Opinion By Larry Keane
Giffords asks supporters to “help hold the gun lobby accountable” by putting the organization in their will or designating it as a beneficiary on their retirement/life insurance plans: pic.twitter.com/JuRegGP5Wq
— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) August 29, 2023
Turns out, the stereotype of ambulance-chasing lawyers holds true at the gun control group Giffords Law Center. They just want you to hold on long enough to alter your will or living trust to fork over whatever money you won’t need in the afterlife to their favorite cause – stripping Americans of their Second Amendment freedoms.
It would be easy to miss if you’re not on the Giffords email lists. They’re not putting out reverse-mortgage-style commercials, but Rob Romano at Firearms Policy Coalition posted to X, the social media site formerly called Twitter, of his personal appeal for his money should the unfortunate happen. For him, at least. Giffords Law Center is looking to make a windfall.
The money will be surely well spent. Giffords’ solicitation claims that by putting affirmations into action, bequeathed money will “keep yourself and loved ones safe while fighting for laws, policies, and programs proven to save lives long into the future.”
Don’t think that Giffords is suddenly going to advocate for actually locking up criminals that misuse firearms, hold corrupt and soft-on-crime, George Soros-backed district attorneys accountable for turning America’s metropolitan areas into post-apocalyptic hellscapes or backing programs that actually teach firearm safety and safe firearm storage. They won’t go that far.
Giffords said in their solicitation that pledges made to Giffords Law Center will protect people and pets in donors’ lives, plan for the distribution of assets, and “help hold the gun lobby accountable.”
Safeguard the Pet (Project)
What the money will really do is line lawyers’ pockets as they drag firearm manufacturers into court over bogus claims. Giffords has a hobby-farm of lawyers and self-described “experts” that specialize in blaming firearm manufacturers for the harm caused by criminals. They use the courts to try to convince judges and juries that a firearm that was lawfully made and lawfully sold and subsequently misused by a criminal to harm someone else is somehow the fault of the manufacturer.
That’s like telling Louisville Slugger that they should have known their bats would be used to assault someone, so pay up.
It’s a long-term battle that Giffords, along with Michael Bloomberg’s-bankrolled Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady United, have waged to convince lawmakers to roll back the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). That’s the law enacted in 2005 after both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate passed with a wide bipartisan consensus, that prevents frivolous lawsuits against firearm manufacturers for the harm caused by the criminal misuse of their products by remote third parties.
Bogus Attacks
These lawsuits were never successful when they were tried in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That was also the same time when President Bill Clinton’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Andrew Cuomo, said the point of all those lawsuits wasn’t to be successful.
It was to inflict overwhelming legal costs, or “death by a thousand cuts.”
That was at the same time the Clinton administration was twisting the arms of firearm manufacturers to get them to support gun control legislation. The Federalist Society noted that then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer tried to coerce Glock into going along with gun control by offering a crime syndicate-style offer – one they couldn’t refuse. He told them to sign an agreement to cave to President Clinton’s gun control demands, and if they didn’t, AG Spitzer promised, “if you do not sign, your bankruptcy lawyers will be knocking at your door.”
These two actors, of course, later were elected governor of New York. Both Gov. Spitzer and Gov. Cuomo resigned from office for separate sex scandals.
Giffords believes it knows best what to do with your money. After all, Giffords PAC has given over $1.7 million in contributions to gun control candidates since 1990. They’ve spent nearly $3 million in lobbying efforts to force through unconstitutional gun control since 1998 and doled out $6.6 million in outside spending since 2000.
The only pets kept safe by donating money through a will are Giffords pet gun control lawyers.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
