Backfire--Democrats discover gun control doesn't win elections.

Wall St Journal ^ | May 19, 2003

[SJackson]

It's no surprise that Republicans in Congress aren't eager to renew the ban on certain semiautomatic firearms due to expire next year. What's more interesting is why Democrats aren't raising much of a fuss about it.

Our suspicion is that the left has learned the hard way that gun control is a political loser. The first signs came in 1994, after Bill Clinton successfully urged the Democrat-controlled House and Senate to pass legislation outlawing 19 types of "assault" weapons. In November of that year, several Democrats who had supported the ban, including then-House Speaker Tom Foley of Washington, were voted out of office in the Republican sweep. Mr. Clinton later said crossing gun owners cost his party more than 20 seats. In 1995, the House voted to repeal the ban, which wouldn't even have passed without a sunset provision, but the effort died in the Senate.

[Zack Nguyen]

Politics is not religion, it is war. In religion there is only truth and heresy. In war there is only winning and losing.

I disagree. Our political positions stem from our religion, or lack thereof. Politics, may be war, but if divorce it from truth, we will find ourselves losing even if we win. It is not acceptable to win by any means necessary.

[Oberon]

It will only become contentious if the AWB renewal gets put on the radar screen because some "conservatives" are idolators who consider politics to be a religion and will settle for nothing less than dogmatic declarations by their false god in Washington.

Accuse me of idolatry at peril of your immortal soul, EPU. I know the people in Washington are all too human... that's what frightens me. And I'm not willing to let this issue drop so that those fallible humans can sleaze their way around to renewing the AWB... which is what I fully expect the congress to do, given the chance, and our president has already said he'd sign the bill if it crossed his desk.

Asking our representative to take a stand on an issue isn't too much to ask... and it's hardly a religion.

[Travis McGee]

We're winning the tactical battles (recent elections) because of the voting age demographics, and apathy of the young.

But the long term social trend is strongly against guns. Most gubmint skool ejukated folks under 30 would rather perform a homosexual act than touch an evil gun. Sooner or later, we'll be gone and they'll be the electorate.

And even before that, they'll tip the laws their way.

[AD from SpringBay]

We win.

This time. They only have to win once.

[xsrdx]

In Washington, political relevance is what matters most.

Thusly, the NRA remains the most effective progun organization in existence - not that we don't need the others to keep the objective clear.

This is a big article from WSJ, too - not some Drudge/Sierra Times/WorldNet source, this may be an indication of the way things actually are, rather than the way we might wish they were.

Don't quit b/c it ain't over yet BTTT.

[archy]

But, some gun owners would rather be a persecuted minority, for that feeds their martyr complex...

Just as some would seek compromise with an Americanized Hitler or Stalin. And convince themselves that they know what's best for everyone else.

-archy-/-

[556x45]

I dont think so. Kids are a product of what they're taught. If their only source is public school then thats the fault of gunowners. Ive yet to meet a young adult who didnt want to shoot and handle guns. Gunowners should make it their mission to educate the next generation. Why not cut these kids a break and become involved w/ them. They will likely surprise you. They can certainly live down to the low expectations demanded of them but most long to be challenged.

[jdege]

Most gubmint skool ejukated folks under 30 would rather perform a homosexual act than touch an evil gun.

You're not spending enough time with kids (or the kids I meet are unrepresentative.)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It is not acceptable to win by any means necessary.

So you object to sunsetting the AWB by simply ignoring it?

[TexasCowboy]

This issue will never be dead.
I disagree with the whole premise that gun control is simply a political tool of the Democratic Party.
I've talked to many people about gun control.
The proponents of such have one simple statement to make about guns:
"I just don't like guns!"

This is not a political tool.
This is a gut feeling, and we're not doing enough to educate people about the benefits of gun ownership and the protection of our Second Amendment inalienable right to own guns.

The answer is in education, and that requires money.
In other words, the answer is in your checkbook, not on your keyboard.

[Oberon]

All that has to happen to sunset the AWB is for it to be ignored, but that's not good enough for you, just like I said.

No, it's not, because I believe your fundamental premise is a lie. Gun owners have ignored legal issues for over a century, and the result has been invariably the same: tighter and tighter regulation. It's only in the recent years of increased political involvement by gunowners and conservatives as a whole that we have begun to see even a slowdown in the overall trend.

I can just see you dancing like a puppet at the end of the New York Times' strings every time they fabricate a story intended to divide their opponents.

Then you see what isn't there, EPU. Nor will I dance like a puppet at the end of your strings. You want me and others like me to return to the go-along, get-along days of the 70s and 80s. Who is it that you work for?

Talk about a useful idiot.

I have been polite to you; I had hoped for like treatment myself. Because that, too, is appartently too much to ask, this marks the end of my side of this conversation.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I have been polite to you; I had hoped for like treatment myself. Because that, too, is appartently too much to ask, this marks the end of my side of this conversation.

Did you have the moderator delete #24?

[Oberon]

[crickets]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Gun owners have ignored legal issues for over a century...

AWB renewal is not a legal issue, it is a legislative issue.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Very courageous.

[Oberon]

[more crickets]

[Shooter 2.5]

I don't want this thing to come close to being on the floor of the Congress or the Senate because there's always that chance we could lose.

I do think the Republican's should educate the people as to why it shouldn't be voted on. That forces the dems to explain why they want to take away the people's rights.

[c-b 1]

But the long term social trend is strongly against guns. Most gubmint skool ejukated folks under 30 would rather perform a homosexual act than touch an evil gun. Sooner or later, we'll be gone and they'll be the electorate.

If that is the case we had better get busy, it is time to replace the Soviet style Federal Education System, with one that educates rather than indoctrinates.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

You have proved my point. You approach politics like a spoiled child. If you can't have your way you grab you ball and go home.

Maybe you sbould consider growing up.