Dear Illinois Politicians:
Remember Debra Maggart?
Probably not.
She was the chairman of the Republican Caucus in the Tennessee House.
She stiffed gun owners in Tennessee.
She then met with the wrath of gun owners in her district the next primary election.
She lost.
Is your picture the next one to go up on that billboard?
Cordially,
Illinois Gun Owners.
(Washington Post) – As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association with an “A+” rating for her voting record in the Tennessee House of Representatives, Debra Maggart never imagined that her political career would end this way.
Maggart, who chaired the Republican caucus, killed an NRA-backed bill that would have permitted Tennesseans to keep firearms in their parked vehicles wherever they went — work, school or the neighborhood bar.
Months later, Maggart was stunned to see NRA-sponsored ads on billboards in her district. Her face was next to a picture of President Obama. The ads proclaimed: “Sure, Rep. Debra Maggart Says She Supports Your Gun Rights. Of Course, He Says the Same Thing.”
The NRA threw its support behind a newcomer in the Republican primary. By summer’s end, the woman who had been one of Tennessee’s most powerful Republicans and ardent supporters of gun rights was done in by hardball tactics.
“As a pro-Second Amendment person and a life member of the NRA, I was just shocked they did this to me,” Maggart said in an interview. “They did this to send a message: ‘If you don’t do what we want, we will annihilate you.’ ”
The message has not been lost on lawmakers across the nation, including those in the U.S. Senate, where a proposal to expand background checks for gun purchases died April 17 in the face of the NRA’s staunch opposition.
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