(Via Drudge) Well, isn’t that special of them. From the Washington Post:
The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation’s gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration’s discussions.
A working group led by Vice President Biden is seriously considering measures backed by key law enforcement leaders that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthen mental health checks, and stiffen penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors, the sources said.
…None of which would have stopped the Newtown atrocity. The shooter stole the guns from his mother, who passed a background check (Connecticut has that); the guns, being stolen and used rather than resold, would have been effectively invisible to a hypothetical database; the guns were not in fact owned by a mentally unstable, violent person who used them to murder children (they were stolen by somebody who used them for that); and penalties for possession of firearms around schools or by minors obviously had no effect on the shooter (who was, by the way, a legal adult).
Now, I’m not going to tell you that Nothing Will Ever Pass. Politics doesn’t work like that. What I am saying is that initiatives like this reveal pretty comprehensively that the Democratic party is, at bottom, uncomfortable on an institutional level with the very concept of guns. That this tracks pretty well with the march of the New Left through the Democratic party’s institutions is no accident. In 2013 we are going to see the New Left put lots of pressure on recalcitrant Democratic politicians to renounce their affiliation to the basic civil right of self-defense; and while I do not expect Congress to pass any serious legislation along those lines while the GOP controls the House, we are going to see some notable defections among the Democrats. If Obamacare taught us nothing else, it taught us that a Democratic politician is a Democrat first, a Democrat second – and, say, pro-life a distant third.
So I recommend that nobody trust anybody in the Democratic party to keep from mucking with the Second Amendment. They’re a weak reed that will break in your hand. Simple as that.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Can we please tattoo that last paragraph on the insides of the eyelids of all NRA members?
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Some of ’em seem to get it, some of ’em think that because a Dem says nice things about the 2nd Amendment to their faces, that means the Dem will vote the right way on 2nd Amendment issues .. and it just doesn’t work that way.
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Mew
Gee it’s like their totally unaware of airguns, Bows and crossbows and hammers, knives and swords and axes for that matter. During the first half of the 2000’s more people were killed yearly with hammers and clubs than with rifles according to the FBI. I’d love to see them go for a hammer ban.
That reminds me of the Simpsons episode where the aliens get everyone to turn in their guns and then take the place over. Maybe Red Dawn will come true someday, maybe it will be Venezuela and we will fight with Long Bows and Heavy Cavalry.
Or boards with a nail in them.
I did note that Manchin has backpedaled a bit from his earlier support for new gun control efforts, sadly I think it’s a more likely a sign that Reid really is going to “nuclear option” the filibuster or bully enough weak R’s into changing it through normal rules. Manchin can then standup for the 2nd amendment all he wants and Fienstien can have her legislation pass the Senate. Win Win as far as they are concerned.
Democrats don’t fret over ALL guns — just those in the hands of people who aren’t beholden to them. Note that Illinois’ new “gun control” measure is aimed at the rural and suburban gun owners, not at Chicago’s gang culture — despite a record number of murders last year.
I like how Democrat Congresscritters seem to despise actual rights we have in this country (Free speech and the right to bear arms) but support make believe rights passionately (Separation of church and state).
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Oh, I’m sure that not all Democrat officials are like that. Just 99% of them.
At this point I would put nothing past either party. In the end, all politicians are at the mercy of the voters, and since the nation as a whole has decided to become more like Europe (without the charm), pretty much all destruction of the American Project is possible.
I would say anyone not giving time and money to this fight is just asking to have his guns grabbed.
Four boxes, Doc. The politicians are much more at the mercy of the voters, as long as we keep that fourth box.
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Mew
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soap box, ballot box, jury box, ammo box.. use in this order.
so true acat. That must be part of their motivation for wanting to take the fourth box away.
Eliminate the fourth box, you can control the other three
In Soviet Russia…
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(Cheshire grin)
+1
Somehow, I don’t think all the people who’ve been buying firearms at a record rate over the past 4 years have been doing so to meekly give them over to the government.
I’ve a take that I have reservations about, and that seems useless to me.
I’ve long had an enmity towards the Democratic Party due to their actions during, among other times, the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth.
I’ve also long been a fan of the second amendment.
For some time, I have been unconvinced that the Democratic Party has changed more than cosmetically, from how it was during the era of politically useful murders along ethnic lines.
After Critical Race Theory came along, I noticed that it had some implications contrary to some of those claimed by its adherents.
Historically, in America, gun control policies have some correlation with white supremacist policies, for some periods and places. Modern day adherents of gun control correlate with adherents of policies that might be considered cognate to historical white supremacist policies. (In some places with heavy gun control, certain policies have tended to favor armed criminals terrorizing the people.)
Going the extra step, modern gun control in America might be part of a comprehensive package of white supremacist policies. Thus, many of the current advocates for greater gun control would be code word white supremacists.
I’m not convinced by this. These things make much more sense to me in terms of power.