According to his Amazon.com bio, “Jorge Amselle is an NRA certified firearms instructor, a military veteran, bullseye shooter, and full time professional firearms writer for various national gun magazines, including Combat Handguns, Guns and Weapons for Law Enforcement, Special Weapons for Military and Police, Rifle Firepower, American Rifleman, and Shooting Illustrated.”
In 2013, Mr. Amselle (above) wrote about the Dick Metcalf affair for The Daily Caller: “Every now and again someone who is involved in the gun industry, either as a writer or manufacturer, says something that sets the gun owning community on fire.” Prophetic words, given the firestorm that’s greeted Mr. Amselle’s proclamation that he supports Hillary Clinton for President.
The story has been gathering momentum over the last few days. David Fortier, a long-time writer for Shotgun News and other publications, ran into Amselle late last week. He wrote this at Arfcom:
Jorge Amselle is a writer for the firearms industry, such as Tactical-Life. During conversations at an industry event in Florida both Thursday night and Friday morning he stated to me, with a number of other industry professionals present and listening, that he supported Hillary Clinton for President and was going to vote for her.
He felt other issues such as immigration (he’s Hispanic) were more important than the Second Amendment
Stated Obama hadn’t been bad for the 2A and Hillary would be basically a third term. He stated he would rather see Hillary Clinton appoint justices to the Supreme Court and not Trump. He stated he was not a single-issue voter and the 2A was not at the top of his list . . .
Mr. Amselle’s Facebook posts confirm the essence of Mr. Fortier’s account. Amselle wrote this on Facebook on May 4, 2016:
I have always been a Republican leaning Libertarian but now I find that the GOP has abandoned most of their Libertarian principles and I now have more in common with Democrats. I am not a single issue voter but if I had to pick one it would be xenophobia and the GOP is on the wrong side of that one. I guess I am a Democrat now. Also being Hispanic I fee3 especially unwelcome in the GOP.
Jorge Amselle: Look guys I get it. I have known a lot of other former Republicans who became Democrats (and I am not saying that I will become a Dem or necessarily vote for Hillary, yech) because they got fed up with one thing or another. I thought they were crazy or sellouts (still do for some of ’em). I have put up with a lot of BS and held my nose a lot in supporting the GOP almost (but not entirely) on the basis of gun rights (as I am sure many of you have as well). But supporting Trump is just a bridge too far for me. I hope you all can understand (if not agree) with that.
Since that mea culpa, Mr. Amselle’s also posted a series of other pro-Hillary, anti-Trump entries (samples 1 2 3 4 ) on his Facebook account. At The War On Guns blog, David Codrea wrote about Amselle’s support of Hillary in this election cycle in a post entitled The Enemy Within. Mr. Amselle confirmed Codrea’s story.
Just to be 100 percent sure, TTAG emailed Mr. Amselle prior to publication. “I am voting for Hillary,” he replied. “That is not the whole story but it is the bottom line.”
I’m afraid Mr. Amselle’s wrong about that. The real bottom line: The National Rifle Association and other gun magazines will likely cease to avail themselves of his editorial services.
I’m sure Ms. Amselle could find work writing for The Huffington Post and other anti-gun rights publications looking for another Mike “The Gun Guy” Weisser. Anyway, with so much at stake, it’s hard to feel sympathy for Mr. Amselle’s future gun writing career, or lack thereof.
UPDATE: Jorge claimed to be a freelance writer at the National Rifle Association of America in his Facebook bio.
He should probably update that. Chip Lohman, the Deputy Executive Director of NRA Publications, had this to say this afternoon. “He was a contributor to American Rifleman. He is not a current contributor.“