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.

[Shooter 2.5]

There have been articles every day since the dems first mentioned it even before the NRA National Convention. I think it was their first strike. They even added more guns to the list for what I see as bargaining chips.

[Badray]

" It is not necessary for Dubya to expound upon the Constiution, the Second Amendment and Patrick Henry the way some knee-jerk "conservatives" demand."

Do you really believe that we "knee jerk conservatives" should just roll over like a "lewinsky democrat" when we believe that we are about to be, uh, screwed?

The rants, the table pounding, and the threats were all necessary and appropriate. Apparently the message is getting through to ALL of these political whores.

[Pylot]

I do not believe for one second that the Dimocrats started aggressive gun control with the AWB for political reasons.

Honest American politicians have nothing to fear regarding guns.

Our founding fathers spelled out the right to keep and bear even though it was already implied in the Constitution. This was done as a means to put a not so subtle warning in place for dis honest American politicians.

The full exercise of the second amendment is the only shield for the rest of the bill of rights and the constitution itself. If you eliminate or negate the second amendment, the rest is just empty words.

My only hope that the AWB will actually sunset lies in the fact that the AWB is scheduled to do so right before the 2004 election. Dimocrats screaming to take your rights away as we lead up to the election is almost too good to be true.

I think you can watch the press act as pit terriers for the Dims as this is the only place you see the topic being raised. A couple of rabid Dims cheer and the rest of them moan and groan.

[TexasCowboy]

"I don't want this thing to come close to being on the floor of the Congress..."

Of course, I agree totally!
My point is that without organizations like the NRA we wouldn't even be having this discussion. We would have lost our guns a long time ago.
We have too many gun owners who want to keep their guns, but they won't support the organizations which make that possible.
We can write letters to our Congress critters twenty-four hours a day for a week and have less impact than one $50. check to the NRA.
They have the clout; we don't.
As always, this is not about AWB.
We all know the grand plan.

[Squantos]

IMHO we never should think or say ...."we win"........such confidence along those lines got us this POS "cosmetic gun furniture" legislation in the first place. Preservation of constitutional rights (all of em) is a life long battle to ensure they are maintained in their original condition for Americas future.

Socialist Democratic efforts to disarm is on going 24 and 7 . Using disinformational lies and manipulation of factual data with sympathetic presstitutes just interested in a story and polidiots only interested in increasing revenue by renting our RKBA's have been briefed and told to practice the fine art of "incrementalism" aka boil the frog slowly.

Recent nooooze stories from the UN point of view (more socialist welfare types) have repeated the need to take small steps with regards to gun control. Big draconian efforst to disarm even in their eyes won't work.

One story proclaiming their defeat makes me want to send out more duckets to GOA-NRA-SAS-Texas State Rifle Association-JPFO-Liberty Belles ect ect to turn up the heat on their seditious efforts.

The current singular best thing a pro second amendment individual can do today is , first, ... send an affordable amount of money to the organization of your choice to maintain their watch dog status if nothing else. Second...get a CHL or CCW permit if your state has provisions for such. Even if you have no desire to carry as your just a bird hunter ect ect...

Numbers and data with regards to armed law abidding populace is something I don't believe even the lewinsky skilled RAT's can swallow ..........Just my opinion of course.

Stay Safe !

[PatrioticAmerican]

Headfake?

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this excellent find and a common sense look at what is happening in Congress.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Do you really believe that we "knee jerk conservatives" should just roll over like a "lewinsky democrat" when we believe that we are about to be, uh, screwed?

There is no evidence that you were about to be "screwed."

But keep the AWB renewal on the radar screen and you may get your wish.

[Jesse]

"Hastert saying ANYTHING would put it on the radar screen and give the DEMONcRATS and the Liberal press a wedge issue to shriek about. "

Hastert did say something and put it back on the radar screen. He contradicted DeLay's statement that the AWB was not yet a dead issue and he hasn't yet decided on whether it will come up for a vote again.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Hastert did say something and put it back on the radar screen. He contradicted DeLay's statement that the AWB was not yet a dead issue and he hasn't yet decided on whether it will come up for a vote again. Good cop / bad cop.

[Badray]

"But keep the AWB renewal on the radar screen and you may get your wish."

Do you whistle when you walk past cemetaries? Do you always hide from the truth? Politicians have to know that we are adamant about them losing their jobs if they even try to take our guns and rights from us. That is what they fear most - having to get a real job. They want re-elected at all cost - including our rights. They couldn't care less about our rights or our guns. IT'S THEIR JOB THAT THEY WANT TO PRESERVE. If they don't hear from us, they will believe that they can act with impunity. And then we are screwed.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Politicians have to know that we are adamant about them losing their jobs if they even try to take our guns and rights from us.

Better put your puppet strings on and get ready to dance. The New York Times is fabricating another story about how Dubya is all for the AWB renewal again. They need you to jump up and down and get all excited. Don't disappoint them.

[TexasCowboy]

"The current singular best thing a pro second amendment individual can do today is ,

first, ... send an affordable amount of money to the organization of your choice to maintain their watch dog status if nothing else.

Second...get a CHL or CCW permit if your state has provisions for such.

Squantos, I hope you don't mind if I added some emphasis to that statement.
My thoughts exactly!

I don't even own a handgun anymore, but I'm not going to turn loose of my CCP!

[Shooter 2.5]

Washington, DC. Office
Office of Dennis Hastert
235 Cannon HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2976
Fax: (202) 225-0697


Batavia, IL Office
Office of Dennis Hastert
27 N. River Street
Batavia, IL 60510
Phone: (630) 406-1114
Fax: (630) 406-1808


Dixon, IL Office
Office of Dennis Hastert
119 W. First St.
Dixon, IL 61021
Phone: (815) 288-0680
Fax: (815) 288-0743

[Joe Brower]

Roger that, Squantos.

Stories like this always strike me as having a two-pronged effect: 1, they infuriate and mobilize the gun-haters while 2, they attempt to lull us into complacency.

And yes, the battle is never over. An occasional breather is all we can ever allow ourselves, and that, not very long.

[Shooter 2.5]

I hope no one is trusting the lib press.

We aren't ignoring what we have to do either. We have to keep writing the letters and emails, answering the editorial pages and Freeping the polls.

The liberal Public Relations war started over a month ago.

[Blue Collar Christian]

"They do not see this as a 'failure of their beliefs',
they see it as a 'failure off the voter' to accept their beliefs."

I agree, and that we should all know that just as passionate as we are about freedom, they are passionate about socialism. It is a constant battle to educate(brainwash?) voters for what we believe is right, just as they do for their beliefs.

Sadly, facts don't seem to matter to them, as socialism causes complete econonic colapse everywhere it is implimented. If everone is "entititled" to the benifits of society, why work?

I'm the hire/fire guy, and my view of the unemployed work force here in So. Cal. is of lots of unskilled, unmotivated, entitlement minded liberal non-thinkers pretending to look for work, while really just looking for the easiest paycheck they can find,no thought to advancement or a career.

When I worked for a large corporation, 80% of the workers were total goof-offs, while maybe 10% kicked butt, and the other 10% were on-again-off-again contributers to the task.

That being my impression of the blue collar work force here in So. Cal., it is easy to see why they are voting for the socialists' agenda.

[Badray]

Whether floated as a trial balloon or a scare tactic, it doesn't matter. If we do not let the politicians know NOW that we will take action IF it comes up, then it will be too late to do anything later if it sneaks in the back door. They have to know there is a price to pay. Their job is that price. That's what they care about.

[hattend]

The bill that recently passed the House would shield gun makers from frivolous lawsuits claiming they're responsible for the criminal misuse of a legal product. Smith & Wesson, Glock and dozens of others are currently being sued in federal court in Brooklyn by gun-control activists and trial lawyers who want to hold them responsible for high homicide rates in poor black neighborhoods.

A jury rejected that claim last week, but the presiding judge, Jack Weinstein, has the final say and is expected to find for the plaintiffs.

Then why have a jury if the judge is going to overrule them? If I'm reading this right, S&W, Glock, and others are the defendants. Is the Senate going to pass the house bill and end this stupidity once and for all?

[Billthedrill]

It shows that the original ban was all about politics, not safety.

Of course it was, but it wasn't entirely the sort of party politics that has the Dems adopting this posture in order to win votes and discarding it when it proved to cost more than it gained. That's a gloss - what was really happening goes much deeper and is becoming a permanent feature of politics not just in the United States, but in democracies worldwide.

It is simply this - the right of self-defense is not easily divorceable from the means of self-defense. Where the means are threatened the right itself comes under question as it has in Great Britain and is in Australia at the moment. One would think it a huge, obvious step from "you may not use firearms to defend yourself" to "you may not defend yourself at all" but in practice it proves nothing of the sort.

In fact, the latter position is the ultimate logical consequence of the assumption that the State is the proper repository of power, and that individual expressions of power such as self-defense only threaten that monopoly. It is tempting to dismiss that as a paranoia of someone whose mental pathology leads him or her imagine that they "need" a firearm; in practice it is neither paranoia nor imagination. The issue is about power - "control" if you will - and it always has been. And it isn't going away.