Posted on 11/18/2006 9:31:13 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Firearms control chief admits political radioactivity of agenda, notes United States gun law expert
Washington, DC 20036 November 17 2006
“The president of one of the nation’s leading anti-gun organizations recently admitted that the gun control lobby’s agenda is politically radioactive,” gun law expert John M. Snyder noted here today.
In an article appearing in the November 12 issue of the Los Angeles Times, Peter Wallsten and Janet Hook wrote that Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, “acknowledged that his challenge is to persuade potentially squeamish Democrats that his cause is not ‘radioactive.’”
Snyder said that “Helmke, a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana who had been defeated in his last run for public office, is trying to promote a ban on the importation, manufacture and distribution of certain semiautomatic firearms, which he and other gun grabbers refer to incorrectly as ‘assault weapons.’
“The guns Helmke and the Brady group want to ban are similar to the firearm models owned and used legitimately by millions of law-abiding American citizens.
“It’s no wonder he thinks his position is radioactive. It is. This is the ban that the Democratic majority enacted in 1994, shortly before the elections that year, the elections in which the Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in decades. It’s the ban that President Clinton blamed for the Democrats’ loss in his State of the Union Speech two months later and also more recently in his autobiography.”
Snyder pointed out that the so-called “ban” was allowed to expire after it “sunset” after 10 years but that the gun control lobby is promoting it again as a first step in its anti-gun owner legislative program. “Helmke and the others probably think that, with the Democrats back in power, they have a pretty good chance of promoting reenactment of the ban.
“However, today’s Democrats may not be as stupid as Helmke thinks they are. They probably realize that gun control was not a significant issue in the elections earlier this month. They probably also realize that other issues were determinative in the choices people made and that, even with those issues, Democrats won only by the skin of their teeth in a number of races. They may not want to be loaded down with a lot of radioactive baggage when they face the electorate again, including America’s scores of millions of law-abiding firearm owners, in just two years.”
A former NRA editor, Snyder is public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, vice president for Washington liaison of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation. He is the author of the book, Gun Saint, published by Telum Associates, LLC.
Yes, it is politically charged. And that is because real Americans are TIRED OF HAVING THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS taken away and trashed by anti-American socialists and power-mad thugs.
Glad to seethey dumped him. Now the rest of the country needs to dump him and his gun grabbing ways. Out with the trash!
"Radioactive" is a good description.
Helmke is an obnoxious pain in the ass who should be required to get a REAL job. He needs to stop pushing his Nazi, gun-grabbing agenda or he'll get his "reenactment." A "reenactment" of Concord and Lexington. This is America.
I agree that the dims probably won't push any major serious gun control issues, but I sure wish they would. I think they ought to push to ban all semi-auto handguns and long guns.
Not 15 minutes ago I watched the mailman drive off with my 2007 dues to 2nd Amendment Foundation. We're going to need all the help we can get in the very near future.
http://www.saf.org/
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005
Phone: (425) 454-7012
FAX: (425) 451-3959
To begin with, there is no place in my version of "Republican" for any gun grabber. If the Constitution bothers you, join the democrats!
That there is tagline material!
"However, today’s Democrats may not be as stupid as Helmke thinks they are"
Don't bet your life on that statement!
There is a Gun Show in Raleigh today.
Announced to my wife I was going.
She asked if it would be crowded.
I told her since the dims won the election it would be.
Little did I know.
I walked up, saw the line and estimated it would be a hour just to get a ticket and get in the door.
At least three times longer than I have ever seen.
Turned around and left. Might try tomorrow AM. Just looking anyway.
And I triple-dog-dare you to put a sign that says just that on your front lawn!
(You might as well be telling the crims in your neighborhood "come and rob me")
Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.
BTW, I want the dims to promote gun control so as to get their butts thrown out in '08.
Just what have they got in mind for us?
Gun control = steady hands and steely eyes.
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