Democrat Heidi Heitkamp won her North Dakota Senate race in 2012 with an 86% rating from the NRA. Not too shabby for a Democrat.
In 2013 shortly after arriving in office, she came under fire for voting against the Democrats’ post-Sandy Hook gun-control shenanigans, establishing her Second Amendment bona fides in the Senate and risking the wrath of the leftist gun-control celebrities. “Heitkamp cast her vote after considerable pressure from pro-gun control advocates this month.”
According to Politico, Heitkamp’s office was “flooded with calls” on the gun-control bill, “The overwhelming consensus: Vote no.”
At the time Heitkamp said, “I think I always had a reputation as somebody who will listen, somebody who is pretty independent-minded but also believes that at the end of the day, you got to listen to your constituents. In this office, the calls literally were before the last day at least 7 to 1 against that bill. This was after a series of very extensive ad campaigns done in my state saying call me and tell me to support it.”
Heitkamp says, “North Dakota has one of the highest rates of gun ownership and the lowest rate of gun violence. And I think people there look at this from the standpoint that: This is my Second Amendment right. This is part of our culture in North Dakota. And they expressed those opinions to me pretty loud and clear.”
Well, Senator Heitkamp, get ready for round two.
With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, our Second Amendment rights are in serious jeopardy. Scalia wrote the majority opinion on the milestone District of Columbia v. Heller case – the decision that reaffirmed the individual’s right to keep and bear arms. It was a 5-4 decision. Only two years later, Scalia along with Justice Samuel Alito wrote in McDonald v. Chicago that the individual right to keep and bear arms applies to all states. This, too, was another 5-4 decision.
The Second Amendment has lost its single-vote advantage.
Chris Cox of the NRA bluntly describes the urgency of the current judicial landscape: “With Scalia’s tragic passing, there is no longer a majority of support for Heller and McDonald among the justices. Four justices believe law-abiding Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense, including handguns. Four justices do not. The math is simple — and frightening. So it’s no exaggeration to say that the future of gun ownership hangs in the balance. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for example, was unequivocal in a speech to the Harvard Club in the District, saying that she looked forward to a day when a future court overturns Heller. The men and women of the National Rifle Association will not sit idly by and watch that happen.”
Obama’s choice to replace Scalia is U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Judge Merrick Garland, no friend of the Second Amendment.
“From upholding a federal registry of law-abiding gun owners derived from the instant-background-check system created by the Brady Bill to siding with the District government by voting for a do-over in a Second Amendment decision that invalidated the D.C. handgun ban — exactly what the Supreme Court rightfully struck down in Heller — Garland has proved, the NRA believes, he does not support the Second Amendment,” says Cox.
As the Democrats and the progressive political industry mobilize to pressure GOP senators like Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to hold a hearing on the “moderate” Garland, even scrounging up an opponent to threaten his re-election, it’s time to play the other side of that coin. Let us turn our attention to the Democrats who hail from pro-gun communities and find out if they are prepared to support a judicial nominee that places their constituents’ Second Amendment rights in jeopardy.
Is Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp interested in going on record before her fellow North Dakotans to support the appointment of an anti-Second Amendment Supreme Court justice? If you live in North Dakota and care about your gun rights, it’s time to call and ask her.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member