‘WE AREN’T GOING AWAY’
worked to put gun rights front
and center during the 2012
GOP primaries (Mitt Romney
lamely bragged about hunting
“varmints”) and in congressional
and local races.
The NRA and the GOP have lost
ground, of course. After Newtown,
surveys show that nine in 10 voters favor “universal” background
checks. But the NRA remains a
fearsomely focused force on the
Hill, and in late March GOP Sens.
Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted
Cruz of Texas — two stars of the
conservative movement — vowed
to block even a background check
measure from coming to a vote.
“Wayne and I had both warned
that if the president were to win
a second term,” Keene said, “it
would be but a matter of time
before he launched an assault on
private firearms ownership. And
that is what has happened.”
“Gun control advocates were
ready,” Keene argued. “Newtown
gave them the chance to do just
that. They launched their current
anti-gun campaign even before
the kids and teachers who died
in that tragedy had been buried.
[Democratic] Senator [Dianne]
Feinstein [of California], who had
her new assault weapons bill in a
HUFFINGTON
04.07.13
drawer, pulled it out. The president and vice president went
after guns. Their question was
not ‘What can we do to prevent
gun crime or mass murders?’ but
‘What can we do about guns?’”
Keene has helped plan and
carry out the response to those
efforts since December. The idea
is to amp up gun rights support
by stoking populist resentment of
the supposedly “elitist” gun control advocates, to threaten members of Congress with campaignyear retaliation if they stray from
the NRA-approved line, and to
push for school security and
mental health measures to show
the organization’s concern.
Keene’s roots are libertarian, but
his arguments tend to be more political and legal than philosophical.
“Gallup and other pollsters
began to find that most Americans blamed not guns, but the
lack of school security, a dysfunctional mental health care
system and a culture of violence
more than guns,” he said.
“Still, to most people, the idea
of something like a universal
background check sounds logical, and it therefore has public
support,” he conceded. “The
problems lie in interpretation
and execution. Should it apply to
relatives, neighbors, friends or
just to people who buy guns at a