‘Defund’ movement out of step, Griffin says
The national debate over police practices has highlighted the existential imperative of protecting the right to bear arms, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin told the state chapter of a Second Amendment advocacy group.
The two-term Republican who’s running for governor in 2022 said calls to redirect resources from policing to social services has elevated the importance of the right to own firearms.
“So the people that said only the police should have guns are now the people saying the police are racist and should be defunded,” he said at Thursday’s 2A Women’s luncheon honoring the Oklahoma legislators who helped pass the country’s first ban on red flag laws, or extreme risk protection orders, that allow firearms to be taken from people with histories of violence, drug and alcohol abuse
or mental illness. “It just makes no sense.”
Griffin said the movement for police reforms is out of step with most people’s belief systems, a disharmony that gives him solace.
“Here’s the good news: That’s not mainstream America,” Griffin, a former federal prosecutor and two-term congressman representing central Arkansas, said. “Most of the folks in this country, regardless of background, or color, creed, don’t believe that way. These are people on the fringe. They do not represent any sort of serious conversation in this country.
“To be frank, we shouldn’t spend too much time on them, because they are very much, loud, yes, but very much a tiny group of people who do not deserve a seat at the table and do not deserve too much of our energy. I don’t meet hardly anybody anywhere who agrees with that message.”
Griffin, who told the group he owns many firearms, including an assault rifle, said he’s also taken solace from conversations with neighbors who have expressed readiness to exercise their Second Amendment rights in defense of family and property. That freedom has assumed a heightened urgency amid unrest Griffin said has given him an “unease” about the safety of him and his family.
“I can’t remember feeling so concerned, real genuine concern about safety for my kids and my family I don’t think I ever felt until this year, until the last three weeks,” he said. “… Two and a half weeks ago, I’m calling around and I find this neighbor is ready to protect their homes, and this neighbor is ready to protect their homes.
“I start to think this is unique to our country. We have this capacity, constitutionally guaranteed, that other countries don’t. The founders knew what they were talking about. Different threats, different times, but they knew.”
Griffin said groups such as 2A Women advocate for more than owning a firearm for recreation or enjoyment. They’re lobbying for the right to secure basic freedoms, he said.
“The Second Amendment, lest we forget, is not just for target practice and shooting,” he said. “The Second Amendment is a real practical, critical part of securing and maintaining our freedom. Not just against the government in the middle of a revolution, like we had against the British. I’m talking about your daily lives.
“What you stand up for is not just some club, a group of hobbyists who have a little club because they collect guns. You are actually standing up for a critical part of living in this country and defending what we hold dear.”
2A Women said it’s the counterweight to Moms Demand Action, the nonprofit advocating for gun safety laws. The event it held Thursday included Cleburne County Sheriff Chris Brown, who came to prominence after vowing not to enforce red flag laws in his jurisdiction.
“As a last resort, as a sheriff, all of our jobs in this room is to stand between the citizens in the counties that we serve and you the government,” Brown said, recounting comments he made to a White House domestic policy adviser during a law enforcement conference last year in Washington D.C. “We will not be the enforcement arm of unconstitutionality.”