Late last month, over consecutive nights in Miami, Americans heard from 20 candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. As expected, the debate over firearms and the Second Amendment received top billing.
Virtually every candidate outlined specific proposals that ranged from more background checks to an assault weapons ban, to federal red flag laws, and even to outright gun confiscation. But not a single one of them voiced support for the commonsense idea of allowing Americans to better protect themselves. Instead, politician after politician expressed support for the failed notion that more laws, more regulations, and less freedom are the only solutions to combating violent criminals.
For example, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said that Americans “should need a license to own a gun.” California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has since dropped out of the race, not only believes in the reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban but also in banning possession and “criminally prosecute[ing] any who choose to defy it by keeping their weapons.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Kamala Harris said that if Congress doesn’t pass new gun laws within 100 days of her potential inauguration, she will take “executive action” on her own to implement a range of new gun restrictions. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke has made clear that like many of the other candidates, he’s opposed to concealed carry reciprocity, which would allow law-abiding citizens with permits to travel freely across state lines without risk of arrest. Lastly, former Vice President Joe Biden said that only “smart guns” should be sold, or guns that require “a biometric measure” to pull the trigger and he called gun manufacturers “our enemy.”
The lack of diversity in these conversations is troubling. Guns do not hurt people or commit mass shootings by themselves — violent, murderous criminals have to choose to do those things. In fact, for millions of Americans, firearms provide safety and security and play a critical role in our right to self-defense.
The national conversation we are having about guns and the focus of our candidates for the nation’s highest office needs to change. These anti-Second Amendment proposals are not original, fresh or new. They do not protect Americans, but they do strip away our constitutional right to self-defense.
It’s also worth observing that many Democratic voters do not appear to agree with them, either. At the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, where we focus on training and educating law-abiding, responsibly armed Americans, more than 40% of our members identify with the Democratic Party. In key presidential battleground states such as my home state of Wisconsin, as well as other areas like Ohio, Florida, and Michigan, many citizens believe strongly in the Second Amendment and will vote for the candidate willing to protect it.
More broadly, with the number of concealed and carry gun licenses skyrocketing to more than 18 million, it’s evident that many Americans broadly do not feel the same way about gun restrictions that many of our politicians do. They are embracing the right to self-defense and looking for ways to protect themselves and those around them.
That is why, instead of looking for ways to restrict the freedoms of law-abiding Americans, we need to be having conversations that include ideas about allowing more Americans to defend themselves. For example, a survivor of the recent Virginia Beach shooting created a petition for the right to carry a weapon into work, after he saw firsthand that “gun-free zones are some of the most dangerous and vulnerable places in America.” We’ve seen time and again that areas where weapons are banned, more commonly known as “gun-free zones,” have become targets for violence because criminals know it is less likely a responsibly-armed citizen will confront them. Meanwhile, these spaces pose law-abiding Americans the impossible choice between protecting themselves or violating a law.
We have a long way to go until November 2020 and it’s not too late for many of these candidates to reverse course. Instead of demonizing responsibly armed Americans, our politicians should be having a conversation with them and learning more about the critical role they can play to keep our communities safe.
Tim Schmidt is the president and founder of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association and may be contacted at [email protected].
