Gun legislation and further attacks on the Second Amendment never came up in the now famous debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, a debate that marked the beginning of the end for Biden’s political career. Nor was mention of firearms barely uttered during the Republican National Convention or in the early days of the campaign as well. What a change in a candidate makes as the issue is now front and center with the ascension of the left-leaning Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee and her selection of even lefter-leaning Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Barely had the sweat dried on his hand from holding Harris’s mitt so tightly after she named him her vice-presidential choice, than an old video of the guv was shared on social media with him waddling in front of a crowd and crowing about how he was going to ban AR-style weapons.
Usually when an old video clip appears of a candidate openly lying to constituents it is leaked by the opposing party. But Harris and Walz’s campaign team are actually making it easy for everyone to see the lies…and to see what these people really stand for.
The Video
In the video from a 2018 gubernatorial stump speech Walz gave and that Harris’s campaign posted on X Tuesday, shows the turncoat politician talking about how he gave money back to NRA after he gladly took it to get elected in his first run for office.
“I’ll take my kick in the butt for the NRA. I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt and I gave the money back and I’ll tell you what I have been doing: I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks, we can do CDC research, we can make sure we don’t have reciprocal carry among states and we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at,” Walz says in the video.
So many lies in one statement. But, then what would anybody expect from a politician who began his political career on a lie.
According to Forbes, before becoming governor, Walz got elected to Congress representing a rural district in Minnesota in which he hyped his support for the Second Amendment, talked about how he liked to hunt so of course, that meant he was all about guns, and was also in the military so of course, he was naturally all about guns for that reason, too. He presented that façade to get elected in a district made up of mostly God-fearing, gun-owning stand-up Americans with morals and a strong sense of self-reliance, a common characteristic among our rural communities. He even earned an “A” rating from the NRA, something some Democrats, typically those from rural districts, once routinely earned. It has become increasingly rare, however, for a Democrat to earn a positive rating from the organization in today’s political climate.
It was when Walz ran for governor of Minnesota in 2018 that his stance suddenly changed. For he then had to appeal to urbanites in the Twin Cities, and suddenly his true colors shined through…and the real lies began.
Spicing Up His Military Record
Of the biggest lie garnering attention from the resurfaced video, Walz states, “we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.” Walz did serve honorably in the military for 24 years, initially in the Nebraska Army National Guard and then in the Minnesota Army National Guard. But the problem is, he never saw combat.
In fact, since he was chosen as the Democratic Party vice presidential nominee, a number of his fellow service members have spoken critically of Walz because the fact is, not only did he never serve in combat as he has claimed, but he actually retired early allegedly to avoid having to go to Iraq with his unit, which was set to be deployed in 2005.
“We all did what we were supposed to do, we did the right thing, and it’s dishonorable what he did,” Tom Schilling, who was a member of Walz’s unit told Fox News. “He left somebody else to take over his spot. He just ditched us.”
Fellow service member, Ret. Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends was even more critical when interviewed on “The Ingraham Angle.”
Behrends noted that not only did Walz never see combat as he has claimed, but he also was not a command sergeant major as his governor’s website states in his biography.
“To most people, that would mean that he was actually in combat, carrying a weapon in a combat zone and getting combat pay and in a dangerous and hostile environment where he is getting shot at,” Behrends told host Laura Ingraham.
In fact, Walz would have been a command sergeant major, but he never deployed and he retired before completing the work to hold on to that rank so was administratively demoted as a master sergeant.
Trump vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, who did serve Iraq as a U.S. Marine, has also been vocal about Walz’s embellishments.
“As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” Vance said. “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”
Two Lies and the Painful Truth
Beyond spicing up his military record to make him sound like more of an authority on firearms and earn the respect often reserved for true combat veterans, Walz and his statements offer a host of additional problems for gun owners and a glimpse into a man with an apparently flawed character for the rest of America:
• In the video, he uses the perpetual Democratic buzzword every politician uses when they talk about passing “gun legislation” and that buzzword is “common sense.” Unfortunately, when a Democrat uses the words “common sense” in conjunction with gun legislation, it means anything but common sense. More often than not, it means “ill- or uninformed” legislation that will serve more to restrict people who committing the majority, if any, crimes, leave citizens more helpless to defend themselves, make the shooting sports and hunting more costly and difficult to enjoy and will undeniably take another step in eroding the Second Amendment freedoms of Americans. Common sense is a buzzword intended for the portion of our nation’s electorate that doesn’t have any. Democrats say the words trusting that most people are uninformed and don’t care and will take what they say at face value…and then will vote accordingly.
• In addition to misleading the audience on his military service, Walz also makes sure to say he “hunts.” As if that gives him some sort of pass or puts him on a moral high ground to speak knowledgeably about firearms. Whether he actually hunts or not, and as wonderful an American tradition as hunting is, enjoyed by millions (including myself), the Second Amendment was not put in place by the framers of the constitution so Americans would be permitted to hunt. When a politician emphasizes that he hunts in the same breath he begins talking about gun legislation, that is his or her way of saying, “I’m one of you and I know all about guns and use them myself, and I’m not afraid to restrict the use of guns, so why should you be?” It’s disingenuous and condescending and every American sportsman and gun owner should be offended when a politician makes such statements.
• The only lies Walz didn’t deliver in that brief video clip was his feeling toward firearms…he wants to restrict them. He was clear he wants universal background checks, a well-meaning sounding, but ineffective, costly and even nefarious effort to restrict guns from those who pose the least risk to others; he wants to fund research through the CDC that has historically been used to attack gun ownership, research that time and again has been found to be politically motivated and flawed in its methodology; and he’s even against reciprocity among states, which allows people with concealed carry permits from one state to carry and keep themselves safe when traveling in other states. The last one is the biggest headscratcher as permit holders have already been vetted by the government in order to get a permit. In opposing reciprocity or seeking to eliminate it, a legislator isn’t creating a law that will stop a criminal (a criminal isn’t worried about a permit), he or she is merely attacking law abiding gun owners and legal gun ownership. If anything, you are trying to turn a class of citizens who do everything to follow the law into criminals you can go after. It’s government overreach in its most blatant and zealous form.
The Real Threat to Democracy
Tim Walz clearly hates guns or at the very least legal gun ownership, and in him Harris has found the perfect bedfellow as together they will likely continue to construct a campaign built on lies and increased attacks on legal gun ownership.
But the Democrats are right about one thing.
In attacking Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for presidency, they have repeatedly invoked the specter that “democracy is under threat like never before.”
It is under threat. But it is not Donald Trump America needs to fear.
With the selection of Harris and Walz for the 2024 ticket, Democrats have signaled politically that they are going all in on the destruction of America. They have enthusiastically chosen two candidates that will solidify the progressive stranglehold on the party and strive to build even more division among our nation’s citizens.
No, the real threat to democracy is clear. The real threat is the Democratic Party. The real threat is Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
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