“Reasonable” Truono Turns to Extremism

So this seems to be quite the mess. Gene Truono is a local GOP candidate for US Senate who is having a “2A” rally in August featuring:

Dick Heller -DC v Heller fame. Heller is famous for establishing legal groundwork for everyone to own a gun, not just the “well-regulated militia” part of the 2A. He is more famous for continuing to work to make it impossible for the state to regulate anything about gun ownership or usage. A specific gun extremist viewpoint, certainly undermining any claim these folks want to make about safety or responsibility.

Maj Toure — he is the founder of Black Guns Matter. Started in Philly, this is meant to work with black people to educate them on their gun rights. All I see is that he is paraded in front of alot of white NRA events to claim that they aren’t *that* white.

Mark Robinson — he’s a known conspiracy theorist — he still has birther and anti-gay claims up on his FB page — which I guess the NRA is OK with since he is a black face advocating for gun rights.

The NRA trying to add some black faces to their lineup isn’t too surprising, even though the NRA does not stand up for black people using their guns or Stand Your Ground rights lawfully. Philando Castile, Siwatu-Salama Ra, Marissa Alexander, Chris Mason (who had the cops called on him when legally trying to buy a firearm) just to start. The reason, of course, is that part of the NRA fear-mongering is specifically targeted to the racial fears of its members who buy these guns just so that they *can* shoot at the black and brown hordes. So it seems plenty odd to parade these extremists and apologists in front of below the canal audiences.

But really I just want to know how desperate Mr. Truono is that he needs to use a known anti-gay conspiracy theorist to advance his candidacy. Mr. Truono is an out gay man who must know that Mr. Robinson doesn’t respect any gay man’s humanity — but Mr. Robinson does respect the money he gets being carted around the country with his hateful message. More importantly, Delaware isn’t exactly a massive hotbed of anti-gay craziness. Why would you import that to campaign for you?

Mr. Truono is trying to position himself as a “reasonable” GOP candidate, rather than the usual ignorant and aggrieved types running now. And here he is, taking up a particularly toxic bit of the GRIFTUS’ campaign playbook.