried they will have to run for their lives from an active shooter. We need leaders who will stand up to the NRA and fight to keep our kids safe from gun violence.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Our children shouldn&#8217;t go to school worried they will have to run for their lives from an active shooter.
We need leaders who will stand up to the NRA and fight to keep our kids safe from gun violence.
&#8212; Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1116395739305926657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch blasted Harris for her tweet, writing, &#8220;This is abhorrent. Millions of NRA members are also parents &#8212; myself included. You know what keeps kids safe? Prosecuting repeat offenders who have felony gun charges and drive crime. Yet while AG your state was at the bottom of this list. You have zero consistency on safety.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This is abhorrent. Millions of NRA members are also parents &#8212; myself included.
You know what keeps kids safe? Prosecuting repeat offenders who have felony gun charges and drive crime. Yet while AG your state was at the bottom of this list. You have zero consistency on safety. <a href="https://t.co/pcHcXTWaQF">https://t.co/pcHcXTWaQF</a>
&#8212; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1116399007134359553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Last November, Harris tweeted, &#8220;No matter what community you live in, from Parkland to Chicago to South Los Angeles, no one is immune from the gun violence epidemic. There have been too many tragedies. We need Congress to act.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
No matter what community you live in, from Parkland to Chicago to South Los Angeles, no one is immune from the gun violence epidemic. There have been too many tragedies. We need Congress to act.
&#8212; Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1064327399238746113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Harris ignored the fact that the massacre in Parkland, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School occurred in a gun-free zone.
After the February 2018 massacre, Harris attacked the NRA, tweeting, &#8220;I am not going to be silenced by attacks from the NRA or anyone else &#8212; and neither will my Senate colleagues or the students from Stoneman Douglas. It&#8217;s time to stand up to the gun lobby and keep our communities safe. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NeverAgain?src=hash">#NeverAgain</a>.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I am not going to be silenced by attacks from the NRA or anyone else &#8212; and neither will my Senate colleagues or the students from Stoneman Douglas. It&#8217;s time to stand up to the gun lobby and keep our communities safe. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NeverAgain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NeverAgain</a>
&#8212; Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/966704989975478274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
In December 2012, the NRA introduced its School Shield Task Force after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. As <a href="https://ijr.com/nra-school-shield-program/">Independent Journal Review</a> reported in 2018:
<blockquote>
In April 2013, the NRA published a <a href="https://www.nraschoolshield.org">report</a> with the findings of the task force&#8217;s initial investigation, along with eight recommendations on best practices for school security. Those recommendations included implementing a model training program that would teach school resources officers how to respond in crisis situations, a proposal to change state laws where necessary so that a &#8220;selected school staff member&#8221; would be allowed to carry firearms in schools, the creation of a pilot program on &#8220;threat assessment and mental health,&#8221; and tougher requirements for schools on safety measures, among others.
</blockquote>
Speaking at a Des Moines, Iowa Townhall in January, 2019, Harris pontificated about guns, and of course, found a way to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1901/28/se.01.html">attack the NRA</a>, calling the organization a &#8220;paper tiger&#8221;:
<blockquote>
You know, here&#8217;s the thing. We have got to have smart gun safety laws in this country. And we&#8217;ve got to stop buying this false choice. You can be in favor of the Second Amendment and also understand that there is no reason in a civil society that we have assault weapons around communities that can kill babies and police officers. Something like universal background checks. It makes perfect sense that you might want to know before someone can buy a weapon that can kill another human being, you might want to know, have they been convicted of a felony where they committed violence? That&#8217;s just reasonable. 
You might want to know, before they can buy that gun, if a court has found them to be a danger to themselves or others. You just might want to know. That&#8217;s reasonable. But here&#8217;s the thing. And I&#8217;m just going to be very, very blunt about this. You know, for years I&#8217;ve asked folks in D.C., you know, is the NRA real or is it a paper tiger? Like, what&#8217;s the deal there?
</blockquote>

NASTY: Kamala Harris Blames The NRA For Endangering Schoolchildren

Kamala Harris

On Wednesday, Mount Holyoke College announced that the newly-selected campus police chief Daniel Hect was placed on administrative leave after a backlash when students discovered he had liked conservative tweets on his Twitter account.
The whole ordeal started when Hect was appointed to lead the Mount Holyoke College and Smith College shared campus police departments. Then on February 6, Hect announced his new appointment at MHC and Smith on his personal Twitter account, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44950/college-students-oppose-hiring-new-safety-officer-ashe-schow">reported</a>.&#8203;
&#8220;I am excited to announce I have accepted the position of Chief of Police at Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, two of the most prestigious all women&#8217;s institutions in the nation,&#8221; he tweeted.
Hect&#8217;s excitement was short lived because soon after, students investigated his Twitter account, finding a few conservative-leaning tweets that he &#8220;liked.&#8221; Two tweets were from the National Rifle Association, one wishing followers a Merry Christmas and one stating, &#8220;If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.&#8221; Other tweets were from President Trump discussing the border wall and the government shutdown.
The MHC student who shared screenshots of the tweet said it was &#8220;unacceptable for someone in charge of keeping any community safe, let alone a campus as diverse as MHC&#8217;s, to be publicly displaying his support for hateful regimes and organizations, as well as for individuals who demonize migrants from Mexico or other latin american nations.&#8221;
Following the controversy, Hect and the colleges&#8217; administrations hosted several events to try to ease the students&#8217; worries.
Mount Holyoke community members were able to ask him questions at a March 21 forum. According to the <a href="http://www.mountholyokenews.com/news/2019/3/28/campus-community-engages-with-newly-appointed-chief-of-police">student newspaper</a>, the event &#8220;hosted tension and tears.&#8221; During the event, Hect said he wanted the campus police to grow a better relationship with the community so students can get to know &#8220;the campus police as human beings.&#8221; Many of the students&#8217; questions reportedly focused on his social media and his political ideology.
Hect told the audience that &#8220;when [Trump] did something that I thought he did well, I wanted to like [the tweets] in hopes to lead to more good behavior,&#8221; adding that he does not support Donald Trump overall.&#8203;
Hect also apologized for liking the tweets that mentioned building a wall, calling it &#8220;a huge mistake.&#8221;
After the forum, Hect sent an email to the MHC community, claiming he was &#8220;appreciative&#8221; of the &#8220;level of participation.&#8221;
&#8220;It was clear to me during the event that I have work to do in order to better lead a campus police department charged with supporting and protecting this wonderfully diverse, intelligent and committed community of students, faculty and staff,&#8221; Hect wrote.
Hect also listed &#8220;immediate steps&#8221; he would take in the coming days to achieve his goal of making the campus police be &#8220;a positive influence on campus safety.&#8221; The steps included creating a Campus Safety Advisory Committee and attending an &#8220;immersive training program&#8221; to learn about &#8220;challenging biases and exploring beliefs.&#8221; His steps also included events such as meeting with a class for a &#8220;restorative justice circle,&#8221; and two &#8220;listening sessions&#8221; where community members could express their concerns about safety on campus. 
He concluded that he was &#8220;committed to developing relationships and trust with all members of our communities &#8212; students, faculty, staff and campus police.&#8221;
But before any of these events even had the chance to take place, MHC Pesident Sonya Stephens announced that Hect would be placed on &#8220;administrative leave&#8221; Wednesday night.
&#8220;Over the past few weeks, members of our community have expressed concerns about the ability of Chief Daniel Hect to develop the level of trust required to engage in community policing,&#8221; MHC President Sonya Stephens said in a campus-wide email.
Stephens added that Deputy Police Chief Ray LaBarre was appointed as the Acting Chief of Campus Police.
&#8220;We are working closely with Smith College on this issue, and I will continue to keep our campus community informed,&#8221; Stephens concluded. 
Hect has worked in police departments for over 30 years. He previously served as director of public safety and chief of police at two universities in Ohio: Xavier University and Denison University. He also served as a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force Security services, according to his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielhect">Linkedin</a> profile.&#8203;
An article from Xavier&#8217;s <a href="https://xaviernewswire.com/2018/01/17/police-chief-search-ends/">student paper</a> from January said that Hect &#8220;made a career out of connecting to his communities,&#8221; adding that &#8220;Hect believes that a job as a police officer isn&#8217;t confined to formalities, but efforts need to be made to engage with those you are sworn to protect.&#8221;

Campus Police Chief Put On Leave After Student Outrage For Liking NRA And Trump Tweets

Police

Last month, the shared campus police department for Mount Holyoke and Smith College <a href="http://www.mountholyokenews.com/news/2019/2/21/hect-named-new-chief-of-police">announced that it had hired</a> Daniel Hect as the new police chief. Hect had previously served as director of public safety and chief of police for Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH, and in the same position at Denison University, also in Ohio.
The Mount Holyoke News website quoted from an Xavier <a href="https://xaviernewswire.com/2018/01/17/police-chief-search-ends/">article from January 17, 2018</a> that described Hect as someone who &#8220;believes that a job as a police officer isn&#8217;t confined to formalities, but efforts need to be made to engage with those you are sworn to protect.&#8221; When Hect was deciding whether to accept the position at Xavier, the campus website reported, he met with students three times to discuss their feelings toward campus police.
On February 6, Hect announced on his personal Twitter account that he had accepted the position at Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges.
&#8220;I am excited to announce I have accepted the position of Chief of Police at Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, two of the most prestigious all women&#8217;s institutions in the nation,&#8221; he tweeted.
His latest &#8220;liked&#8221; tweet was from the director of student housing at Denison, who tweeted a photo of herself and a friend at the campus gym saying they &#8220;missed&#8221; him.
Despite this documented connection to the communities he has served, some Mount Holyoke students find Hect objectionable &#8212; because he appears to lean to the Right and support President Donald Trump.
One student, who did not respond to a Daily Wire request for comment, posted photos of tweets Hect had liked as evidence that he was unfit for the position.
&#8220;Recently, Mount Holyoke College has hired a new chief of police named Daniel Hect. Despite multiple red flags found and raised by students during his hiring process, the administration still believes him to be an ideal choice for overseeing campus safety,&#8221; the student wrote. &#8220;Personally, I believe it&#8217;s unacceptable for someone in charge of keeping any community safe, let alone a campus as diverse as MHC&#8217;s, to be publicly displaying his support for hateful regimes and organizations, as well as for individuals who demonize migrants from Mexico or other latin american nations.&#8221;
The photos included a tweet from the National Rifle Association (NRA) wishing followers a Merry Christmas, many tweets from Trump talking about the border wall and supporters telling him to &#8220;stay the course&#8221; during the government shutdown, and another tweet from the NRA explaining, &#8220;If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.&#8221;
The student directed others to a campus meeting with Hect &#8220;for a forum with the man, the myth, the racist himself: Daniel Hect.&#8221;
Another student, who also refused to respond to a Daily Wire inquiry, shared the first student&#8217;s post and added that Hect&#8217;s Twitter likes &#8220;show his dangerous support of Trump, as well as anti-immigration (specifically latinx immigrants) and pro-gun sentiments&#8221; and declared that Hect &#8220;cannot keep this community safe.&#8221;
Hect appears to have been able to keep past campus communities safe despite his support for guns and border security (he is a police officer, after all).
Though there was some discussion about students writing an op-ed objecting to Hect, no such op-ed appears to have been written.
The Mount Holyoke and Smith police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

College Students Oppose Hiring Of New Safety Officer Because Of Conservative Tweets He Liked

Education

Twitter

The National Rifle Association, fed-up with politicians, both Democrats and independents, championing socialism, released a video in which the NRA points out that those who wish to redistribute financial resources economically also wish to redistribute American freedoms, including guns.
The video begins by stating, &#8220;When elitist politicians refuse to stand and clap as our President declares that America will never be a socialist country, here is what they&#8217;re really saying: that they believe in the redistribution of your freedoms, to them. That only they deserve to feel safe and secure. We don&#8217;t. Because in the eyes of America&#8217;s socialist leaders they, and they alone, are the protected class.&#8221;
The NRA then named some names, from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to California Sen. Kamala Harris to California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY):
<blockquote>
It&#8217;s why Nancy Pelosi can in the morning, say that a border wall is immoral and tell law-abiding Americans that you shouldn&#8217;t own guns. And then at night, sleep soundly in a home protected by walls and, of course, Secret Service agents with guns. Because for Nancy Pelosi, she is the protected class. And we are not.
It&#8217;s why Michael Bloomberg funds politicians and extremist organizations that do whatever they can to block school safety measures. That fight against the right of teachers to train and arm themselves so that they may defend children from a potential killer. And then use children as political pawns in the aftermath of a massacre, never admitting the reason our schools are still soft targets is the result of their political anti-gun, anti-NRA stance. Because for Michael Bloomberg, he and his children are the protected class, while we and our children, are not.
It&#8217;s why Kamala Harris has the audacity to compare ICE agents to the Ku Klux Klan. Its why she wants to ban your semi-automatic firearms. Yet she&#8217;s lived for decades in a state protected by ICE agents. Now she works in the United States Senate, government buildings protected by the very firearms she insists you don&#8217;t deserve. Because for Kamala Harris, she is the protected class. And we are not.
Socialist arrogance is why Gavin Newsom is disarming law-abiding Californians by any means necessary, while he opens the doors of his state to illegal aliens, giving drug dealers, rapists and murders sanctuary. Sanctuary everywhere in California except at his doorstep, where he is protected, again, by walls and guns. Because for Gavin Newsom, he is the protected class. And we are not.
It&#8217;s why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to disarm hard-working Americans, while giving those &#8220;unwilling to work&#8221; our money. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Saul Alinsky in a pant suit, who calls the firearms that protect our families weapons of war. While she smiles and pushes the same socialist disarmament policies that have led to war in the streets of Venezuela. Because for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she is the protected class. And we are not.
</blockquote>
The video continues:
<blockquote>
These people are just the first drops of rain in the coming the socialist storm. A movement of elitists who want to force you to abandon your freedom for the false promise of free stuff. These are the people who want to disarm you. Guns in the hands of good people equals power. Power they want to take from you and harness for themselves. But here is my guarantee: they will fail. America will never be a socialist country.
</blockquote>
After claiming that the NRA will defend Americans from a government that might grab their firearms, the video concludes, &#8220;Join our fight against this socialist storm. Stand on the frontlines with us. And together, we will protect this country from the arrogant protected class that tries to tear it apart.&#8221;
Video below:
<div class="embed tweet"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="532" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9o9I5g4s3gE" width="945"></iframe></div>

WATCH: NRA Releases Video Targeting Socialist Politicians: They Think They Are The &#8216;Protected Class&#8217;

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Gavin Newsom

Michael Bloomberg

Socialism

The National Rifle Association took the opportunity of the 91st Academy Awards to issue a message Sunday to all those &#8220;hypocritical and ideologically extreme&#8221; celebrities from &#8220;a real Hollywood hero,&#8221; Charlton Heston, the former president of the gun rights organization.
Mixing historic footage of Heston discussing the crucial nature of the Second Amendment with footage of prominent voices of the Left &#8212; including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, director Michael Moore, and actress Ashley Judd &#8212; the video seeks to highlight &#8220;today&#8217;s hypocritical and ideologically extreme celebrities, socialist politicians, activists, athletes, the media,&#8221; the NRA explained in a press release.
&#8220;Imagine if every kid had learned what we learned &#8212; that without a Second Amendment, by what means could a free people expect to protect freedom?&#8221; says Heston. &#8220;We learned that, history proves it, common sense confirms it, and any school kid can grasp it. Only people who are free to own firearms can remain free people.&#8221;
Video and transcript below via NRA TV:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></div>
Transcript:
<blockquote>
Something&#8217;s gone wrong, for all our vigilance and battle scars over the Bill of Rights, have we let the flame of freedom&#8217;s torch grow cold? Because there can be no torch to pass where there&#8217;s no flame.
&#8220;A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.&#8221; The Second Amendment.
Politicians legislate against it, media ridicule it, movies pervert it&#8230;
So it&#8217;s not unreasonable that with one lost generation, we could lose the Second Amendment forever. Because we didn&#8217;t teach them what the battle&#8217;s all about. We didn&#8217;t strike that spark in their hearts that lights the fire for freedom. So why does that belief burn so brightly in you and me?
Imagine if every kid had learned what we learned &#8212; that without a Second Amendment, by what means could a free people expect to protect freedom? We learned that, history proves it, common sense confirms it, and any school kid can grasp it. Only people who are free to own firearms can remain free people.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. That is the passion we must ignite in those who follow. All of us who feel that surge of pride, who chill at the genuine glory of a free people able to protect their own freedom.
If we focus on anti-gun legislation but ignore an anti-gun generation &#8230; if we spend years as pro-gun activists, but only minutes as pro-gun mentors &#8230; if we&#8217;ve earned the support of this generation of office holders but not the next generation of voters &#8230; we will have failed.
Every one of us born beneath this blessed American sky has rights no one can take away. Because no one gave them to us. They were ours from the beginning.
If you consider yourself a freedom-loving patriot, you can&#8217;t shirk your duty to teach America&#8217;s young to understand the Second Amendment. To revere it &#8230; to embrace it &#8230; to defend it &#8230; and in their turn, to bequeath it.
That&#8217;s what we have to do. We &#8230; the teachers, the neighbors, the clergy, the uncles, the grocers, the legislators, the scoutmasters, the parents &#8230; the Americans.
Only then can we pass the torch with that sacred flame that lights the American way.
</blockquote>

WATCH: NRA Sends Oscars Message To ‘Hypocritical’ Celebrities From ‘Real Hollywood Hero’

Hollywood

On Tuesday, the L.A. City Council passed an ordinance forcing companies with contracts with the city to reveal whether they have ties to the National Rifle Association.
There was no hint of dissent in the vote, which was unanimously passed, 14-0. The new policy jives with the City Council&#8217;s ordinance that was passed in 2017 requiring companies involved with the city to reveal if they were helping President Trump&#8217;s plans for a border wall with Mexico.
According to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-contractors-nra-city-20190212-story.html">The Los Angeles Times</a>, Councilman Mitch O&#8217;Farrell, who brought the NRA bill before the council, blustered that the NRA has &#8220;been a road block to gun safety reform at every level of government now for several decades.&#8221; Margot Bennett, executive director of Women Against Gun Violence, echoed, &#8220;Let&#8217;s take a look at who we&#8217;re doing businesses with who is doing business with the NRA.&#8221;
In August 2017, the Los Angeles City Council, determined to flout President Trump&#8217;s effort to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19524/la-city-council-targets-companies-building-trumps-hank-berrien">voted to draft a law</a> forcing companies seeking or doing business with the city to reveal whether they have contracts to help design, build or provide supplies for &#8220;any proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States of America.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-border-wall-20170808-story.html">The Los Angeles Times</a> reported that the 2017 law was proposed by Councilman Gil Cedillo, who said, &#8220;We want to know if there are people who do business with the city of Los Angeles &#8230; who wish to profit from building a wall that would divide us from our nearest and dearest neighbor Mexico.&#8221; He added that the idea of the wall was &#8220;repugnant,&#8221; terming it a racist and xenophobic plan. Cedillo pontificated, &#8220;Immigrants are the foundation, here in Los Angeles, of our economy. They are tightly woven into the social fabric of this city. And you cannot separate them or divide their families here in this city without disrupting the character of this city.&#8221;
Before the vote, Council President Herb Wesson stated, &#8220;I do think that it&#8217;s important for us on this council to send a message as to &#8230; what our values are and the type of people that we want to do business with.&#8221;
The NRA&#8217;s attorneys have said they would file a lawsuit if the newly-passed ordinance became law; they sent a letter arguing that the law violates the 1st Amendment, adding it would be &#8220;an unconstitutional effort to restrict and chill an individual&#8217;s right to associate and express their political beliefs.&#8221;
NRA attorney Chuck Michel told the Times, &#8220;Politicians are free to disagree with the NRA&#8217;s pro-freedom, firearm safety, and self-reliance message, but they aren&#8217;t free to censor it &#8212; as this would do when NRA supporters drop their NRA memberships for fear of losing their livelihood from being on this blacklist. This is modern day McCarthyism, and my clients are confident no judge will let it stand.&#8221;
The Studio City Neighborhood Council told the City Council that focusing on the NRA &#8220;smacks of politics, makes little sense and could result in unwanted legal costs.&#8221;

L.A. City Council: If You Have A Contract With Us, Tell Us Your Ties To The NRA

Los Angeles

Way back in March of 2018, McClatchy <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180316010153/https:/www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article205412394.html">ran a story</a> with the headline &#8220;NRA lawyer said to have had concerns about group&#8217;s ties to Russia.&#8221; The premise of the story was that Cleta Mitchell allegedly told someone, at some point, that she had concerns about the National Rifle Association&#8217;s potential involvement in helping Russia steal the election for President Donald Trump in 2016.
The original article, published March 15, 2018, claimed &#8220;two sources familiar with the matter&#8221; had said this, but the sources were anonymous and not listed as anyone from the NRA or in Mitchell&#8217;s current circles. In the fourth paragraph, McClatchy quotes Mitchell saying the entire story was a &#8220;complete fabrication.&#8221; The article goes on to continue claiming Mitchell said this and what the consequences for the NRA might be if it was actually tied to Russia and if Trump actually colluded with the country to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. The article mentioned Mitchell was on a list of people House Democrats wanted to talk to regarding alleged Russian collusion.
The whole story appeared to be a Fusion GPS smear. Fusion GPS is an opposition research firm associated with the Russia-collusion theory. The McClatchy story follows a basic pattern that indicates involvement from Fusion GPS:
1. The story is reported from the angle that someone is investigating an alleged claim as a way to report the story without the media outlet engaging in libel by making the claim themselves.
2. The sources for the story are incredibly vague, such as people &#8220;familiar with the matter&#8221; or unnamed people with no direct connection to the claims being made.
3. The story appears to confirm a claim made by the dossier compiled by ex-British Spy Christopher Steele that included numerous salacious claims about Trump and alleged Russian collusion.
4. Few, if any, details are given to prove the story other than what&#8217;s stated in the headline.
For the Mitchell story, the claim is made that &#8220;Congressional investigators&#8221; are looking to talk to Mitchell about the NRA&#8217;s alleged involvement with Russia and Trump&#8217;s campaign. &#8220;[T]wo sources familiar with the matter&#8221; are the only sources listed in the story. The article appears to confirm one of the Steele dossier claims &#8211; that the Trump campaign received money from Russia to win the election. Finally, the headline gives almost all the information in the story except that congressional investigators are looking into the matter.
Mitchell vehemently denied the claims, and no one knew where they originated.
Fast forward to August 13, 2018, and you see how the story came about. In an article for The Daily Caller, Chuck Ross <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/13/bruce-ohr-glenn-simpson-nra/">reported on handwritten notes</a> by Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official heavily involved with Fusion GPS and the Russia investigation. In the notes, Ohr wrote that Glenn Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS, was the one who made the claim about Mitchell.
&#8220;An NRA lawyer named Cleta Mitchell found out about the money pipeline and was very upset, but the election was over,&#8221; Simpson said, according to Ohr.
This is the only on-the-record documentation of anyone making this claim, so it appears this is McClatchy&#8217;s &#8220;sources familiar with the matter.&#8221; It also looks like Fusion GPS researchers made a mistake, as both Simpson and McClatchy misstate Mitchell as a current NRA lawyer. She had not represented the NRA for a decade.
McClatchy eventually <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180425041745/https:/www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article205412394.html">corrected its article</a>, changing the headline to &#8220;Lawyer who worked for NRA said to have had concerns about group&#8217;s Russia ties&#8221; and moving her limited denial from the fourth paragraph to the third paragraph.
Also in August 2018, The Wall Street Journal published an article about the smear of the NRA and Mitchell in an article titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/anatomy-of-a-fusion-smear-1535757026">Anatomy of a Fusion Smear</a>.&#8221; Five days later, on September 5, Scott Johnson of Powerline Blog <a href="https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/fake-news-a-case-study-2.php">published the actual email exchange</a> between Mitchell and McClatchy reporters Greg Gordon and Peter Stone. This appears to be the only article about the actual emails written and part of the reason I&#8217;m writing about them now.
The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/387915015/Cleta-Mitchell-McClatchy-Email-Correspondence-Google-Docs#from_embed">emails show</a> just how committed McClatchy was to pushing a narrative no matter what Mitchell said. I&#8217;ve never gotten such a vehement denial from someone I was reporting on. The McClatchy article includes one section &#8211; 13 paragraphs into the story &#8211; of her full denial.
<blockquote>
&#8220;I have no knowledge of anything like this and zero concerns whatsoever about anyone &#8212; Russians or otherwise &#8212; who &#8216;funneled&#8217; funds to / through NRA,&#8221; she said. The NRA &#8221; [sic]is meticulous about following all the rules. This is all a complete fabrication.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The full exchange, beginning on March 14, 2018, shows reporter Peter Stone gave Mitchell limited details about his information on her while asking for her to comment. In his first email, he wrote, &#8220;Hi Cleta&#8211;I&#8217;m working on a short piece today that deals with the Congressional probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and saw your name on the House Intel document that was released yesterday and have heard other details from sources about your concerns. Can you talk briefly on background today pre or post lunch? thanks Peter.&#8221;
Mitchell asked for more information, and Stone told her it was a follow-up post about &#8220;Russian banker and life time NRA member Alexander Torshin and whether he may have funneled funds improperly through the NRA or an allied conduit to influence the elections and help Trump win.&#8221; He noted Mitchell&#8217;s name was on the list sent out by House Democrats and that a source he trusts claims she expressed concern about the group&#8217;s alleged links to Russia. The first of Mitchell&#8217;s denials followed:
<blockquote>
No. I have no knowledge of anything like this and zero concerns whatsoever about anyone &#8211; Russians or otherwise &#8212; who &#8220;funneled&#8221; funds to / through NRA. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. NRA is meticulous about following all the rules. This is all a complete fabrication. And it is absolutely outrageous that the Democrats are leaking documents to you and other reporters. If they want to talk to me, they are wasting everyone&#8217;s time and money but I would be happy to talk to them in order to tell them how offensive and horrible I think they are. You are welcome to quote me that this is all totally ridiculous. You guys are all outrageous. Wish all of you would get over your fantasies, get a life and do something productive and useful. This certainly isn&#8217;t.
</blockquote>
Stone told her the list wasn&#8217;t leaked, to which Mitchell responded they were just &#8220;grasping at straws&#8221; and that the Democrats &#8220;have nothing.&#8221;
Stone didn&#8217;t give up the story and ended up publishing the next day. Mitchell sent an email on March 16, 2018 demanding Stone and McClatchy change the headline and calling the story &#8220;fake news.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Peter. Either you get this headline changed or don&#8217;t ever ever ever call me again. This is a COMPLETE lie and don&#8217;t tell me the old &#8220;I don&#8217;t write the headlines&#8221;. You go tell your editor that this is a lie and you obviously didn&#8217;t write your lead paragraph correctly. This is FAKE NEWS and you need to fix it. You better do that. Such lies. Such liars. All of you. It is disgraceful.
</blockquote>
She then sent another email saying the first paragraph was a lie, from an unnamed source and posted her denial paragraphs later. Stone responded that the outlet would be &#8220;changing the headline at the top of the home page, tweaking the first sentence, and moving up your denial from the 4th graf to the 3rd.&#8221;
Mitchell responded by asking why the denial wasn&#8217;t the crux of the story, or why the story wasn&#8217;t about how the Democrats &#8220;are full of crap to even list me?&#8221; She continued to say she wasn&#8217;t simply &#8220;denying&#8221; the story, she&#8217;s telling them there is no story. She also informed them she hadn&#8217;t done legal work for the NRA for a decade and certainly wasn&#8217;t a lawyer for them in 2016. She continued calling McClatchy &#8220;fake news.&#8221; Mitchell also notes that several other outlets approached her with this story (meaning it was shopped around) but didn&#8217;t write about it after speaking with her. McClatchy was the only story to bite, and allowed other outlets to then write up the story from the angle that &#8220;McClatchy reported.&#8221; See how this circular reporting works?
The McClatchy story is still reported from the view that Mitchell said these things, but that she denies doing so.
The reason I report these emails even though they&#8217;re months old is that Stone and Gordon are also behind the recent McClatchy article claiming former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen&#8217;s cell phone &#8220;pinged&#8221; from somewhere near Prague, where he allegedly paid Russia-linked hackers for stealing emails from Democrats. Cohen, like Mitchell, has vehemently denied doing any such thing and says he hasn&#8217;t even been to Prague.
In April, McClatchy <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html">wrote an article</a> titled &#8220;Sources: Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier.&#8221; The authors were none other than Stone and Gordon. This story also followed the Fusion GPS formula: Someone, in this case, the &#8220;Justice Department special counsel,&#8221; who is investigating alleged Russia collusion with the Trump campaign; again, there are &#8220;two sources familiar with the matter&#8221;; the story appears to confirm part of the Steele dossier; and no real details are given beyond the headline.
The Cohen-in-Prague story should have been one of the easiest to verify. You can&#8217;t travel to another country undetected. Cohen has shown his passport has not been stamped by the Czech Republic and no media outlet has been able to find one shred of evidence that he ever visited the country. A Washington Post reporter <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/fbi-cia-doubted-dossier/">said during his recent book tour</a> that the media outlet &#8220;sent reporters through every hotel in Prague, through all over the place, just to try to figure out if he was ever there, and came away empty.&#8221; Naturally, the Post hasn&#8217;t reported this and continues to publish Fusion GPS-planted stories about Russian collusion.
McClatchy then wrote <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article219016820.html">a follow-up article</a> on December 27 claiming a cell signal from Cohen&#8217;s phone &#8220;briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.&#8221;
First, &#8220;in the Prague area&#8221; doesn&#8217;t mean Prague. Second, this story again follows the Fusion GPS model, with the alleged cell-phone data supposedly in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who&#8217;s leading the investigation into alleged Russian involvement. The obvious question is that if Mueller really had evidence Cohen was in Prague, why wasn&#8217;t this reported by outlets other than McClatchy (instead of just linking to McClatchy) as the smoking gun in the whole Russia theory, and why was Cohen allowed to plea down instead of being charged with treason?
Other outlets, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-the-michael-cohen-prague-story-true">including the left-leaning Daily Beast</a>, pointed out how questionable the McClatchy reporting was on the cell data.
&#8220;A number of major media outlets have attempted to stand up the allegation that Cohen visited Prague in 2016, but McClatchy remains the only outlet that has published evidence suggesting a meeting may have taken place. Multiple prominent national security reporters told The Daily Beast they were unconvinced by the story, noting its lack of detail and both reporters&#8217; interviews, at times tortured, about their report on MSNBC,&#8221; the Beast wrote.
During one of these interviews, Gordon acknowledged that he had no direct evidence or sources to confirm his reporting, just that he had sources who had sources (that&#8217;s not a typo).
&#8220;The sources have&#8212;some of the sources have government sources, and some of the sources are&#8212;are people who have told us that they have trusted intelligence-type sources that they get information from,&#8221; Gordon told MSNBC&#8217;s Joy Reid. He also told Reid he &#8220;wish we had&#8221; corroborating evidence for the story.
If nothing else, this demonstrates clear bias on the part of Gordon and Stone, who rushed to report something they could not verify.
Other outlets then link to the McClatchy reports to insulate themselves from making the unverified, improbably claims themselves. This is how America knows about the Steele dossier in the first place. Multiple media outlets who wouldn&#8217;t report on the salacious and unverifiable claims about then-president elect Donald Trump. It wasn&#8217;t until CNN reported that Trump had been briefed on this alleged dossier and Buzzfeed broke journalistic ethics to publish the dossier that the media began reporting about it. No one could verify the dossier (no matter how badly they wanted to) so they had to couch their reporting behind something official. In this case, that Trump was briefed on the dossier, therefore that&#8217;s what the outlets reported on and somehow that makes the dossier legitimate.

Emails Reveal Media Outlet Ran With Non-Story Designed To Hurt NRA. That Outlet Is Now Repeating Its Mistakes.

Fusion GPS

Media Bias

Michael Cohen

Russia

Gun control proponents are cheering what they are portraying as another victory in their war against the National Rifle Association. In an exclusive Monday, Reuters announced that FedEx, in &#8220;a quiet reversal,&#8221; has officially dropped its snail mail deal with the NRA.
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fedex-nra-breakingviews/breakingviews-exclusive-fedex-drops-nra-deal-by-snail-mail-idUSKCN1N425N">Reuters Breakingviews</a> initially frames the decision as FedEx finally caving to pressure from the gun control lobby eight months after the Parkland shooting:
<blockquote>
Mass shootings happen in an instant and grab headlines. A business and investment shift away from the firearms industry is happening more subtly. FedEx, the U.S. shipping group, is ending a program that offers discounts for business members of the National Rifle Association, the company confirmed to Breakingviews.
It&#8217;s a quiet reversal: eight months ago, FedEx stood by the gun-rights lobby group as other companies scrapped deals. They were reacting to the NRA&#8217;s stance after 17 students and staff members were murdered at a Florida high school by a former student. Companies including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and car-rental firm Enterprise swiftly ended member discounts. At the time, FedEx said that while assault rifles of the kind used in most American mass shootings shouldn&#8217;t be in civilian hands, it did not believe in &#8220;discriminating&#8221; between organizations it works with.
</blockquote>
Reuters also attempts to connect the big &#8220;reversal&#8221; to the anti-Semitic mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue Saturday, noting, &#8220;The change of tack comes just days after a gunman killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue.&#8221;
But, as pointed out by <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/2018/10/31/fedex-ditches-nra-discount-program-not-reason-liberals-think/">Hot Air</a>, buried in the middle of a paragraph in the middle of the piece, Reuters acknowledges that FedEx underscored that its decision to end the deal had nothing whatsoever to do with any mass shootings and everything to do with good business. It has been in the works for a while now, and NRA members aren&#8217;t the only ones that will no longer enjoy the discount program:
<blockquote>
The $56 billion logistics company says the closure of its NRA discount program from Nov. 4 has no connection to that incident or any other shooting. Rather, the NRA just didn&#8217;t bring in enough business to merit its own deal. It&#8217;s among dozens of organizations FedEx plans to move to new pricing programs, and the company has been notifying customers since early October.
</blockquote>
After admitting the real rationale for ending the program, which clearly isn&#8217;t what gun control activists might&#8217;ve hoped for, Reuters insists it is &#8220;still significant &#8211; perhaps more so than largely political gestures.&#8221; The reason: &#8220;It suggests the NRA no longer has the economic clout to inspire fear in the corporate world.&#8221;
The only problem with that take is that the NRA&#8217;s membership appears to have actually increased since the Parkland shooting, as reported by The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/19/magazine-numbers-suggest-nra-has-added-hundreds-thousands-new-members/?utm_term=.a53eb639a7bb">Washington Post</a> in September.
The Reuters piece ends by championing companies like Walmart, Dick&#8217;s Sporting Goods and Kroger&#8217;s for bending to the gun control lobby, describing them as becoming &#8220;less timid,&#8221; and stating that their sales haven&#8217;t suffered as a result of their political moves.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29915/damage-control-nra-calls-out-yeti-coolers-trying-james-barrett">&#8216;DAMAGE CONTROL&#8217;: NRA Calls Out YETI Coolers For Trying To &#8216;Run From The Facts&#8217;</a>

Gun Control Crowd Cheers FedEx Ending NRA Discount. FedEx: It&#8217;s Not What You Think.

FedEx

Reuters

Democratic senate candidate Phil Bredesen, who served as the governor of Tennessee from 2003 until 2011, recently released a campaign ad in which he touts his alleged &#8220;A&#8221; rating from the NRA.
Listen very carefully to the language he uses in the commercial:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3idZKw5398w" width="720"></iframe></div>
&#8220;Growing up, I was taught to always think for myself. My support of the Second Amendment is a good example. It&#8217;s definitely not always popular, but it&#8217;s the way of life I grew up with &#8212; so did many of you,&#8221; Bredesen states. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been a lifelong gun owner. As governor, I had an &#8216;A&#8217; rating from the NRA. Real independence, and not party politics, that&#8217;s what&#8217;s best for Tennessee.&#8221;
While governor of Tennessee, Bredesen actually did have an &#8220;A&#8221; rating from the NRA. However, according to executive director of the NRA&#8217;s Institute for Legislative Action Chris Cox, Bredesen now has a &#8220;D&#8221; rating:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/PhilBredesen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PhilBredesen</a> It&#8217;s not 2002, you&#8217;re not governor and you&#8217;re not A-rated by the NRA. Its 2018, you have earned a D rating for turning your back on self-defense and supporting the Hillary/Schumer/Bloomberg gun control agenda. <a href="https://twitter.com/VoteMarsha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VoteMarsha</a> is a 2A champion. You&#8217;re not. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stoplying?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#stoplying</a> <a href="https://t.co/Wi0ORRmQTv">pic.twitter.com/Wi0ORRmQTv</a>
&#8212; Chris Cox (@ChrisCoxNRA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisCoxNRA/status/1042571682345566208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
The NRA has asked Bredesen to <a href="https://www.nraila.org/articles/20180919/nra-calls-on-phil-bredesen-to-retract-misleading-ad">pull the ad</a>, calling it &#8220;false and misleading.&#8221; In an article concerning the issue, the NRA states in part:
<blockquote>
He supports criminalizing private firearm transfers between lifelong friends and many family members. He also supports a federal gun database and refuses to oppose burdensome and unnecessary restrictions on ammunition. As governor, Phil Bredesen vetoed protections for concealed carry permit holders and opposed allowing law-abiding Tennesseans to carry a firearm for self-defense in the manner that best suits their needs.
If sent to Washington, Bredesen will not &#8220;think for himself,&#8221; as his ad states. Instead, he will support the Schumer/Pelosi gun control agenda and vote to restrict the freedoms of law-abiding Americans.
</blockquote>
According to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/03/mike-bloomberg-hosting-fundraiser-for-candidate-phil-bredesen.html&#8203;">CNBC</a>, former mayor of New York City and founder of anti-gun organization Everytown for Gun Safety Michael Bloomberg will host a fundraiser for Bredesen on October 9.
As of publication, Bredesen&#8217;s ad has not been pulled from the campaign&#8217;s official YouTube account. The Daily Wire reached out to the Bredesen campaign multiple times for comment, but we have received no reply.

NRA Demands Democratic Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen Pull ‘False And Misleading’ Ad

Democratic Party

The National Rifle Association is currently fighting a legal battle to resist efforts by the New York Attorney General to punish any corporation or financial institution that does business with the NRA &#8212; and it&#8217;s getting help from a very unlikely place. The ACLU.
The state of New York is looking to repeat the Obama Administration&#8217;s disastrous and likely unconstitutional efforts in Operation Choke Point, a Department of Justice program that levied similar sanctions on institutions that did business with groups the Obama Administration considered &#8220;unsavory,&#8221; like gun manufacturers, fireworks vendors, home-based charities, payday lenders, pornography producers, and, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2015/01/30/fdic-admits-to-strangling-legal-gun-stores-banking-relationships/">according to Forbes</a>, any &#8220;legal businesses that the Obama administration deem[ed] to be politically incorrect.&#8221;
Operation Choke Point ended in 2017, after it fell under Congressional scrutiny. The Trump administration ended the practice completely.
But then New York decided to take up the yoke of punishing businesses it felt didn&#8217;t deserve the right to contract with whom they pleased inside the state&#8217;s borders.
Initially the NRA <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/04/us/nra-new-york-lawsuit/index.html?no-st=1533574655">argued that it would suffer severe financial damage</a> because of New York&#8217;s rules, but later, the Texas Public Policy foundation, arguing on behalf of the NRA, suggested that New York&#8217;s efforts actually impacted the NRA&#8217;s First Amendment rights.
In their amicus brief, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/nra-v-cuomo-aclu-amicus-brief">the ACLU agreed</a>, arguing that New York&#8217;s rule &#8220;&#8216;<a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-to-weigh-nras-free-speech-case-against-new-york/">would set a dangerous precedent</a> for advocacy groups,&#8217; no matter their viewpoint, because public officials would be encouraged to use their regulatory power against the &#8216;disfavored.'&#8221;
Although the ACLU never mentions gun violence (it&#8217;s official line on the subject is that the Second Amendment lists a &#8220;collective&#8221; rather than an &#8220;individual&#8221; right) they are clear that while one state may see the NRA as an insidious group, another state &#8212; or even New York under another governor &#8212; could use the power to target groups today&#8217;s New York government doesn&#8217;t oppose, like Planned Parenthood, or even the ACLU itself.
Arguments in the case are ongoing, but a verdict is expected soon.

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