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Savor the Richly Deserved Defeat of Feinstein's 'Assault Weapon' Ban
Reason ^ | March 19, 2012 | Jacob Sullum

Posted on 03/19/2013 4:12:39 PM PDT by billorites

Yesterday Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed that her "assault weapon" ban will not be part of the gun control bill that Senate Democrats plan to offer next month. Although her bill still can be offered as an amendment, Politico reports, "its exclusion from the package makes what was already an uphill battle an almost certain defeat." At the risk of reading too much into this delightful development, I count it as a victory not just for the Second Amendment but for rationality in lawmaking.

As a comparison of the testimony pro and con readily reveals, supporters of Feinstein's bill never offered a plausible, let alone persuasive, explanation for the distinction she drew between the guns she deemed "legitimate" and the dreaded "assault weapons" she sought to ban. The closer you looked at the bill, the less sense it made, a fact that Feinstein tried to paper over by encouraging people to conflate semi-automatic, military-style rifles with the machine guns carried by soldiers. That flagrant fraud sufficed to win passage of the federal "assault weapon" ban that expired in 2004 (which was also sponsored by Feinstein), and it continues to influence public opinion. But this time around it was not enough to obscure the absurdity of Feinsten's attempt to distinguish between good and evil guns by reference to irrelevant features such as barrel shrouds and adjustable stocks. With no evidence or arguments to offer, Feinstein despicably invoked dead, "dismembered" children in a transparent bid to short-circuit logical thought. Her appeal to blind fear was familiar to anyone who has watched this authoritarian centrist rail against mythical drugs or kowtow to the national security state. I savor her richly deserved defeat.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; gunsfeinstein; secondamendment
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To: billorites
I won't be savoring anything.

Fine-swine was just a designated foil to make the Demonic-rats' other only slightly less horrible plan look better. (We might find out that it's really worse, while our guard is down.)

I can't believe all these conservatives are falling for it.

21 posted on 03/19/2013 4:33:57 PM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: billorites

And while people savor the bad evil AW ban defeat, more lesser restrictions get put in place.

Sometimes I think people enjoy being stupid.


22 posted on 03/19/2013 4:34:03 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: SIDENET
Feinstein didn't think it was a decoy. She wants it so bad you can hear her teeth grind at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue.

If she could she'd ban guns for everybody but Democrats in the Senate, and not all of them either.

23 posted on 03/19/2013 4:35:12 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

True. And when she has her Wellstone moment, watch the push to “Do it for Diane”.

Bank on it.


24 posted on 03/19/2013 4:36:41 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: skeeter

Seems like the old nasty ones live the longest. She ran ahead of Caliph Baraq by 3+ points in Cali in 2012 so likely in for life. Maybe she’ll be the first Senator to break 100 in office.


25 posted on 03/19/2013 4:36:55 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: skeeter

——At 80 years old she’d better hurry up———

Is she 80?


26 posted on 03/19/2013 4:37:19 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....The fairest Deduction to be reduced is the Standard Deduction)
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To: billorites

not so fast, the UN small arms treaty conference convened YESTERDAY.

They are under a HUGE push to sneak this through. The AWB would go in place and bypass the usconstution via treaty. (yes, there is a treaty that allows an unrejected but signed treaty to stand as if signed binding the USA)


27 posted on 03/19/2013 4:38:04 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

You post.

My head.

:O


28 posted on 03/19/2013 4:38:11 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

after 20 years she still does not understand the duties and powers of the three branches of gov.


29 posted on 03/19/2013 4:38:44 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: ez
Democrat insiders say the universal background check, supported only by Democrats, will not head to the floor either.

I remember a ton of assurances that Obamacare wouldn't pass, too.

Anyway, that damn UN Small Arms Treaty is back again, and Obama is going all out on it.

30 posted on 03/19/2013 4:38:53 PM PDT by SIDENET
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To: Norm Lenhart

The “assault weapon ban” was the red cape distracting
us from the sword of “universal background checks” being
plunged into our heart.

Trust no liberal.


31 posted on 03/19/2013 4:39:06 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: bert

79 going on 80.


32 posted on 03/19/2013 4:39:30 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: ez
"Democrat insiders say the universal background check, supported only by Democrats, will not head to the floor either."

Well, not today perhaps.

This has been a constant battle since I was a child. Certainly been going on largely nonstop since at least 1968.

I want to say that I believe in the good judgment of the American electorate. Mostly I do.

33 posted on 03/19/2013 4:40:12 PM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: Norm Lenhart

When Feinstein finally flips over with her arms and legs in the air like a dead cockroach, I’m going to that party !


34 posted on 03/19/2013 4:40:20 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: billorites
NOW is the time to really nail their hides to the wall.

This time they pretty much took off the gloves & showed us what they plan for us...with few exceptions, total disarmament.

I dont think DHS is breathing a sigh of relief saying
"guess we wont need those 1.6 billion rounds, 2700 MRAP's & 7000 full-automatic rifles"
35 posted on 03/19/2013 4:40:33 PM PDT by 45semi (A police state is always preceded by a nanny state...)
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To: Tench_Coxe

That could lend itself to not just confiscation, but total destruction of people’s property; arrest, etc.

I sure don’t trust these people. They thought when Obama got elected they would have carte blanche and be able to do all this stuff. After all, we are just the stupid people and only they know best.

With this pushback, I think they’re running scared and I think they see the writing on the wall for 2014 - meaning, they won’t be able to take back the House .. and we will be able to take back the Senate. Then, Obama is done!!


36 posted on 03/19/2013 4:40:36 PM PDT by CyberAnt ("America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth" (in spite of BO))
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To: billorites

I suspect Feistein’s ban was designed to fail from the outset. Sort of like a good cop bad cop strategy to gun control. We will make you feel so relieved that Feinstein’s ban isn’t passed that you will accept with relief whatever we do pass.


37 posted on 03/19/2013 4:40:44 PM PDT by fso301
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To: muawiyah

That’s so wasis!

Especially considering that my scary gun is tan.

You know I found it just astounding that they attempted to define what an assault weapon is by way of defining its furniture and various accessories such as the flash hider.

I mean a telescoping stock? A pistol grip? A barrel shroud that allows the operator to hold the barrel without being burned?

Madness, absolute madness.


38 posted on 03/19/2013 4:41:21 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: muawiyah

Get me a ticket. I want to go for all the landuse restrictions/destruction she did to Off-Roading in Cali too.

So many points of evil from the mind of that communist....


39 posted on 03/19/2013 4:43:28 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: billorites

We will not make any headway until we push back against the gains they made in 1968 and 1994. It is not enought to stop them, we must take back past infringements. We can start by REPEALING the failed Gun Free School Zones Act aka Free School Killing Zone Act.


40 posted on 03/19/2013 4:44:17 PM PDT by ez (Laws only apply to little people. Criminals, politicians, and newsies are exempt.)
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