Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) recently confirmed something that Second Amendment advocates have known for a long time: Anti-gunners are disguising their intentions by calling gun control by another name.
According to the Connecticut Post, Esty recently told an audience at a Pride Fund event that they should never use the term “gun control” but always use the term “gun safety.” Alluding to gun control turns off a lot of voters, in this case an estimated 15 percent of male voters.
PJ Media picked up on the story, reporting that Esty offered the advice to people who were advocating for tougher gun laws.
She also told the audience that support for background checks is hovering around 90 percent.
“That’s consistent, 90 percent,” she reportedly stated, “but elections matter and, in particular, the GOP leadership in Congress is beholden to the gun lobby and I think it’s important to make a distinction between the NRA, certainly the NRA membership, because remember, the NRA membership, 70 to 80 percent of the NRA membership supports background checks on every gun sale so it’s one where leadership is way out of touch with membership.”
But by any other name, it is still gun control, and now everyone knows it, thanks to a Capitol Hill gun control proponent whose congressional district includes Newtown, scene of the 2012 Sandy Hook attack.
A simple look at the history of gun prohibition lobbying groups underscores what Esty advised.
The Brady Campaign originally was known as Handgun Control, Inc.
Anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s “Astroturf” lobbying organization is Everytown for Gun Safety.
The Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility is a gun control organization.
The Coalition to Ban Handguns is now known as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
The “new and improved” is still the same old product with a different package and label. The ultimate goal of these organizations remains strict gun control, which may be just short of prohibition while they lobby Congress to adopt laws that essentially turn the right to keep and bear arms into a heavily-regulated government-granted privilege.
