“He told me he’s pro-gun, but said he wasn’t going to sign a survey…”
This was what one WYGO member told us a few days ago via a Facebook message, after he met with one of two candidates seeking the GOP nomination in his Senate district and asked him to sign his WYGO Gun Rights Candidate Questionnaire.
You may be hearing something similar.
As a reminder, in our previous update we provided you with a copy of our candidate questionnaire and asked you to print it off and show it to your candidates, to help us get them on the record.
Many of you have already begun doing this and are now hearing political double-speak from current and wanna-be lawmakers.
We are going to break down some of the most common phony responses you might hear, so that you won’t be spun by a candidate who wants your support but won’t pledge to back your gun rights.
What’s The Point, Anyway?
The purpose behind these candidate surveys is very simple.
We want to know, if elected, how your candidates would vote on a whole host of Second Amendment issues.
The fight for gun rights is dynamic. School shootings, national pressure or support, and local issues all play a part in how your lawmakers will vote on gun related bills.
That’s why it’s important that we find out where they stand now, not where they stood six or eight years ago!
Does a signed candidate survey mean that your lawmaker will never go astray and betray our gun rights?
Sadly, no.
But what it does do is give grassroots gun owners and groups like Wyoming Gun Owners the ammo we need to hold them accountable in the future if they betray us!
Candidates, especially incumbents, know this, which is why they don’t want to go on the record.
BUT, BUT, BUT
Candidates are experts at telling you what you want to hear, without actually promising anything specific.
And that’s never more obvious than during election time!
So here are a few of the political double speak lines that candidates like to throw out to confuse you — and the proper response.
First: ‘I support the Second Amendment, I like to shoot and have guns in my house to prove it.’
Response: Yeah, and President Obama said he loved going shooting at Camp David and VP Biden loudly stated how proud he was to be a gun owner.
This was obvious cover on the part of Obama/Biden to try to get gun owners off their back, and when local lawmakers use this line, they are doing the same thing. Insist they go on the record!
Second: ‘I’ve voted pro-gun in the past, I don’t need to sign a survey to prove I’ll be pro-gun in the future.’
Response: Yeah, and Marco Rubio was pro-gun until he suddenly supported legislation to disarm Americans between the age of 18-20. And the Florida legislature was pro-gun, until dozens of them passed the largest gun control bill in Florida state history this year.
Talk is cheap. Insist they go on the record!
Third: ‘I don’t sign any surveys.’
Response: OK, well, I don’t trust any candidate who is too smug to sign a simple 9 question survey. More, candidates sign surveys all the time.
In the ten-year history of Wyoming Gun Owners, I can tell you that virtually every time some candidate tells us this, they go on to be an enemy of our gun rights once safely in office. Insist they go on the record!
THEIR BIG BET
Candidates, especially incumbent candidates, are betting that they can give you one of the lines above and make you just shut up and go away.
If you and I fall for that, we will get a steadily more moderate legislature.
Eventually, that moderate legislature will turn on gun owners and begin to hammer through gun control.
Not today, not tomorrow, but it will happen.
Don’t take my word for it, look at what’s happening in other states right now.
In Oklahoma, gun owners were betrayed by one of their pro-gun ‘friends’ this year when Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed Constitutional Carry.
In Florida, gun owners were betrayed by dozens of their ‘pro-gun friends’ as Florida went on to enact sweeping gun control.
In Iowa, gun owners were betrayed by the House Speaker Pro-Tem, one of the ‘pro-gun friends,’ who worked to successfully kill Constitutional Carry.
In Minnesota, gun owners were betrayed this year by multiple ‘pro-gun friends’ in the Senate, who signed onto Bloomberg’s gun control bill as cosponsors.
And frankly, we were much closer to being betrayed here in Wyoming this year in our fight for Stand-Your-Ground law than many gun owners know!
NOW IS THE TIME
So rather than fall for one of the lies being forced on us by weak-kneed candidates and hoping for the best, it’s time that gun owners FIGHT.
Right now, while we are out of session, that fight consists of getting as many candidates on the record in support of our gun rights as possible.
So print off a copy of the survey right here, and take it with you to campaign events and make sure they know that you are not going to fall for one of their throw away lines.
Make sure they know that you are looking for candidates who will FIGHT for gun owners, not just talk tough at election time.
And lastly, make sure they know that you are not going to stand up for candidates who refuse to go on the record!
Gun owners have been betrayed too often by smooth talking liars at election time, but with your help, we’ll be able to hold them accountable here in Wyoming!
If you are not yet a member of Wyoming Gun Owners, please join up today!
Sincerely,
David Ball
President
P.S. With the Wyoming Gun Owners candidate survey underway, you can expect all manner of excuses from candidates who are afraid of going ‘on the record.’
Read the email above to know what to expect, and how to answer the political double speak you are likely to encounter.
You can mail or email us any signed surveys that you get.
JOIN WYOMING GUN OWNERS TODAY!
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