Don’t look now, but the gun lobby is at it again. This time, they’ve turned the tables against one of their own.
Current Events :
Cole Wist was once a revered Republican state House member in Colorado. He also enjoyed a Grade A rating from the NRA. So, why did the NRA suddenly turn on the state congressman and actively work against him to oust him from politics? It’s because the congressman dared to propose a commonsense gun law to prevent the mentally unstable from being able to buy guns and kill kids and others — and the gun lobby didn’t like it. THAT’S why!
In 2018, Rep. Wist sponsored a red flag bill that would have allowed guns to be taken away — at least temporarily — from those who posed an immediate threat to themselves and/or others. He came up with the idea after a mentally ill man in his Denver suburb killed a sheriff’s deputy. However, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a Colorado-based gun-rights group, actively campaigned against Wist. The gun lobby organization distributed flyers to voters calling him “Cole the Mole” and even boasted to supporters that they would NEVER accept “compromise” and would forever battle to the death “the gun grabbers.”
Rep. Wist was defeated in his reelection bid, thanks to the powerful Colorado gun lobby. Interestingly, his successor, Democratic Rep. Tom Sullivan (who lost his son in the Aurora theater massacre), took up Wist’s fight and succeeded in getting the bill passed.
Since then, Wist has left the Republican Party and holds no party affiliation. His decision to divorce the GOP came after he watched the January 6th Capitol Hill insurrection — and, of course, how he has seen the continuous slaughter of young children by guns that Republicans are too afraid to regulate.
Now, a week after the massacre of 19 children and 2 adults at a Texas elementary school, Wist is speaking out about the challenges ahead to successfully enact gun reform.
“Every time we have an incident like this (the Texas school shooting), people tend to go into their camps,” Wist said. “That’s the reason I decided to sponsor legislation relating to extreme risk protection orders.”
The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners threatened “that you either stay in line and vote the party line on this issue, or they will remove you. And that’s what they did,” Wist added. “They targeted me or targeted my race for campaign activity and actively worked against me. … They put flyers on people’s doors, including my own door, and used their resources to campaign against me.
“I was the assistant minority leader in the state House at that point. There was an effort to strip me of that leadership post. That effort failed,” Wist continued. … “I introduced a bill that was very controversial. In those circles, even being open to conversations about gun policy or gun safety legislation creates risk for folks in Republican circles here. So, if your objective is to stay in office for a long time and continue to get reelected … you don’t cross that line.”
The former congressman did cross the line in the interest of saving lives and preventing those who should never own a gun from ever obtaining one. Regrettably, he paid the ultimate political price and the Colorado gun lobby took him down for it. Now, they’re bragging about their prized “kill.”
On Friday, a spokesperson for the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners called Wist “a sellout” and claimed the organization had no choice but to work against him.
“At the end of the day, my goal is to hold politicians accountable regardless of whether they’re a Republican or a Democrat,” RMGO Executive Director Taylor Rhodes said. “We protect everything in our nation that’s valuable with guns. We protect our banks with guns, courthouses … our homes. We protect them with guns.”
Cole Wist is only 1 of possibly hundreds of lawmakers from across the country who desperately want and have tried to prevent guns from falling into the hands of the wrong people and from more kids being killed. However, the gun lobby groups are — at this very moment — raising millions of dollars to continue to take down those they consider to be “the gun grabbers.”
OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
The Gun Lobby fight to keep guns everywhere.
This story proves Repubs are scared of the NRA. One Repub tried to change things but got shot down so fast nobody else would try again. But my question is why are they protecting assault guns like the one killing these kids at school? They cannot say hunting because these type guns would tear a deer head off its body. There is no reason anybody needs a gun like this. But the minute somebody mentions it they are ready to fight. This makes no sense.