Anti-Gunners and Their Bought-and-Paid-for Politicians

Pro-gun lawmakers get referred to by anti-gun voices as being “bought and paid for” by the so-called gun lobby, the NRA, or whatever pro-gun boogieman they care to conjure in their fevered imaginations.

See, they can’t fathom the possibility that someone actually disagrees with them. It must be because of some kind of skullduggery, fraud, or other vile behavior.

So what does it mean when anti-gunners favor one party pretty much exclusively?

In a headline which should surprise nobody in the Second Amendment community, the Maine Wire is reporting “Gun Control Groups Gave Over Six Figures to Maine Dems in 2024 Election Cycle.”

Why that might be news to anyone in the Pine Tree State seems baffling, because it is common knowledge that the coffers of gun prohibition lobbying groups seem wide open to Democrats from Capitol Hill on down the chain to state legislatures. Open Secrets even has a chart which reports the millions of dollars which went to Democrats during the 2023-2024 election cycle, and none of it went to conservative groups, and very little went to Republicans.

On the other hand, Open Secrets noted how anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety dished out $9,301,552, of which $252,759 went to Democrats, a paltry $1,005 went to Republicans, and $9,145,639 went to liberal groups.

Giffords, a rising anti-gun group, reportedly contributed $3,204,582 during the two-year period, of which $3,188,930 went to liberal groups, $15,592 went directly to Democrats, and nothing went to Republicans or conservative groups. The pattern is essentially the same as one reads down a list of groups, including the Brady Campaign, Everytown For Gun Safety Victory Fund, Ban Assault Weapons Now PAC, and so forth.

As noted by the Maine Wire, “According to campaign finance reports filed on the Maine Ethics Commission website, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee (SDCC) PAC received $25,000 from Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund on October 30 last year, days before the election.”

…

After years of media attacks on such groups as the National Rifle Association for contributing millions of dollars to political campaigns, the silence from the establishment media on the issue of big money gun control lobbying groups donating exclusively to Democrats is deafening.

Right?

I mean, the bought-and-paid-for anti-gun politicians are pushing their paymaster’s agenda all throughout the state of Maine. They’ve been increasing their demands for the restriction of people’s civil liberties since the Lewiston shooting, all while mostly focusing on measures that anti-gun organizations love but that would have had little or no impact on preventing that awful tragedy.

It’s as if those paymasters aren’t really interested in addressing the issues that many in Maine might legitimately have with how Lewiston happened, but are instead focused on simply curtailing rights, and their pet politicians are simply doing as they’re told.

Sounds stupid, right?

Well, let’s understand that shady stuff happens in all legislative contexts when money is involved, but what most need to remember is that the donations we see are generally guided toward fellow travelers from all sides of the debate. Anti-gunners donate to anti-gun politicians. Pro-gun groups donate to pro-gun politicians.

Where things get murky is when the anti-gun groups start pushing for, say, universal background checks and an anti-gun politician rightly recognizes how that’s not really the issue, that most guns used illegally are stolen or illegally purchased via a straw buy, none of which would be curtailed via universal background checks.

They don’t want to support that law.

Well, they don’t get a choice if they want to keep their coffers full with anti-gun money. What’s more, you pretty much never hear of an anti-gun lawmaker simply not supporting an anti-gun bill. They lock step behind them, even if you know it won’t do anything but hurt law-abiding citizens.

On the flip side, though, supposedly pro-gun lawmakers have a tendency to actually not back key bits of legislation despite where their money is coming from. If buying politicians were something pro-gun groups actually did, then why didn’t the Hearing Protection Act pass eight years ago? Why did the SHORT Act just become a viable thing just now?

Why are so many pro-gun measures failing to pass in Florida?

If anyone has bought-and-paid-for politicians, it ain’t the NRA or some other pro-gun group.

Just sayin’.