Not content with losing its first eight games of the season (a franchise record low) or winning just seven out of its last 40 games, the San Francisco 49ers football team announced it is doubling down in its efforts to offend its fans even more grievously: On Thursday it announced that the team would be donating $500,000 to a gaggle of anti-gun groups working to ban “bump stocks,” gun suppressors, and so-called armor-piercing bullets. Nick Wagoner of ESPN delivered the news as follows: “The 49ers announced … that they are joining local and national law enforcement in signing a pledge for a ‘more understanding and safer America.’ The Niners have pledged $500,000 toward the campaign [the Pledge for a More Understanding and Safer America], which will advocate for legislation banning 'bump stocks' and other mechanisms that allow semi-automatic weapons to become automatic weapons, as well as silencers [suppressors] and armor-piercing bullets.” The coalition included left-wing, anti-gun unions, such as the San Jose Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York is attempting to repair bridges that the NFL burned with police through allowing kneeling during the National Anthem — player protests that have been intended to bring attention to the claim that blacks are being systematically murdered by police (a claim that is untrue, as studies show that compared to the percentage of violent crimes they commit, whites are more likely to be killed by police than blacks, who commit approximately seven to 10 times more violent crimes than whites, though they make up about 13 percent of the population). This donation is seen as a way to curry favor with the police in a manner that will not be attacked by black radicals. The group attempted to explain away its real purpose with astonishing hypocrisy:

The duty of law enforcement must also include actively participating in bringing our nation together and working to foster a more understanding and compassionate national dialogue around community and police officer relations.

The move is not likely to mend the league's relations with fans, though, and it's apparently not really meant to do so. York said, the Mercury News reported, about fans who support the Second Amendment: “If we’re going to move forward, we can’t worry about hurt feelings,” he said. “If we take criticism along the way, we are all willing to take criticism if we can make people safer.”

What happens next is predictable. According to Nielsen ratings, NFL game attendance nationally is off nearly 20 percent over the past two years. As Sporting News noted, “Ratings are lagging for a variety of reasons, not least [of which are] the ongoing protests during the national anthem that former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began in 2016. Fans are still angry about … what’s seen as the growing politicization of the NFL.”

There’s little doubt that the trend downward in attendance will continue, especially for the 49ers. Recently the 49ers sent out a questionnaire to its fans asking, “In terms of game day experience, how important is it that your team wins?”

Here is a professional football team with so little offense that it hasn’t won a game all season, yet it is determined to continue to offend its steadily declining number of fans by attacking their Second Amendment rights, as well.

Ironically, the move is not likely to make disgruntled players happy either, especially the likes of Colin Kaepernick. The former 49ers quarterback who started the anti-American, anti-local police kneebending movement back in 2016, was clear from the beginning precisely what this was all about: “I’ve been very clear from the beginning that I’m against systematic oppression. Police violence is just one of the symptoms of that oppression. For me that is something that needs to be addressed.” In a separate statement at the time, Kaepernick added: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.… There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

For Kaepernick this movement obviously has precious little to do with the flag or the national anthem but everything to do with the communist objective of denigrating local enforcement and replacing it with a national or federal police force. One way that Kaepernick is “addressing” the oppression he sees is by giving money from his foundation to “Assata’s Daughters,” named after Assata Shakur, who was convicted in the cold-blooded murder of a New Jersey State Trooper in the 1970s.

Assata Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron, joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a violent offshoot of the Black Panthers, in the early 1970s. Because of her radical activities, she was targeted by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program and was placed on the Bureau’s Most Wanted List. She was involved in three bank robberies, the kidnapping and murder of two drug dealers, and the attempted murder of two policemen. In May 1973, she and her brother-in-law, another BLA radical, were pulled over by two New Jersey State Troopers because of a taillight violation on the New Jersey Turnpike. The traffic stop turned into a firefight. The radicals opened fire on the troopers and in the melee that followed, Shakur grabbed one of the trooper’s firearms and fired two rounds into his head, execution-style.

Kaepernick, who has lauded mass-murdering Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and radicals of his ilk are unlikely to be put off by a donation that will — wishful thinking — supposedly help save the lives of blacks.

Image: Screenshot of 49ers logo

An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .