With gun-ban billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s continual push to fund just about everything anti-gun, there’s not much he could do in the anti-Second Amendment arena that would surprise us. But his latest effort—an attempt to vilify guns and gun owners to young women under the Everytown banner—might be his most despicable plan yet.
The “Singled Out” website, focused on disparaging men who own firearms, states its goal right on its home page: “Here’s the bottom line: Lax gun laws put single women at risk. But we can shut down the gunsplainers and take action to keep young women safe.” The entire rest of the website is aimed at teaching young women how to avoid young men who own guns, and how to argue the anti-gun case against such young men. Sounds fun, huh?After all, constant arguing about the right to keep and bear arms is the key to any good relationship, don’t you know?
Of course, the whole term “gunsplainer” is just a bunch of crap—a fancy, Bloombergesque way to refer to those who support Second Amendment freedom and the human right of self-defense. “Singled Out” defines “gunsplainer” like this: “A man who repeatedly and condescendingly explains to a woman why she’d be safer with a gun.” Leaving out the “condescendingly” part, we’d call that a man looking out for a woman’s safety. Of course, gun-banners don’t see it that way.
So what’s a good, anti-freedom girl supposed to do to take on these “gunsplainers”? That’s easy—argue. After all, constant arguing about the right to keep and bear arms is the key to any good relationship, don’t you know? Bloomberg and his crazy cronies even give the young ladies all the (not so right) answers in the website’s “Myths vs. Facts” section.
Consider:
MYTH: He Says: “Why bother strengthening our gun laws, criminals will find ways to get guns anyway!”
FACT: You Can Say: “That’s like saying why outlaw bank robbery? Bank robbers are always going to steal.”
As NRA-ILA pointed out recently, individuals who have been convicted of felonies, misdemeanors punishable by more than two years, and those convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence are already federally barred from possessing firearms. Additionally, surveys of prison inmates show that they acquire firearms by avenues that will not be influenced by background check restrictions.
A Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of state prison inmates asked individuals where they obtained the firearms they possessed at the time of their offense. 37.4 percent responded that they sourced the firearm from family or a friend, while 40 percent cited “street/illegal source.”
MYTH: He Says: “Hey, more people are killed every year by hammers than by rifles.”
FACT: You Can Say: “I think it’s time for a math lesson.”
Also as NRA-ILA has emphasized in the past, gun rights supporters do frequently, and accurately, note that more people are murdered each year using blunt objects than rifles, but in a very specific context. Having failed to pass severe federal restrictions on the private ownership of handguns in the 1970s and 1980s, gun-control supporters shifted their focus to outlawing commonly owned semi-automatic rifles, derisively calling them “assault weapons.” This made little sense, as the rifles targeted by these efforts, or for that matter rifles of any description, were rarely used in crime. However, gun-control supporters believed they could capitalize off of the public’s unfamiliarity and confusion regarding these types of firearms to advance their disarmament agenda. This accurate pro-gun talking point specifically targets the efficacy of bans on semi-automatic rifles; to knowingly characterize it as something else is disingenuous.
Perhaps it’s Bloomie and Everytown who could use the math lesson.
MYTH: He Says: “Background checks are just the first step in creating a national registry. Then they’re going to come take all our guns.”
FACT: You Can Say: “Paranoid, much?”
Gun owners are not so much “paranoid,” as concerned with good reason. The Department of Justice in 2013 admitted that the effectiveness of “universal” background checks depended on “requiring gun registration.” Last year, The New York Times issued a front-page editorial calling for gun confiscation, and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, while on the campaign trail, expressed support for an Australia-style turn-in/confiscation scheme.
As NRA-ILA stressed in a recent report: “Let’s be clear. Obama and Clinton aren’t fans of Australia and Great Britain gun-control regimes because they instituted ‘universal’ background checks. They instituted gun registration and confiscation. That’s not paranoid. That’s reality.”
“Singled Out” wraps up its plea for young women to demonize and disenfranchise young men with this question: “Want to shut down the gunsplainers?” Not unexpectedly, the group’s answer is to “Support Gun Safety” by sending money and pledging support for the gun-ban organization.
Perhaps another myth and fact are in order here.
MYTH: He Says: “Everytown has absolutely nothing to do with ‘gun safety,’ rather is a group wholly dedicated to crushing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The organization doesn’t even employ a single gun safety expert or one firearm safety trainer. America’s real ‘gun safety’ organization is the National Rifle Association, which maintains a network of about 100,000 instructors and whose Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program has taught more than 28 million children how to stay safe if they ever find a gun.”
FACT: You Can Say: “Thanks for telling me the truth on this issue. Where do I go to join the NRA, learn more about firearm safety training, and protect my right to keep and bear arms?”
