Opinions can and should change as we learn—otherwise we are not thinking people who can adjust to the nuance inherent in different events—but fundamental truths are not political opinions. And Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) has treated a basic human freedom as a politically inconvenient position for him.
Walz, when he was a member of Congress representing a rural district in Minnesota, took pro-freedom positions; as a result, he received “A” ratings from the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF). But, when he ran for governor in 2018, he turned against our natural right to defend our lives.
“As a member of Congress, I support universal background check legislation, oppose conceal and carry legislation before Congress, and oppose legislation to reduce restrictions on gun silencers,” Walz wrote on Facebook in 2018.
After he was chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris (D) to run as her potential vice president, CBS News ran an article to shape Walz’s flippant treatment of this basic human right. CBS said Walz’s “strong stance on gun safety has drawn ire from the NRA,” before framing the about-face on our freedom as a smart evolution.
By “gun safety,” of course, CBS actually means gun bans and more. But it is true that Walz has drawn the ire of Americans who cherish their freedom. This is why Randy Kozuch, chairman of the NRA-PVF, released a statement calling Walz “a political chameleon” who “sold out law-abiding Minnesotans and promoted a radical gun-control agenda that emboldened criminals and left everyday citizens defenseless.”
Within days of being picked as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, a video clip of Walz in 2018 surfaced. In it, Walz says, “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.” But he didn’t “carry them in war.” He resigned from the Army National Guard just before his unit deployed to a war zone. And the firearms he would have carried if he had been deployed would not have been the semi-automatic firearms he wants to ban; they would have been capable of firing full-auto.
“I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?” asked Sen. J.D. Vance (R). “What was this weapon you carried into war? What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage.” Vance is, of course, the Republican vice presidential candidate and he was deployed in a war zone as a U.S. Marine. “I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did,” said Vance.
