by Anthony Morelli
This is a bad turn of events for the gun community.
One Democrat politician had been endorsed by the NRA.
But then he turned around and supported some of the worst gun control imaginable.
The NRA is going to have to seriously consider what went wrong here. They had endorsed Tim Walz and gave him an “A” rating on guns.
Now he is one of the leading anti-gun politicians in America and Kamala Harris’s nominee for vice president on a platform that is directly hostile to the Second Amendment.
This isn’t the first time the NRA has endorsed Democrats, but it is certainly one of the most egregious mistakes, as Walz is now widely viewed as one of the most liberal Democrats in America.
If he is elected to the White House alongside Harris, he has made it clear that he will not be a friend to gun owners.
He supports some of the worst gun control that the progressive left has to offer.
And his anti-gun base is pushing him to go even farther, which would be an incredibly dangerous thing for the Second Amendment in America.
According to the Washington Post, “Walz received donations totaling $18,950 from the NRA and $6,000 from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, campaign records show.”
But then he turned against gun rights, as the story goes on to show.
“The shift, capped by his recent support as governor for a wave of significant gun-control bills in Minnesota, placed him squarely in line with the mainstream Democratic Party, which he’s now helping lead into November as its vice-presidential nominee. His evolution on guns, in a tight time frame punctuated by some of the most deadly recent shootings, illustrates the galvanizing effect of the mass-casualty events. But his change of heart also came at a time when gun-control groups began spending significantly more on candidates who shared their positions.”
It’s clear that Walz was never actually pro-gun. He may have been willing to sweet-talk gun advocacy groups in the hopes of getting their endorsements, but it was always insincere.
Here is what the Harris-Walz campaign said: “After some of the worst mass shootings in our country’s history, the governor was moved to take a hard look at the facts and decided to support common sense gun reform that would prevent future tragedies. That level of introspection is something to be commended, not critiqued.”
The issue here is when gun advocates try to play too much inside baseball and take politicians at their word instead of approaching them skeptically.
Politicians are more than willing to lie about their views on issues in order to win support.
When gun advocacy groups are too concerned about getting on the good side of politicians and not offending them, they end up endorsing people like Tim Walz.
Of course, this has now backfired in a big way, and it serves as an important lesson.
Tim Walz has never been a friend of the gun rights movement, and now it is clear that he is actively hostile to it.