Posted on 11/07/2019 5:48:06 PM PST by PROCON
With anti-gun legislative majorities in place for the first time in nearly 30 years in Virginia, gun control groups are feeling pretty confident and cocky at the moment. So cocky, in fact, that theyre going to try to flip Texas in 2020.
We sent a message to the NRA in their own backyard, said former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who launched a gun violence prevention group after she was shot at a rally in Tucson in 2011. We are turning the page on an era where legislators cashed gun lobby checks while communities lived in fear of shootings.
Next on Giffords list is Texas, where the group has had recent success helping Democrats. The group spent more than $1 million on TV ads in Houston in 2018, supporting U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat who unseated longtime Republican Congressman John Culberson. The ads went after Culberson for taking money from the NRA and voting for weaker gun laws.
Groups like Giffords have targets up and down the ballot in Texas in 2020, said Peter Ambler, the groups executive director. They include everything from the U.S. Senate race to congressional seats and state House districts especially in the suburbs.
Texas is going to be a big priority of ours, Ambler said.
As I said before Election Day, Virginias elections on Tuesday were a canary in the coal mine for gun owners around the country. Now that gun control activists think that theyve got a winning message to target suburban legislative and congressional districts, theyll be using that playbook from coast to coast in 2020, even in states where it seems like the right to keep and bear arms is a bedrock part of the culture. Places like Texas, in other words.
Moms Demand Action, another group advocating for stricter gun laws, has already vowed that its volunteers will be out in full force in Texas next year supporting candidates including three former Moms Demand Action volunteers who are running for seats in the state House: Becca De Felice in San Antonio and Jennifer Skidonenko and Paige Dixon in North Texas.
Giffords says its success helping Fletcher flip her Houston seat is evidence of what the group can do outside of Virginia.
Even that was a sign of the times, Ambler said. The idea that a gun safety organization would, in the state of Texas, be able to go into the Houston media market and run negative ads against a Republican incumbent based on his connections to the NRA would have been thought impossible just a few years ago. The changing nature of Texas big, big suburbs and cities is really driving these shifts.
I think turning Texas legislature into an anti-gun body might be a stretch for the gun control groups, but what do they have to lose besides money with their attempt? They believe they have a winning message in the suburban swing districts, so why not try to make in-roads in the Lone Star State. In 2020, gun owners cant take any state for granted, not even Second Amendment stalwarts like Texas. Were in for a national fight in next years elections, and there is really no safe state when it comes to the threat to our right to keep and bear arms.
Now zeroing in on Texas.
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You folks need to back off. We haven’t done anything illegal with our weapons. Criminals have and you don’t advocate severe punishment or death for them. Stay out of Texas.
Virginia is fully blue. Their impact was negligible. I hope they waste money in Texas.
Not sure how they’re going to do that here in Texas. Even with the bad blood between Cruz and Trump in 2016, and the fact that Cruz was a home-boy, and the fact that what Trump had played both sides in NYC so people had nothing beyond his promises as president, Trump still won the state by 9 points.
Beyond that, we don’t have initiatives like California, mob rule won’t work for them, and our state laws on guns preempt any wise-ass locals trying to ‘make a statement’.
So, if the Left wants to play ball here, they are MORE THAN WELCOME to dump their money and learn about Texas the expensive way!
Not complying with whatever they pass in Richmond.
The communists just keep on pushing and pushing....at what point will there be any “push back”?
So, if the Left wants to play ball here, they are MORE THAN WELCOME to dump their money and learn about Texas the expensive way!
Someday in the not far off future, californians will outnumber texans in texas
“...You folks need to back off. We havent done anything illegal with our weapons. Criminals have and you dont advocate severe punishment or death for them. Stay out of Texas....”
Their “agenda” has nothing to do with crime or punishment of crime. It has everything to do about disarming an entire population such that it cannot defend itself from the full-blown communist onslaught that will be forced down their throat once they’re totally disarmed.
“push back?” In what form are you thinking of?
We've lost a good portion of our freedoms and freedom of expression, so I would say *never*.
Why dont conservative States start putting clearly worded and unambiguous Constitutional Amendments in their State Constitutions now, regarding the RKBA.
Here is what Texas says now:
Sec. 23. RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.
That last sentence needs to be removed, YESTERDAY.
How about this: Sec. 23. RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms, wherever such person may be present in the State, in the lawful defense of himself or the State.
Good for you - I don’t comply with what they passed in my state either. It’s all unenforceable anyway.
We could really strengthen the State provisions:
http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/beararms/statecon.htm
Take a look at Missouri.
Sounds good!
The group spent more than $1 million on TV ads in Houston in 2018, supporting U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat who unseated longtime Republican Congressman John Culberson. The ads went after Culberson for taking money from the NRA and voting for weaker gun laws.”
That’s a ton of money for one seat in Congress and reeks of campaign spending corruption that Democrats use to unseat Republicans.
“Someday in the not far off future, californians will outnumber texans in texas”
There was a recent study on that and they found that most of the people who left California are Republicans...maybe not Texas-style Republicans, but definitely not flaming Leftists. It’s not clear that they’re going to change much here.
Thanks for the list.
What will flip Texas is amnesty that Cornyn and Graham will introduce in Jan. 2021 after they are re-elected.
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