Below The Radar: HR 435, National Gun Violence Research Act

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Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson wants to bring back the bad old days when your tax dollars funded anti-Second Amendment propaganda masquerading as research.United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- One of the more pernicious attacks on our Second Amendment rights is legislation that doesn’t necessarily restrict rights so much as eases the road to getting restrictions later. There have been two approaches to this. One is the use of resolutions like S Res 110, which is intended to foreclose the possibility of Second Amendment-friendly (or at least non-hostile) solutions to problems like school shootings. H Res 702 takes a different approach: It ties attacking our rights as a form of justice. Another is the use of legislation intended to gain taxpayer-funded propaganda, like HR 435, the National Gun Violence Research Act introduced by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). Like the Gun Safety Board and Research Act we covered earlier, this is legislation that won’t directly attack our rights. What it will do, though, is give Bloomberg’s minions ammunition for future attacks on our rights. The fact is, right now, Bloomberg really has a one-track approach in selling his anti-Second Amendment extremism: Fear. This has been a powerful motivator, especially in helping him generate a lot of anti-Second Amendment activism among suburban women. The emergence of Moms Demand Action/Everytown has been a major shift in the landscape in the fight for our rights – one that has not been in our favor. While Second Amendment supporters have so far been able to hold off many of the attacks on our rights in many places, the fact is, the shift among suburban women over the last 20 years was one major factor. Now, Eddie Bernice Johnson is moving to give Bloomberg more ammo – and HR 435 now takes on greater importance. One of the tricks that were largely shut down over the last 25 years was the use of so-called “research” to create studies that showed that our Second Amendment rights were a danger to public health. Now, though, with doctors and nurses getting a lot of public acclaim in the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg will seek to latch on to that. One of HR 435’s provisions is to allow the Department of Health and Human Services to focus on “gun violence research.” In her legislation, Johnson laughably claims, “Research examining the nature, causes, consequences, and prevention of gun-related violence, suicide, and unintentional injury and death does not constitute advocacy in support of, or opposition to, gun control policies or regulations.” Well, Second Amendment supporters know she is lying in that legislation. Don Kates quoted one physician pushing control who expressed the view that our Second Amendment rights were a pathogen. It took a lot of fighting to get the propaganda that masqueraded as research shut down – and anti-Second Amendment extremists have bemoaned the loss of the source of valuable (to them) propaganda. To avoid seeing the landscape shift even further against us, Second Amendment supporters need to keep the provisions of law that prevent our tax dollars from being used to fund propaganda that attacks our rights. Contacting your Senators and Representative and politely urging them to oppose HR 435 should be done as soon as possible.
About Harold Hutchison Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics, and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.