Strickland quits anti-gun organization after BuckeyeFirearms.org article

Last week, amidst news that former Governor Ted Strickland (D) is considering a run for U.S. Senate against Senator Rob Portman (R), Buckeye Firearms Association published my article informing voters of Strickland's involvement over the past year as President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an anti-gun rights lobbying group in Washington D.C.

After providing many examples of CAP's anti-gun activities, I concluded that former Governor Ted Strickland, despite the good he did for gun owners when he lived in Ohio, has completely and totally lost his way in Washington D.C.

The article drew quick attention. Less than two hours after the article was published, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) sent the article to its "Rapid Response" email list. From there, news of the article was quickly picked up by media - first by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and then from the Associated Press.

The Cincinnati Enquirer is now reporting that Strickland suddenly quit his position at CAP last week, even as he continues to "test the waters" for a U.S. Senate campaign with an initial fundraising pitch to donors.

Strickland's sudden resignation, which came only a few days after it was reported that CAP hosted a conference call for Strickland to discuss his potential campaign with the media, is very unlikely to change anything in the minds of Ohio gun owners - voters who Strickland has been turning his back on almost since the moment he lost his re-election contest in 2010.

After his narrow defeat, Strickland ignored the wishes of the gun rights community that had kept his re-election race competitive, naming an anti-gun appointment to the Ohio Supreme Court.

In 2012 he insulted gun owners' intelligence by trying to get them to ignore Barack Obama's already-abysmal record of support for gun control, endorsing the president's reelection bid and claiming that Obama "supports and respects the Second Amendment."

And last year, Strickland left Ohio for Washington D.C. to become president of the aforementioned, anti-gun rights CAP Action Fund. Articles critical of gun rights are posted regularly on ThinkProgress, the fund's blog, a website which has also routinely published articles fomenting the myth that a white Ferguson, MO police officer acted improperly when he shot a violent attacker who happened to be black. To fully understand where Ted Strickand's CAP Action Fund stands on gun control, one need look no further than the fund's "Assault Weapons Revisited" report, or to ThinkProgress' "Ultimate Guide to Gun Safety Debate."

In addition to being president of this anti-gun rights group, Strickland is also listed as a "Counselor" for what the fund website calls its "sister organization" - the Center for American Progress - the same group that hosted his conference call for the media this week.

According to the March 1, 2004 edition of The Nation, CAP is the brain child of anti-gun rights billionaire George Soros, and on November 11, 2003 the Washington Post reported that he gave some $3 million to its creation. CAP has deep ties to both the Clintons and Obamas.

Among the many anti-gun rights articles on CAP's Guns and Crime page are "Fact Sheets" calling for a "universal" background checks national gun registration scheme and federal "assault" weapons licenses, articles falsely labelling "stand your ground" laws as "license to kill" laws and arguing against a national concealed carry reciprocity law.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.