In an editorial for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Marc Dann is finally coming clean about being in the pocket of the National Rifle Association.
Campaign ActionSince the Parkland massacre, I've been asked repeatedly why politicians steadfastly oppose banning firearms that serve no other purpose than to efficiently kill innocent human beings.
I know the answer because, as an Ohio state senator and attorney general, I was in the pocket of the National Rifle Association.
Unlike other special interests that exert influence by making campaign contributions, the gun groups spend the blood money they collect from gunmakers to misinform and then motivate voters who care about a single issue: the sanctity of the Second Amendment.
Dann, whose 2006 election as Ohio attorney general remains one of the greatest political upsets in Buckeye State history, concedes he traded his soul for job security, despite knowing it was wrong.
While I didn't enter politics to be an advocate for the NRA, I quickly learned that unless I became one, I wouldn't be around to advocate for the issues I did care about. So I made a devil's bargain with myself: To stay in office, I adopted pro-gun positions that made me uncomfortable.
The bargain paid off. I was re-elected to the state senate and won an upset victory to become Ohio's attorney general in large part because the NRA and Buckeye Firearms had "educated" pro-gun voters about my unwavering commitment to the Second Amendment.
Dann, a Democrat whose father committed suicide by gun before he was ever elected to office, reveals that even his own mother was disgusted by his bending the knee to the NRA and its Ohio counterpart, the Buckeye Firearms Association. But her disapproval still wasn't enough to drag him away from the sweet smell of murder tool money.