Rolling Stone Celebrates Nearly 40 Years of Pushing Gun Control

Rolling Stone is celebrating the fact that it has been admittedly pro-gun control–and has been pushing gun control–for nearly 40 years.

The magazine’s founder, Jann Wenner, says the publication’s gun control push began following the assassination of John Lennon and has not abated. (Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980.)

Rolling Stone quotes Wenner saying, “It all started with Lennon, that tragedy. Trying to make sense of it. Or make something good come out of it.” He launched a gun control endeavor months after the assassination but all momentum soon faded. Wenner said, “It became obvious that the beginning and end of this was the NRA.”

A 1981 column by Howard Kohn then expressed the magazine’s position that the NRA was blocking gun control by impacting Congress:

Politicians fall into three groups on the gun issue. There are hardcore believers on both sides. But the majority of congressmen would appear to belong to a third group … those who don’t want to be put on the NRA’s hit list. I had an incredibly sick feeling because it hit me right between the eyes that they were absolutely sure that nothing would change.

They began to use phrases like “gun lobby” and called out the NRA by name. They believed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s 1993 gun control push could mark a change, but it did not. In fact, no matter what tactics Rolling Stone employed, the NRA “only emerged more powerful.”

For example, they tried tying gun shows to the Ku Klux Klan, and following the heinous attack on Sandy Hooky Elementary they claimed, “the NRA and gun manufacturers had joined forces, politically and financially, to block major litigation.” This argument ignores the fact that Senators–including Democrat Senators–voted the legislation down because it was focused on background checks, which had absolutely nothing to do with Sandy Hook.

Rolling Stone was banking on a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016, believing her win “might cement modest restrictions” on AR-15s–which Rolling Stone describes as “weapons bred for war.” But Clinton lost and the magazine blamed the NRA.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.