The AWB renewal is up 3 votes in the Senate. If Johnson continues to refuse to vote on it, then it is up by 2. If any of Snowe, Smith, or Gregg can be switched, then it is dead (VP Cheney breaks ties in the Senate).
Also, Senator Kerry would have to show up again for it to pass...and that could be swatted down with a single filibuster. Senator Daschle is also on the spot over this vote.
So even passage in the Senate isn't assured...much less getting by the House...and if the "renewal" contains any new gun control, then President Bush will veto it.
Ergo, I don't see it being renewed.
and if the "renewal" contains any new gun control,Any and all 'infringements' on gun ownership at the federal level are clear violations of the 2nd Ammendment.
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The original colonies would not have signed onto a general (central) government compact without this protection/guarantee in place.
Each and every federal employee that promotes, proscribes, or enforces limits on any ownership of arms by 'the people' is guilty of treason at the very least, and a cheerleader at worst, for the tyranny that will undoubtably arise in the vaccum of power created as a result. Their utopian version of a 'gunless' society is without clothes.
Oak trees, lamposts, and rope are the necessary ingredients to insure that the American ideal of self-government is not hijacked by those who ignore the original intent, while mistakenly elevating themselves to the height of those who fought tyranny firsthand and, as a result, designed remedies-- before unknown, to ensure it's ugly head would not rise again on our soil.
At quick glance, our American garden is rife with weeds. Their seeds were not deliberatly planted, yet they've sprung up as one might expect when their dormancy was disturbed by a 'stirring', such as we've experienced recently in Iraq. The Victory Garden during WWII is no different from today's. What is different are the amount of weeds being tolerated.