gun safety – Hill Report

Washington (GGM) Analysis | January 19, 2020
by Noreen Wise

As the state of Virginia braces for what many fear may become Charlottesville Part 2, with 2A activists from around the country descending on Richmond, VA tomorrow,
Monday January 20, 2020 — Martin Luther King Day — it behooves all of us to remember that George Washington won the Revolutionary War with his rag-tag revolutionary fighters, the militia, by outsmarting the mighty British Royal Army, not by out gunning them.

When the Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, the British Army was the fiercest, most powerful army in the world. America had very little expectation of winning our lasting freedom from Britain.

However, George Washington was determined, none the less. Washington proved to be a brilliant military tactician, and calculated that if we couldn’t win with guns, with weaponry, we could win with smarts, our intelligence, in this case through deception. Washington masterfully pieced together a covert citizen spy ring, operating out of NYC and Long Island, the secret six. The mission: take back NYC and win the war.

Unbelievably, they succeeded, despite Benedict Arnold’s treasonous plot to turn over West Point to the British. Washington’s success was surely the result of Britain’s absolute faith and reliance on weapons.

So let’s keep this in mind tomorrow. May cooler heads prevail, and be reminded of George Washington’s enduring lesson, the one which our democracy was basically founded upon, that smarts are more valuable and effective than guns. American independence and our American democracy came to fruition through intelligence. Yes, protecting our rights, and acknowledging the rights of Americans to bear arms is very important, but must be filtered through the reality of the lens of modern times. Guns are one of the many tools required to maintain our freedom and secure our nation, of course, but gun rights aren’t meant to come at the exclusion of all else. Rather, they must be balanced alongside everything else. George Washington proved this.~

Washington (GGM) Analysis | December 30, 2019
by Noreen Wise

There are two new Democratic governors arriving into office next week, one of which flipped the governor’s seat from red to blue. Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, stunned the GOP with an unexpected upset that outed Trump and McConnell ally, Matt Bevin. Louisiana’s John Bel Edward, held off a fierce rival backed by Trump, and will return to Baton Rouge to finish the progress he started four years ago. There’s so much positive energy for long awaited changes (sidelined by Mitch McConnell the past three years at the federal level, particularly in 2019 with the Democratic House passing nearly 400 bills that are currently stacked under McConnell’s desk), that constituents feel optimistic much needed legislation will soon follow.

In November 2016, the year Trump came into power through the electoral college rather than popular vote, the net outcome on the gubernatorial side of things was 33 red governors and 16 blue. But, after three years of Trump’s continued defiance of the rule of the law and our Constitution, Americans appear to be venting their frustration through their choice of governors. The tides have shifted significantly with Democrats picking up 8 governorships. After the 2019 election, there are 26 red governors and 24 blue. Just one away from being an even split.

Voters are hoping to see legislative movement with these gubernatorial pivots, particularly gun safety legislation and clean energy & sustainability. States with Democratic governors for more than a decade, are much further ahead with clean energy infrastructure and regulation, and their low carbon levels reinforce the positive impact legislation has on outcome. The states that have flipped from red to blue recently, now have to catch up. The ones that remain red will be left in the dust.

But all eyes should be on Virginia in 2020. The governorship, and both levels of the state legislature, are now blue. The Virginia legislative calendar begins next Wednesday January 8, 2020. Mom’s Demand Action and the NRA will both be descending on the state capitol in Richmond the first day to lobby the new arrivals about gun safety. Virginia is a state with two extremes. Charlottesville highlighted the tension. Trump has fueled the stormy division in the two years that have followed since that tragic day in Charlottesville, August 12, 2017.

One step at a time. Our Founding Fathers taught us that the way a democracy works is through the art of compromise. Let’s get this right! ~