Arizona’s Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who recently reversed course on a plan to pull Nike incentives for a deal in Arizona, is now buckling to the left-wing gun control agenda. The Nike situation, was after Nike pulled the Betsy Ross flag shoes off the shelves as a result for calls from Colin Kaepernick of ‘racist’ ties to the flag.
As for the gun control situation, a recent article by Breitbart News reports that Doug Ducey is pushing for a ‘red flag’ law, and using a Never Trumper named David French to bolster his reasoning. Here is a piece, written by French almost exactly one year ago, where he still labels himself a Never Trumper. An excerpt where he mentions ‘fellow Never Trump Republicans’ can be found here.
The ‘STOP’ or “Severe Threat Order of Protection” law that Ducey has been pushing since last year, is packaged up as a school safety initiative but actually falls closer to a red flag law. Red flag laws, while often well-intentioned, are severe violations of the second amendment and any GOP official worth his or her salt should know better than to push something like that on the American people.
From Breitbart:
Breitbart News reached out to Ducey’s office for comment on his support of Red Flag Laws and a member of his media/communications team responded by showing us that Never Trumper David French supports the gun control push. They sent us a quote from French, in which he described Ducey’s gun control as “perhaps the most intelligent policy response to school shootings (and, honestly, mass shootings more generally) that [he has] ever read.”
David French, one of the original Never Trumpers who neo-con Bill Kristol actually tried to recruit to run for president against Trump in 2020 and also in a Tweet in 2016.
SEE TWEET FROM @BillKristol BELOW:
Ducey has a history of flip-flopping on his views. In 2017 he signed a pro-gun law banning background checks on private gun sales. He seems to be developing a pattern of being a flake and it’s certainly going to be interesting how much longer Arizona Republicans support him.
At the end of the Breitbart article cited earlier, an update to the original write up, a spokesman for Ducey cites an NRA official’s support for this gun control measure. Many gun enthusiasts and Republicans may be starting to question the NRA’s credibility though, after recent bump stock bans supported by the NRA.
Also from Breitbart:
UPDATE JULY 28, 2019, 2:30 p.m. ET:
Governor Ducey’s spokesman Patrick Ptak provided an additional quote citing NRA support for the measure as well.
“There’s a reason why NRA’s Arizona director has said this ‘bill would protect the rights of law-abiding Arizonans,’” Ptak said in an emailed statement. “It ensures due process, requiring one of the highest standards of evidence from a judge: Clear and Convincing Proof. STOP orders are temporary and require law enforcement to return firearms after expiration, and the bill imposes severe felony penalties for filing false petitions.”
All this comes at a time when tensions are high about mass shootings, gun control, and political action on the two. While this is happening in Arizona, another gun debate/showdown is happening in Florida, where state Attorney General Ashley Moody is standing firm for gun rights in the face of an upcoming push to ban AR-15 style weapons.
Clearly, this isn’t an issue that’s going away anytime soon and state by state, and even on the federal level, many Republicans will have to take a stand or buckle to the gun control narrative that people who guns rights supporters see as fear-mongers think will cut down on violence across the nation.