Buckeye Reporter

In the current political climate, it is evident that gun control advocates have more than just firearms in their crosshairs. Two other significant hurdles to civilian disarmament have been identified: the Second Amendment and gun owners themselves.

Former President Barack Obama was known for his criticism of gun owners who opposed his gun control initiatives. During his first presidential campaign, he spoke at a San Francisco fundraiser about small-town Pennsylvania voters who felt neglected by political elites. "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," President Obama stated in 2008.

Interestingly, it was former U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), later Secretary of State, who challenged him. “I was taken aback by the demeaning remarks Senator Obama made about people in small-town America,” she said. “His remarks are elitist and out of touch.” However, during her second run for the presidency in 2016, she famously referred to half of America as “a basket of deplorables.”

Fast forward to 2024, senior Democratic Members of Congress continue to echo these sentiments. These politicians were also at the forefront of the gun control agendas championed by Presidents Obama and Biden and Secretary Clinton. Disparaging and dismissing gun owners as "lesser" Americans appears to be a common stance among Blue State elites.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) faced criticism as an "elite" during an Oxford Union debate on April 25 when she referred to certain Americans as “poor souls who are looking for some answers.” Their biggest sin, according to Pelosi, is their refusal to conform to the orthodoxy of the gun control elite.

Representative Jerry Nadler (R-N.Y.) recently expressed views that suggested he believes himself wiser than the Founding Fathers, including James Madison, who wrote the Second Amendment. He argued that the Supreme Court was wrong in its landmark Heller decision, which upheld the Second Amendment as a right belonging to the people, not the government.

It is seen as an affront to American citizens when Members of Congress intentionally omit “the people” from the rights they are endowed with by their Creator. It is also seen as insulting when elite politicians dismiss them as “bitter clingers,” “deplorables” or “poor souls” who cannot be trusted to think, act and vote for themselves. This not only undermines faith in these elites but also betrays the very "people" they are elected to represent and protect their rights from government overreach.

The more than 100 million gun-owning households in America — and the industry that provides them with the means to exercise their Second Amendment rights — understand that no one is buying into the gun control being proposed.