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The topic of guns in America will likely feature a spirited debate for decades to come. On one side are groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation that view the Second Amendment, and the individual right to possess firearms, as sacrosanct. On the other side are groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, whose goals range from levying more ownership restrictions to outright gun seizures, in some cases.
The debate is unlikely to be settled in the foreseeable future. There are people on both sides of the debate who are passionate about their convictions. Spirited, fact-based debate has long been a hallmark of a free society for ages. It is healthy in public discourse to examine, discuss, and debate the many sides of an issue. Particularly, a controversial one.
An interesting trend has arisen from the gun debate. Over the years, some of the most vocal and strident anti-gun advocates have assumed a public position while engaging in private behavior that is seemingly contradictory. Some violate many of the very restrictions – including laws - they insist others should follow. These anti-gun advocates include public officials, activists, and entertainers.
Consider the case of Sarah Brady. She was married to James Brady, the press secretary to President Ronald Reagan when both he and Reagan and two others were shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. in 1981. Sarah Brady joined Handgun Control, Inc. in 1985 and eventually served as chair 2000-2015. The group changed its name to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2001. Brady earned a reputation as "one of the nation's leading crusaders for gun control.”
So, it was curious when Brady revealed in her memoirs that in 2000 she bought a Remington 30-06 rifle for her son. “I can't describe how I felt when I picked up that rifle, loaded it into my little car and drove home,” she [wrote]. “It seemed so incredibly strange: Sarah Brady, of all people, packing heat.”
The gun shop ran required federal and Delaware state background checks for the sale. All the verifiable facts were in order, but Brady failed to disclose she was purchasing the firearm on behalf of another. The transfer ran afoul of federal law 18 U.S.C. § 922(t), nicknamed the “Brady Law,” enacted 7 years earlier, after intense personal lobbying by Sarah Brady. While she was serving as chair, the Brady Campaign celebrated a 2014 US Supreme Court ruling that stated purchasing a firearm on behalf of another, referred to as a “straw purchase,” was a violation of the Brady Law.
It appears Sarah Brady also violated state law by not disclosing the intended recipient when she completed her purchase documents. Delaware law was changed 13 years later to allow such intra-family transfers, but Sarah Brady’s straw purchase would still violate the federal Brady Law.
The same year Sarah Brady violated her namesake Brady Law, she partnered her organization, Handgun Control, Inc., with the Million Mom March. Promoted by comedian Rosie O’Donnell, the Mother’s Day 2000 march was a call for stricter gun ownership measures. O’Donnell served as the march’s master of ceremonies. The event attracted an estimated 300,000 attendees, according to US Park Police.
O’Donnell argued that any gun ownership was grounds for imprisonment. On her talk show in April 1999, O’Donnell said, “I don’t care if you want to hunt. I don’t care if you think it’s your right. I say, ‘Sorry.’ It is 1999. We have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison.”
About a year after that screed and just days after the Million Mom March, it was learned a private security guard O’Donnell employed applied for a concealed carry permit when shuttling her 4-year old son to and from school. When this became public, school officials insisted her security guard not carry his firearm on campus. O’Donnell later admitted she employed several armed guards.
Following that incident, the Hoover Institution’s Thomas Sowell observed, “A recent study showed that a 15-year-old black youth in the inner city has about one chance in 12 of being killed before he reaches the age of 45. Why is it more important for Rosie O'Donnell's son to have armed protection than for a black youth, or other person living in high-crime neighborhoods?” O’Donnell was living in Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest and safest communities in America.
O’Donnell was just the tip of the hypocritic iceberg. She was but one of countless gun control advocates who did not practice what they preached.
For more than three decades, Carl Rowan was a Chicago Sun-Times columnist whose column was syndicated to more than 100 newspapers. He was an advocate for strict gun control. In a 1981 column, Rowan wrote, “Anyone found in possession of a handgun, except a legitimate officer of the law, [should go] to jail—period! Anyone committing a crime with a handgun [should go] to prison, with 10 years added to his term, without parole—period!” Obviously, Rowan did not think he should have been in the same category of those deserving 10-years plus prison sentences for committing gun crimes.
Rowan awoke one night in June 1988 at his Washington, DC home to the sounds of teens swimming uninvited in his backyard pool. Rowan called the police, but instead of awaiting their arrival he decided he needed to defend his swimming pool. Armed with an unregistered pistol, Rowan ran outside to confront the late-night skinny dippers. He shot an unarmed teen, who was dressed only in his underwear.
Rowan later said he was in fear of his life from the near-naked boy even as the kids scattered after Rowan exited his home. Rowan told the Washington Post, “I am for gun control, but I am not for unilateral gun control, in which I leave my family naked to the druggies and the crooks out there.”
Prosecutors charged the teens with trespassing, but did not prosecute Rowan for shooting one of them or for illegal possession of an unregistered firearm.
In 2012, the Journal News newspaper in White Plains, New York attempted to shame tens of thousands of New Yorkers in the Lower Hudson Valley who legally owned firearms. The paper published an interactive map that revealed the name and address of every resident in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties that had a gun permit.
Not included in the interactive map was the New York City residence of the Journal News reporter Dwight Worley, who authored the interactive map. Worley had a New York City residence permit for a Smith & Wesson model 686 .357 Magnum pistol. Nor did the paper disclose the newspaper employed armed security guards at its offices.
A clever blogger turned the tables on the newspaper. Because the Journal News revealed the name and home address of all permit holders, the blogger published the names, addresses and satellite images of the homes of the reporter, the newspaper’s publisher and the CEO of the paper’s parent company, Gannett.
A colossally irresponsible result of the Journal News interactive map was it increased the vulnerability of those homeowners without a firearm to the possibility of being targeted for a robbery or home invasion. After public outrage, the Journal News removed the database from online.
Like Carl Rowan and the Journal News, there has been an epidemic of journalists who believe there should be two sets of rules. One set of rules for them, and another set for everyone else.
David Gregory of NBC News was the moderator of Meet the Press. He mocked the idea of armed police officers at schools. Those students do not need that armed protection, he reasoned. When he made those comments, Gregory had his children enrolled at the elite and very expensive Sidwell Friends School in the DC suburb of Bethesda, Maryland.
At that time, Sidwell Friends School had a private security force of 11 personnel that included seven armed security officers. Interestingly, Sidwell Friends is a Quaker school. Quakers are pacifists who believe in non-violence, but apparently pacifism is an optional principle of the Quaker faith when schooling the children of DC’s elites.
In addition to its own armed security force, Sidwell Friends also had a contingent of armed Secret Service agents on campus during the decade the Obama girls were enrolled. The Sidwell Friends School of 1,100 students had more firepower than hundreds of small town police departments across America.
On a December 2012 episode of Meet the Press, Gregory doubled-down on his position that he could operate by a different set of rules, even illegal ones. Gregory broke Washington, DC gun laws when he displayed a banned 30-round ammunition clip during a broadcast. When asked, the DC police denied Gregory permission to import the magazine into the district for display during his program. He did it anyway.
Members of the public were outraged Gregory would brazenly break DC gun laws. However, there was no shortage of journalists, who typically urge prosecution of gun crimes, who came to his defense arguing Gregory should not be charged with violating DC gun laws (here, here, here, here & here). Howard Kurtz, then of CNN and now with Fox News, was one of those who promoted the absurd argument that Gregory’s gun law violation was acceptable as his “only intent was to commit journalism.” In other words, he was a news celebrity. DC authorities gave Gregory a pass and declined to charge him with a crime.
Some of the most prominent gun control hypocrites are elected officials. Especially those who have made stringent gun laws a cornerstone of their political repertoire.
There was a big disconnect between his words and actions regarding President Barack Obama when it came to gun crimes. In 2016, Obama announced new gun control measures to be implemented using executive orders.
Days earlier, Obama issued 97 pardons and commutations to felons. The executive clemency wasn’t for excessive penalties for minor offenses or seemingly unjust convictions that are often the hallmark of other presidential pardons (here, here, here). Nearly every lucky recipient had been convicted of dealing in large quantities of drugs. Some were caught with amounts measured in kilos. This is considered major drug trafficking. And nearly one out of five was convicted of using a firearm while engaged in drug trafficking. Eighteen felons were convicted of 31 major gun crimes.
It’s difficult to reconcile the contradiction of Obama claiming he wanted to reduce gun crimes while at the same time giving clemency to major drug traffickers who used firearms in the commission of their felonies.
Obama’s Justice Department likewise took a lackadaisical approach to enforcing gun crime violations. An illegal arms trafficker was arrested for buying and selling dozens of guns using a fake ID. He faced 55 counts that could have landed him in jail for decades. Shockingly, the Obama Justice Department offered an incredible sweetheart plea deal. In return for a single guilty plea, federal prosecutors dismissed the remaining 54 counts and asked the federal judge to sentence the arms trafficker to just one year of probation. The judge agreed and the arms trafficker walked free.
Perhaps one of the greatest proliferation of illegal firearms to violent criminals that had very deadly consequences was the Fast & Furious gun walking scandal. Engineered by the Obama administration in November 2009, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) authorities directed licensed firearms dealers in Arizona to sell guns illegally to straw purchasers.
The Obama administration repeatedly denied the existence of the program until government documents proved otherwise. The Justice Department claimed the goal was to track weapons purchases to locate drug cartel members. But the department never actually tracked the purchases.
The 2011 discovery of ATF correspondence indicated Obama administration intentions to use the illegal sales as a pretext for further gun sales restrictions. In other words, it was a false flag operation.
According to a Department of Justice Inspector General investigation, the scandal put about 2,000 firearms, including about three-dozen .50 caliber rifles, “capable of stopping a car or shooting down a helicopter,” into the hands of Mexican drug gangs. More than 300 Mexican citizens were killed by Fast & Furious weapons, including Maria Susan Flores Gamez (“Miss Sinaloa”). A Fast & Furious gun was also used to kill US Border Patrol officer Brian Terry.
Another of the Fast & Furious firearms was used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 and injured more than 400. It was the worst attack on French soil since the end of World War II.
In June 2012, US Attorney-General Eric Holder became the first sitting presidential cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress for his role in the cover-up of the Fast & Furious scandal by withholding incriminating government documents. The Department of Justice refused to enforce the contempt order.
As an aside, Obama’s claim that he wanted to reduce the proliferation of firearms was curious considering he sold more than twice as many weapons abroad during his presidency than did his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was funding wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, at the time. “[T]he Obama administration authorized over $278 billion worth of arms sales—more weapons than any president has let loose into the world since World War II,” according to Law and Crime.
Former Secretary of State and two-time presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has weighed in on the gun debate dozens, if not hundreds, of times. Recently, she tweeted “No one actually needs an AR-15.” Her comments were ironic considering she has lifetime Secret Service protection from a law enforcement agency whose weaponry reportedly includes several variants of automatic-fire machine guns.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, California) is best known as one of the architects of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Among the 1994 act’s many provisions was banning certain firearms, expanding use of the death penalty, and codifying a “three strikes” rule that imposed a mandatory life sentence after the commission of a third felony.
According to her official website, Feinstein “has long advocated for commonsense laws to reduce gun violence. Most notably, she achieved passage of the landmark, federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994 and has advocated for its reinstatement since it expired in 2004.” Since first elected to the Senate in 1992, Feinstein has introduced several bills to restrict gun ownership and increase penalties for gun-related crimes.
Despite her longtime goal of restricting gun ownership, many found it hypocritical California’s senior senator has a concealed carry permit. She is unapologetic about her concealed carry weapon stating, “I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that’s what I did. I was trained in firearms. I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon and I made the determination if somebody was going to try and take me out I was going to take them with me.”
Many gun control advocates argue personal ownership of firearms is unnecessary because armed police are available for personal safety and criminal response. But how does that square when some of the same advocates call to defund or abolish the police?
Representative Cori Bush (Democrat, Missouri) has repeatedly called for defunding police departments. "So suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen," she has said. Yet, as of mid-2022, Bush spent more than $300,000 for a private security detail. When asked how she can reconcile calling to abolish police protection while hiring private security, Bush replied, “I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been vocal regarding gun crimes in her crime-ridden city of Chicago. She blames neighboring states for the city’s dramatic rise in crime. She claims, “We are being inundated with guns from states that have virtually no gun control, no background checks, no ban on assault weapons.” While the Chicago Police Department is plagued with a shortage of more than 1,100 police officers, Lightfoot has a police security detail of 91 officers dedicated to her, her office, and her home.
Chicago has one of the nation’s highest violent crime rates, including murder rate. The city has a shortage of more than 1,100 police officers. Yet, the mayor has a ridiculous number of officers assigned to her. Their responsibilities have included shooing away protesters from near her home.
California state Senator Leland Yee (Democrat, District 8) was an anti-gun crusader in public. In private, he was complicit in illegal gun sales, gun trafficking, and he claimed he had a connection who could acquire automatic weapons.
After he was arrested, Yee pleaded guilty to his gun crimes. He was released from federal prison in 2020 after serving four years of his five-year prison sentence.
In January 2012, San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was arrested on domestic violence battery, child endangerment, and dissuading a witness charges. The judge ordered Mirkarimi to surrender the three personal firearms he possessed. The possession of three guns raised eyebrows since Mirkarimi was a longtime gun ban proponent and an advocate for civilian disarmament.
In a plea deal, Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment and was permitted to remain in office as the San Francisco sheriff.
Michael Bloomberg was a private gun ownership critic when he was the New York City mayor. As a private citizen, he has become prolific in funding anti-gun candidates for elected office. While Bloomberg was heavily criticized for “buying votes” for office (he spent $174 for each vote received in his 2013 mayoral reelection effort), there has not been the same criticism for his buying votes for anti-gun candidates.
As a private citizen, Bloomberg employs a heavily armed private security detail because he believes his life has greater worth than others. In response to the question of how he can justify his armed guards carrying some of the same weapons he wants to ban, Bloomberg replied, ““Does your life matter more than mine or my family’s or these people’s?”
Bloomberg brought along his contingent of armed guards during a trip to Bermuda, which has banned private gun ownership.
Then-Representative Gabby Giffords (Democrat, Arizona) was severely wounded in a 2011 shooting spree by a left-wing lunatic who killed six others. Three months earlier Giffords posed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle during her reelection campaign.
After her shooting, Giffords had a change of attitude toward guns. It’s an understandable emotional response. Like someone who was bitten and is now afraid of dogs. Or a child who hates clowns after a bad experience.
Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, who would win a special election to the US Senate in 2020, founded an anti-gun group, Americans for Responsible Solutions. Giffords, Kelly and their organization had lobbied to limit the sale of AR-15s and high capacity magazines. But hypocrisy reared its ugly head in the Giffords-Kelly household.
In March 2013, just weeks after founding their anti-gun group, Kelly quietly visited an Arizona gun store to buy a 45-caliber pistol, an AR-15 and high-capacity magazines. Someone took a photo as Kelly was filling out the paperwork. Kelly fled the store before he finished completing the Federal Form 4473 and NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System).
After the story broke of the attempted purchase, Kelly made the preposterous claim he was going to buy the AR-15 for the sole purpose of turning it in to the Tucson police department. He also falsely implied he completed the background check paperwork when he hadn’t. Days later, Kelly changed his story and released a video he claimed he made prior to the purchase in which he vowed he would demonstrate how easy it was to purchase a firearm.
However, Kelly’s fleeing the gun store after his photo was taken suggests the video excuse was concocted afterward to explain away his hypocrisy. In any case, the gun dealer canceled the sale because Kelly had not completed the paperwork and because his public comments contradicted statements he made on the Federal Form 4473, which he had to certify were true.
Celebrities have played the anti-gun hypocrisy card. Admittedly, it is reasonable to allow some latitude to actors whose creative endeavors do not match their personal values. But there are also actors who refuse to play certain roles because those roles disagree with their personal values.
Rapper and gun control advocate Eminem has been arrested three times on gun-related charges. Country singer Shania Twain, who signed a 1999 letter demanding additional gun ownership restrictions, hired “several armed security guards” for her 2011 beach wedding in Puerto Rico.
Sylvester Stallone, whose career was built largely on roles as a gun-toting hero, advocated for authorities to go “door to door” [and] “take[s] every handgun.” Another Hollywood actor whose films feature blazing guns and piles of bodies is Arnold Schwarzenegger who said, “I’m for gun control.”
Canadian actor Jim Carrey who has taken a strong anti-gun stand, but employs armed security, justifies his hypocrisy by claiming, “No one in my employment is allowed to carry a large magazine.”
Alec Baldwin has been a critic of the National Rifle Association for several years. Perhaps if Baldwin had taken one of the NRA’s gun safety training courses, he wouldn’t have shot two people, and killed the cinematographer on his movie set.
Hollywood gadfly Michael Moore is a staunch advocate of gun control. He has gone so far as to suggest that merely owning a firearm is racist. But in 2005, Moore’s personal bodyguard, Patrick Burke, was arrested at New York’s JFK Airport for carrying an unlicensed handgun.
Meanwhile, there has been a chasm of sorts among NAACP senior leadership regarding firearms and the defund the police movement. Despite pressure to do so, President Derrick Johnson did not endorse calls for defunding the police. However, Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has been very vocal about defunding the police. Ifill said, “[W]e need to look at that funding, reduce that funding, and use it to support these other services." Ifill was reportedly on President Joe Biden’s shortlist as a nominee to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Defunding law enforcement is an odd position for a senior NAACP official to take considering the NAACP organized armed private citizens (both black and white) to guard black-owned Minneapolis businesses during the June 2020 rioting when law enforcement was overwhelmed.
Of note, Ida B. Wells, co-founder of the NAACP in 1909, wrote that bearing arms helped save the lives of black men. In 1892, she wrote, “[T]he only case where the proposed lynching did not occur, was where the men armed themselves … and prevented it. The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.”
Mark Hyman is an Emmy award-winning investigative journalist. Follow him on Twitter, Gettr, and Parler at @markhyman, and on Truth Social at @markhyman81.
His books Washington Babylon: From George Washington to Donald Trump, Scandals That Rocked the Nation and Pardongate: How Bill and Hillary Clinton and their Brothers Profited from Pardons are on sale now (here and here).