CNN/YouTube Democrat Debate: ''Protect your baby'' - register to vote!

By Tim Inwood

Perhaps I expected too much. I had hoped they would be on their best behavior, but no.

What am I lamenting? The shoddy treatment given to the American gun owner in the last Democrat Presidential debate, that’s what.

I am sadly not surprised by how us gun owners were dealt with as I watched the CNN-hosted YouTube Democrat debate. I will grant that Jered Townsend did not present himself very well, as he held his Bushmaster XM-15 rifle asking about the intent of the Democrats towards his “baby”. But what followed should have been illustrative to any gun owner watching the debate about how they should vote in the primaries and in November next year.

The debate moderator, Anderson Cooper, threw the question first to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. I perked up to hear what this man had to say. I have been listening to the Democrats on some gun boards like “The High Road” tell us how pro-gun the man is. So I was curious to see what the man would utter. “The issue here, I believe, is instant background checks…” “Nobody who has a criminal background or is mentally ill should be able to get a weapon.”

Richardson was then incoherent and rambled about poverty, gun violence and ghettos. Not a word about constitutionally protected rights enshrined by the Second Amendment. The NRA may have rated the man highly in the past, but his performance did not
warrant it. His comments were met with silence. No home run for Bill. Foul ball at best…

Cooper immediately turned to Senator Joe Biden, of Delaware. “Senator Biden, are you going to be able to keep his baby safe?” Biden responded, “I’ll tell you what, if that is his baby, he needs help.” This snide comment did not surprise me. Biden is sworn enemy to the Second Amendment. A perennial candidate for the presidency since the 1980s, he is a man who has a special contempt for gun owners and the Second Amendment. His record on firearms issues during his tenure on the Senate Judiciary Committee has been abominable. Other than that he is only known for his plagiarism of the work of former British Labor party leader Neal Kinnock. An enemy of gun rights and original thought, I truly pray he gets nowhere near his pipe-dream of the Presidency.

Biden was not done yet. He then went on and slandered the man; “I think he just made an admission against self-interest. I don’t know that he is mentally qualified to own that gun.” This was met with laughter and applause, “I’m being serious,” Biden said, “we should be working with law enforcement, right now, to make sure that we protect people against people who don’t — are not capable of knowing what to do with a gun because they’re either mentally imbalanced and/or because they have a criminal record. “ With that Biden had tarred all gun owners as mentally or criminally suspect. As Cooper tried to move on, Biden interrupted with one final insult: “I hope he doesn’t come looking for me.”

I hope Jered Townsend and other Democrats who own firearms noted that not one of the other candidates on that stage said a word in defense of gun owners then or for the rest of the debate. For all the hype that Bill Richardson is one of us, I was not impressed at all. The ball was tossed right to him and he dropped it like a hot potato. The rest of the Democrats are clearly hostile, if not outright enemies of, the Second Amendment and our gun rights. It is pretty clear to me the best hope for preserving our Second Amendment rights lies in the Republican field. There are several outspoken defenders of the Second Amendment there. If Jered Townsend is smart, he will look for the Presidential candidate who will “protect his baby” in the Republican field.

Tim Inwood is the current Legislative Liaison and Past President of the Clinton County Farmers and Sportsmen Association, an Endowment Member of the NRA, Life Member of OGCA, and a volunteer for Buckeye Firearms Association.

Related Story:
Op-Ed: Anti-Gun Goofs - Dems' YouBoob Moment