Mike Durant is hoping to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate, but the Republican candidate hit a snag recently concerning his 2A bona fides.
During a speech Durant made in 2011 at the U.S. Army War College, the former helicopter pilot, who was the subject of the movie “Blackhawk Down,” spoke about the complexities of stabilizing a war-torn region like Mogadishu, Somalia in the early ‘90s.
“From a military perspective, the first thing that needs to be done is to disarm the population,” Durant said in the speech. “Let’s face it, if we could do that in some of our U.S. cities, that would be a pretty good step toward law and order.”
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“But do you ever ask yourself why we don’t do it here? Because it’s hard. It can result in rioting and widespread rebellion and making the situation worse than it already is,” he continued. “But for some reason, we sort of hand-wave all that stuff and go ahead and hand those missions down to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. That’s what happens here (in Somalia).”
Opponents of Durant criticized him for being pro confiscation here in the U.S. But in a recent radio interview, the retired Army aviator clarified his remarks.
“It’s mischaracterized,” Durant told former Republican state Sen. Phil Williams on his Rightside Radio show.
“I’m absolutely pro-2nd Amendment. I’ve been a hunter my whole life. I’ve got my own collection of weapons. It pales in comparison to some of the folks’ collections that I’ve seen. But I certainly do have one. I was an attack helicopter pilot in special aviation operations. I shoot more rounds every month than most people shoot in their lives. This is just typical. If this is the best you can do, (my opponents) dig up something from 10 years ago that wasn’t really what I was saying, I guess it’s part of the game. It’s really meaningless,” he explained.
Durant indicated that those who accuse him of being anti-gun have totally missed the mark, and that the point he was making was about the trouble that comes with going door to door to seize weapons from citizens.
“What I always try to do at that point in the presentation is explain to people that if you actually tried to do this, go house to house weapons search and seizure, which is what was going on in Mogadishu at the time, you are going to end up creating more trouble than you are probably bargaining for,” Durant said. “In the case of Somalia, 24 Pakistanis were slaughtered in the street when they ran across the wrong group of people.
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“So, I’m not condoning it. In fact, I’m arguing against it, that it really isn’t a smart tactic – certainly not when you’re outnumbered like we were there. We only had 1,500 Americans in a city of 800,000 people. That’s basically ingredients for disaster. That’s the whole point of that part of the conversation. It’s being misrepresented. There’s no way I’m anti-2nd Amendment. I don’t know what else to say. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
Durant makes a solid point that door-to-door confiscation is hard. One can argue that it’d be damn near impossible here in the U.S. Which is why those who are actively anti-gun don’t often advocate for it.
Well, maybe with the exception of Beto O’Rourke. But even he even walked back his “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” remarks not too long ago in his own pursuit of elected office. O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas.
Most gun banners understand that the best way to disarm Americans is via death by 1,000 cuts. That is to say, incrementally. Between “ghost gun” bans and red flag laws and criminalizing private transfers, the gun prohibition lobby is playing the long game. As always, it’s up to us — and politicians like Mr. Durant, if he is true to his word — to stop it.
Don’t feel bad bama, we too have a gun grabber in uniform named greitens who’s trying for senate
Don’t let em pass go.
I notice he says he is a hunter and always was a hunter. But the 2nd was not written about hunting. it was written about tyranny and the right to defense. he doesn’t say anything about that.
Just say no Alabama, to this clown!
He was trained by the US Army. The Army sees anyone with a gun as a threat. So does Law Enforcement. So does every Federal Agent.
Durant got caught. Now hes saying we misunderstand what he said.
I heard him loud and clear. Disarm civilians.
Nobody in Somalia asked for US troops, and there was no strategic reason for US troops to be in Somalia. Durant doesn’t understand the constitution in more ways than just the Second Amendment.
The USA has combat troops stationed in close to 80 countries. That is patently ridiculous, and an example of the egregious disrespect that US officials and the misnamed DoD has for the US taxpayers.
The disarmament of the US population will NOT be accomplished by door-to-door confiscation. Once digital IDs and a digital currency is rolled out, your monies will be frozen until you comply and turn in your firearms to the proper authorities.
The US government has been illegally collecting gun purchase information for years.
I live in Alabama and he just lost my vote, and tens of thousands of more people that live in alabama like me.
He will not have my vote!
“I’m absolutely pro-2nd Amendment. I’ve been a hunter my whole life.”
That there is a tell tale Demon talking point
during election time.
It’s obvious that several of my fellow commenters didn’t read the entire article – people should read more than just the headline and first paragraph.
It’s disappointing, but this is the problem. You have a guy like Mike Durant who apparently is an avid shooter, and who wants to run for office as a Republican. All other things being equal, you’d think you could trust him to understand the Constitution. But he obviously doesn’t.
It’s not the “first thing you do is to disarm the populace” quote that’s problematic here. It’s what follows. “But do you ever ask yourself why we don’t do it here? Because it’s hard, it can result in widespread rebellion and make the situation worse than it already is,’ he continued.”
NO, Mr. Durant. The reason we don’t do it here isn’t because it might make the situation worse or cause “widespread rebellion”. The reason we don’t do it here is because our Constitution prohibits it. Period. We have a God-given right to defend ourselves and our Constitution absolutely prohibits the government from infringing on that right. That you might find a way to confiscate firearms — even if a majority of a population (of Chicago, or Seattle maybe) was in favor of it, DOES NOT mean that you can do it. I have a constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms and even if I’m the only person in my city or state — or the country — who wants to and is in favor of it, the government must leave me alone.
Mr. Durant is lucky I live in Ohio. If he was running where i am, he’d be out my vote — for any office anywhere, ever.
Excellent reply and right on. The only thing “Durante” is correct about is the 10,000 cuts idea, and that all started in 1934 with the NFA. Look how that has morphed now into triggers being turned into machineguns. Constitutionally speaking , the ATF shouldn’t even exist, and, not that I’d want masses running around with machineguns, if a responsible person wants one, they should be able to obtain one. Look at the recent sacremento shooting, those criminals supposedly had one. As usual, the criminals could care less about the law. If someone is willing to kill, do you think they care about any laws. So this leaves it for the ATF to pick on and at those who are left, those people with morales and respecting of reasonable laws. No gun laws are constitutionally reasonable. See tactical civics for more insight.
Only one candidate in the race who has defended the right to keep and bear arms mins after someone tried to kill him. That man is Mo Brooks. Durant can take his liberal out of state pac money and pound sand.
He’s a politician! Enough said!!
He just lost my vote. He pulled a politicians answer on that one when presented with his actual comments. Avoided the fact he actually said this:
“Let’s face it, if we could do that in some of our U.S. cities, that would be a pretty good step toward law and order.”
Shall Not Be Infringed!
Another Beto. Don’t trust this guy.
Mr. Durant is unfit for public office as a Republican and defender of the US Constitution. He is without a doubt a RINO, and he will do all he can to enact gun confiscation if elected. Make no mistake his speech at the War College was a preamble to his true intentions, which is to confiscate every firearm from every American they can. It is truly sad to see someone use his service to our country, only to attempt to undermine the very Constitution he swore to protect and defend.
I thank Mr Durant for his service.
However, I don’t think he can be trusted to suport and defend the 2nd amendment of our constitution after making that statement! We don’t need any more RINO Republicans!
As a pro gun voter, and as of now undecided political party officiation, I have watched the video and read Mr. Durant’s answer to the question and he appears to be sincere. I will preface my statement by saying “all politicians are crooked and looking out for their best interests”. I will more than likely vote for Mr. Durant but he will be watched and judged on his actions not his words. We all agree a person can and usually does say one thing and does another! However, it is up to this man to prove by his actions that he is sincere and not a “politician”……..yes that was said with a snear and loathing tone. Mr. Durant if you or your people read this, please be a true spoken and solid of deed politician! Don’t be the typical two faced forked tongue politician that is the norm in today’s society.
I agree with John Ennis. Wish more level-headed-don’t-jump-to-accusation type people would speak up. I agree that many liberals (and even conservatives) are vocal about increased gun control, but to assume that Mr. Durant’s words are a rallying cry to take away guns is short-sighted. Honestly, I don’t think Mr. Durant’s words made any sense, and he completely lost his attempt to get his point across. And he’s correct, if government tried to take guns away in this country, your darn right there’d be rioting in the streets. BTW, Mr. Durant is a true American hero and served this country with honor—-but that does automatically give him the credentials to be a good public servant. Hope this was a lesson for him—every word a politician speaks can be cherry-picked to death and be vigorously used against him/her because our society has lost it’s civility toward one another.
In today’s world, to give any politician the benefit of the doubt, is a fatal mistake. How do you think we got where we are now. Politicians in general are sociopaths. Politics is a great place for these people because they can do just about anything, especially the gateway things like lying, and there are NO consequences. A person’s historical statements are very important, due to the well known progression of words, thoughts, actions, and lifestyle…
“I wasn’t talking about disarming Americans (even though I explicitly mentioned disarming American cities), I was talking about what we were doing in Mogadishu (even though that’s not something that was ever done in Mogadishu)
Dude has no integrity and is lying to save his political career.
I agree 100%.