In last night’s Digest, Connecticut-based pundit Tom Condon suggested that President Obama should turn to American combat veterans to bolster his campaign for civilian disarmament. Good luck with that. Our vets are, in the main, four-square in favor of defending and extending Americans’ Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. In fact, I think they invented the word “staunch” to describe their support. You might even say that when it comes to gun control, they’re kicking ass and taking names. Kevin Tully is one of many vets turning-out at town halls, rallies and lectures up and down the land, reminding their fellow countrymen that their firearms freedom remains a bulwark against the type of tyranny they saw up-close-and-personal. The vets are a mighty force to be reckoned with . . .
According to infoplease.com, America is home to more than 21.5 million veterans. Some 15.8 million or 71 percent voted in the 2008 presidential election. And if you had to think of one issue that would energize this demographic, gun rights would be it. To wit: Mr. Tully’s attendance at an anti-gun forum in the Chicago suburbs.
As his YouTube video above indicates, Mr. Tully personifies unabashed, all-American values. [NB: it’s got nothing to do with his ethnicity.] And while gun control advocates will see Tully’s appearance on the viral video above as an example of stridency—ignoring the images at the very end which reveal the anti-gunners’ base “humor”—nothing could be further from the truth.
I seem to be getting more vocal and standing my ground, but I don’t want to be thought of as a bully. I genuinely like listening to other people…I listened to what they had to say. Some of it was uninformed, some of it was factual, some of it was factually incorrect. I listened as long as I could. Mr. Goodman was booed off the floor, but he has the right to say what he wants to say. I stood up first and I said no, I want to hear what he has to say. I had just been told the relevance of the Second Amendment was gone. I wanted to hear what he [Goodman] would say if this was happening to the First Amendment….No one seems to realize that the Bill of Rights is not on the table. They are eternal premises that would keep our nation free.”
Not no one. Perhaps more than he’d ever imagine. All I can say about that is click here to check out this gallery of American gun owners and watch this space.
[h/t John Boch]