Brunswick Beacon, 09.22.22
When the Salisbury Post asked Ted Budd in 2016 why he was running for Congress, the first issue he raised was guns: “Because of what I do for a living every day, obviously the Second Amendment is going to be extremely important.”
Budd owns a gun shop/shooting range worth up to $5 million. It’s shocking but unsurprising that he ran for Congress to help his gun business.
Once elected, he voted against gun safety measures, including the Protecting our Kids Act, which required guns to be stored safely away from children; and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which funded school safety and mental health programs and was supported by 65 senators, including both North Carolina Republicans.
Budd, who got $138,364 in direct and indirect contributions from the gun lobby in 2018, says mass shootings increase gun sales. Still, he supports sanctuary resolutions prohibiting gun law enforcement.
Budd told the Salisbury Post the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment so that governments “don’t encroach on the rights of the people.” This is the crackpot “Insurrectionist Theory” claiming it was intended for armed citizens to intimidate, and, if necessary, overthrow our government. President Washington himself rejected it by leading 13,000 troops against 600 rebels to end the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
Domestic terrorists used Insurrectionist Theory to justify the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. Extremist Republicans like Budd and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson are promoting it today. Budd has campaigned with Robinson, accepted Robinson’s endorsement, and called him “a great friend, somebody that I deeply admire.”
Robinson shares Budd’s dangerous extremist insurrectionist Second Amendment views, and has spelled them out. “I got them AR-15’s in case the government gets too big for its britches. ‘Cause I’m gonna fill the backside of them britches with some lead.”
No wonder Budd protected violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists by voting against investigating them. His dangerous extremism makes him unfit for office.
Joanne Levitan
Leland