By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Trace—the billionaire-backed gun control news organ—acknowledged in a major report Thursday that gun prohibition lobbying groups have poured more than $21 million into this fall’s midterm elections in hopes of electing a gun control majority on Capitol Hill.
The biggest spender is Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, which has so far pumped $14.7 million into the effort to elect anti-gunners, followed by Giffords, which has spent $7.2 million, according to The Trace report.
By contrast, The Trace says the National Rifle Association has “steadily retreated from political spending amid years of internal turmoil and litigation over its finances and alleged self-dealing,” the result of which has the organization spending a comparably pitiful $1.8 million. The National Shooting Sports Foundation has spent $200,000 and the National Association for Gun Rights has spent $36,000, The Trace report says.
Using a chart dating back to 2014, The Trace report shows the NRA spending more than $23 million on elections that year, dropping to $21.2 million in 2016 and plummeting to $7.2 million in 2018.
It translates to one more major reason for America’s gun owners to break their traditional habit of lethargy and apathy, and go to the polls. In states where mail-in voting is the law, they need to fill out their ballots and return them via drop boxes, and not try sending them in via the U.S. Postal Service, which anecdotal reports have suggested has been equally lethargic about validating ballots and sending them in to be counted on time.
Referring to the gun prohibition lobby as “gun violence prevention groups,” The Trace notes, “The money takes several forms: donations to candidates, contributions to parties and other political committees, and spending on ads and voter outreach. That last category, known as independent expenditures, pays for messages supporting or opposing candidates without coordinating with their campaigns. Because there is no legal ceiling on independent expenditures, they represent the bulk of spending every election cycle.”
How the gun ban crowd hopes to win next Tuesday was best spelled out in a quote from Emma Brown, executive director at Giffords, which appears several paragraphs into The Trace story.
“Our midterm strategy is combining a weak-on-public-safety message with a corruption message, arguing that incumbent House Republicans have sold out to the gun lobby and the gun industry,” Brown reportedly stated. “They’ve made it far easier for dangerous people to access firearms, endangering the lives of kids in school, and making it harder for law enforcement to do their job.”
This message resonates with left-leaning voters, especially when there is no counter from the Second Amendment community. With independent expenditures bankrolled by wealthy anti-gun elitists, it’s not hard to figure out which side is making its case.
What’s At Stake
There is more than one reason for gun control proponents to want Democrats in control of Congress in 2027.
If Democrats capture the U.S. House, it is a foregone conclusion there will be a concerted effort to impeach President Donald Trump. This will effectively dominate everything happening in the House, and capture the attention of the liberal media.
If Democrats take control of the Senate, it will be the end of Trump’s efforts to fill federal court vacancies with conservative judges who adhere to the Constitution rather than attempt to litigate from the bench. The Senate Judiciary Committee, under Democrat control, will be unlikely to confirm any judicial nominee who strongly supports the Second Amendment, and forget about any pro-gun nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, should a vacancy occur.
Anti-gunners in both the House and Senate will make a circus of “investigating” the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the attention being currently paid to Second Amendment enforcement. Special attention will likely be paid to Robert Cekada’s leadership at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, especially after his historic appearance at this year’s Gun Rights Policy Conference. Likewise, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon could face grilling over her willingness to take legal action against anti-gun policies, such as that unraveled in the challenge of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
While American gun owners may think a “red wave” is coming, it won’t happen unless they are part of the wave. Too many shooters, and especially hunters, apparently sit out midterm elections. Activists from Massachusetts to Washington state and neighboring Oregon need a huge turnout of pro-gun-rights voters. In Massachusetts, the Gun Owners Action League is pushing for “No” votes on Question #9, in order to repeal the Commonwealth’s restrictive 2024 gun control law.
In Oregon, there’s a tight race for governor between far-left Democrat incumbent Tina Kotek and Republican State Sen. Christine Drazan. If Drazan wins, as noted by the Salem Statesman Journal, she will be the first Republican governor elected in more than 40 years.
In Washington, the state Supreme Court is up for grabs. Five experienced candidates are running against five others who have support from the far left, including three who were appointed by Democrat governors. The importance of this race was spelled out in a report at Ammoland News.
