Disgraced former AG Marc Dann admits he had to lie about his support for gun rights to get elected

We had more important issues to discuss over the past week than news about a disgraced former Ohio attorney general writing an op-ed to confess that he had lied about his support for gun rights, and naming Buckeye Firearms Association by name, but it probably is worth mentioning.

On Sunday, March 4, an op-ed by Democrat Marc Dann appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer - the same newspaper which once wrote "Dann has turned the attorney general's office into a laughingstock." Indeed, Dann was forced to leave office under threat of impeachment. He holds the "distinction" of being the only attorney general in the state to have faced criminal charges while in office.

In the op-ed, entitled "Why I regret being in the pocket of the NRA," Dann admits to have lied to his constituents about his support for gun rights in order to gain and keep his office. He claims that his vote for a bill that enacted statewide preemption of local gun control laws made our cities "less safe" (in actuality Ohio's violent crime rates have been LOWER every year since passage of the bill). And even while trying to blame "gun makers' "blood money" for the success of groups like Buckeye Firearms Association, he also admits the real power of gun rights groups actually comes not from money, but from the voters.

From the moment I took office, my staff and I were inundated with calls and letters from gun owners and advocates. No matter where I went in my district or what issue I was discussing, my constituents never failed to remind me they had a zero-tolerance policy for gun safety laws. Anyone who thinks Social Security is the third rail of American politics has clearly never talked about firearms with an NRA member.

While I didn't enter politics to be an advocate for the NRA, I quickly learned that unless I became one, I wouldn't be around to advocate for the issues I did care about. So I made a devil's bargain with myself: To stay in office, I adopted pro-gun positions that made me uncomfortable.

The bargain paid off. I was re-elected to the state senate and won an upset victory to become Ohio's attorney general in large part because the NRA and Buckeye Firearms had "educated" pro-gun voters about my unwavering commitment to the Second Amendment.

Dann admits he lied to the NRA, lied to Buckeye Firearms Association, and lied to his constituents.

He is also lying about how groups like Buckeye Firearms Association are funded. The vast majority of our funds come from individual donations given by concerned people - the same people who took time out of their busy lives to write him about their expectations that he would protect the Second Amendment from people who would destroy it.

We seem to be in a season of continuing "evolution" of the Democrat party away from the days when many of its members were pro-gun.

Another turn-coat Democrat - former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland - has also been quoted in the media in recent days, still licking wounds received in 2016 while being trounced in his bid for U.S. Senate. Having started his race for Senate with a ten point lead in the polls, Strickland's campaign imploded as voters learned about his work as head of a liberal, anti-gun think tank in Washington D.C., and watched him join the gun control chorus that blames Americans and the Second Amendment. During the campaign they heard him call for a so-called "universal" background check gun registration scheme, noted his new support for a so-called "assault weapons" ban, and announced that he was joining Senate Democrats who staged a filibuster on the floor of the U.S. Senate to demand action on gun control.

At the end of the day, all these failed politicians are doing is making it harder for voters to trust current and future Democrats who claim they'll support, protect and defend ALL of the Constitution - including the Second Amendment. That's quite a legacy to leave for their party.

I'll leave you with these words from the Plain Dealer, written about Marc Dann on the eve of his having been drummed out of office:

By his own actions and by those of the people he trusted the most, Dann has turned the attorney general's office into a laughingstock.

He has embarrassed the good people who work there.

He has embarrassed the governor whose coattails he rode into office, and their party.

He has embarrassed his wife and children, who did nothing to deserve this.

He has embarrassed the people who voted for him and those who depend on him.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.

Additional Information:

Buckeye Firearms Association's Sean Maloney discussed the Dann op-ed on NRANews.com with host Cam Edwards.