Follow A Leader
Protect the Second by electing the right people!
In addition to lobbying your elected representatives, keeping abreast of gun law proposals, being registered to vote and actually casting a ballot, there’s one more link in the chain gun owners need to close to protect your Second Amendment rights.
No, it’s not donating to the gun rights organization of your choice — though this is a very good idea — or attending a gun rights rally on the steps of your state capitol building. This is also a good idea, provided you’re not standing there with only six other guys and you’ve got only one sign.
Walk The Talk
The link we’re talking about is making sure you help elect somebody who isn’t just giving lip service to gun rights. You find such people occasionally on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures — men and women who know the smell of burnt powder, the punch of recoil and maybe the scent of Hoppe’s No. 9.
For example, there’s South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem who has photographic proof she’s no slouch with a shotgun when pheasants are busting cover. Just Google “Kristi Noem guns” and you’ll find the images.
Then, there’s presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, about whom I wrote some 10 years ago after she announced getting a Beretta pistol for Christmas. She stuck up for the Second Amendment then and hasn’t done a 180 in the years hence. When was the last time you heard a governor bragging about the gun with their name on it under the Christmas tree?
And then there’s Austin Knudsen, attorney general of Montana and self-described “gun nerd.” When he’s not doing legal work for the Big Sky state, he is “usually out at my reloading bench, casting bullets; my grandfather was a gunsmith and I grew up shooting.”
His advice to GUNS readers cuts right to the chase — “Get involved locally. All politics starts locally; city councils, state lawmakers. Those are accessible people.”
“If you have the ability to educate them,” Knudsen advises, “then do it.”
Trailblazer
Knudsen is the attorney general who gathered 23 of his fellow AGs earlier this year and sued the federal government over the ATF “stabilizing brace rule” published in February. Back in January 2022, he was among 25 state AGs submitting a compelling amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a case filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and others challenging the Maryland “assault weapons” ban.
Gun control groups seem to have this figured out. When you read online about “gun safety” candidates running for school board positions, it’s a signal they’re preparing for a higher office somewhere over the horizon — and they’re interested in making local policy for a start. Unless you’re planning to run for office, find someone willing to walk the talk and get behind them. The best way to protect your rights is to elect someone who will take on that chore at some level of government, whether it is local, statewide or nationally.
Another piece of Knudsen’s advice: “Don’t assume your state attorney general or local legislator knows about this subject.” Chances are, they don’t so it’s up to you to be their go-to source for information. It’s a chance to educate and perhaps guide their votes and actions in the future.”
He also warned gun owners against trying to “insert rationality into an emotional argument, something which ‘gun rights’ versus ‘gun control’ definitely is.”
“The liberal left is dominated by emotion,” Knudsen said. “They don’t want facts, especially when the facts don’t line up with their feelings.”
And possibly, his most important piece of advice is about social media. Behave yourself online! Be the adult in the room. Don’t be a keyboard commando — you know the type, they hide behind an Internet nom de plume and say all sorts of provocative things suggestive of a big ego and small IQ — because it can lead to real trouble.
“At a certain point,” Knudsen cautioned, “some of the rhetoric can rise to real threats. That’s not a road we want to go down. It’s a keyboard world.”
Taking The Lead
Is Knudsen all wet? I doubt it, considering his background. His history is not just of a proverbial “rising star,” it also reflects a political savvy that doesn’t just work in Montana, but elsewhere. In the West, a gun-faker doesn’t last too long in politics and they’re pretty easy to spot.
Knudsen was first elected to the Montana Legislature in 2010. By 2013, he was House Speaker pro tem. In 2015, he was elected House Speaker and he was re-elected to that position in 2017.
When he ran for attorney general a couple of years ago, he won. Now, other Republican AGs seem agreeable to follow his lead when it comes to a show of solidarity on various issues, especially when it is related to gun rights. Hey, if you’re in a group preparing to take a stand on some firearms issue, you’re going to talk to the colleague who makes his own ammunition, right?
The surprising — actually, disappointing — thing about too many gun owners is they habitually vote for people who are not really their friends. Such politicians may act friendly when they need your vote, but after the election, they suddenly become incommunicado when the Second Amendment is on the table. This leaves the “Sportsmen for So-and-So” groups scrambling to make excuses, unless they disband and the leaders disappear so they don’t have to make excuses.
Why talk about this now? Mid- to late summer in the year prior to an election year is when wannabe candidates are quietly putting together their campaigns. If someone tells you otherwise, he or she is either dumb or intentionally misleading — if somebody is only still “thinking about” running and hasn’t “made up their mind,” that person is already behind.
Find someone in your state like Knudsen, who is not shy about acknowledging guns are a passion and gun rights are a priority. Such people are out there, they just need encouragement. Getting such people elected is a key component of winning the Second Amendment battle and defending the right to keep and bear arms.
