The political far left and wealthy elites are very much alike in that they have a “need to control,” and they do not like gun owners because “we can take care of ourselves.”
That was the message from Rick Patterson, executive director of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI), who spoke over the weekend at the 34th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix. He also warned that the far left “will say or do anything to win.”
“These far left activists; they have a need to control,” Patterson explained to a jammed room of Second Amendment activists from across the country. “That’s fundamental to what they’re trying to accomplish. They’re angry, we scare them. We can take care of ourselves. We can protect ourselves. We can provide food for ourselves. We are self-supporting. We do not need the systems, the institutions that they’re comfortable with. This whole issue really boils down to whether you trust individuals or do you trust institutions.”
The far left may have a big problem with Arizona, then. According to the latest data from that state’s Department of Public Safety there are now 346,927 active concealed carry licenses in the state. Arizona is one of several “constitutional carry” states where no permit or license is required to carry a sidearm openly or concealed. Many people attending the conference were visibly armed.
The conference, according to Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, was viewed by more than 100,000 people thanks to live streaming on the SAF Facebook page. The conference agenda filled all of Saturday and half of Sunday.
Patterson was one of the first speakers, and he discussed the similarities between the far left and the “elites” who are part of “Civil Society,” which is defined as a “third sector of society, along with government and business, and its involvement in the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty process. The U.N. definition of Civil Society might be an eye-opener.
“It comprises civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations,” according to the U.N. definition. “The UN recognizes the importance of partnering with civil society, because it advances the Organization’s ideals, and helps support its work.”
“They want us co-dependent on their institutions,” Patterson explained. “As long as we have firearms we aren’t.”
This mentality seems to be a common denominator, and there are other traits that do not bode well for the citizen activist supporting Second Amendment rights.
“They are intolerant of differences,” Patterson said. “There is no compromise in their approach. They will take little by little by little, but there is no compromise and we know what their end game is. And thank goodness for Beto (O’Rourke) making that abundantly clear and bringing that out into the light.”
Since the Democrat presidential candidate blurted during the recent candidates’ debate his intentions to seize all semi-auto rifles, gun owners have declared the Democrat Party to be the “party of gun confiscation.” It’s a label Democrats will find uncomfortable as the 2020 election season looms.
Another thing about the Left, according to Patterson, is that “They don’t accept responsibility for their own actions. How many of the mass murders with firearms happen in gun free zones that they created? They won’t take credit for that, they won’t take responsibility for that.
“They obviously have feelings of superiority,” he said. “They obviously have all the answers. They blame law abiding citizens for problems created by murderers.”
During his presentation, Patterson expressed concerns about what he called the “militarization of the corporate world.”
“Look what corporations are getting involved with,” he observed. “It has nothing to do with their product anymore. It has to do with wealthy CEOs looking to exert power and influence beyond their companies.”
When the New York Times and other news agencies recently reported the heads of 145 corporate executives had signed a letter demanding more gun control, Patterson did some homework. He said most of the firms were small companies whose names he didn’t recognize.
“There are 18,203,000 corporations in America alone; 145 signed a piece of paper supporting gun control,” he noted. “That is not the widespread support for gun control as was portrayed. But it does represent what we see as the elite trying to control without an election.”
“The elites I refer to are the people who have money who think they have all the answers,” he added. “They think they should be controlling what you and I do. That’s the elites.”
