The Center for American Progress, basically the left’s equivalent of Heritage Foundation, is going to be submitting its own proposals for gun control, including:
CAP’s proposals — which include requiring universal background checks, banning military-grade assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, and modernizing data systems to track gun sales and enforce existing laws — are all but certain to face stiff opposition from the National Rifle Association and its many allies in Congress.
What keeps killing me is a few months ago, they were thinking this issue was toxic to Democrats, and now it’s suddenly a winning cause. What changed isn’t the culture, it’s their coalition. It reminds me of something Jim Geraghty said the day after the election:
Ari Fleischer points out the silver lining is that so far, Romney is winning independents. That’s not a silver lining, that’s worse news: Democrats don’t really need independents anymore.
That’s exactly right, and I have a feeling I will be returning to that thought often over the next four years.
This could just be wishful thinking on my part, but I have a feeling that gun control could still be toxic for Democrats in general. Apparently nothing is toxic to President Obama, and he’s driving the party’s agenda. Unless the 22nd Amendment gets repealed though, he never again has to worry about winning votes. Senators and Representatives who sign onto his extreme agenda though may find that what works for him doesn’t necessarily work for all of them.
Exactly; besides the usual suspects, support “on the ground” from Congresscritters is very thin, often backpedaling (e.g. the poser Manchin), and with some outright refusals so far from vulnerable Senators like the one of Alaska who won on an engineered fluke and is up for reelection next year, and the one who just replaced Kent Conrad in North Dakota. And Reid and Boehner continue to say nothing of substance.
We just don’t know how much this has changed things, and if Stockton was any guide, we might not really know for years.
Do police run into far deadlier criminals than we do, that they need more rounds in their magazines? Or do they run into them more frequently?
What nonsense. We’re going to run into those same exact criminals, more often than the police. With their training, you’d think they’d need LESS rounds in their magazines than we do.
The government doesn’t get to decide what limitations they can place on my ability to defend the lives of myself and my family.
With their training, you’d think they’d need LESS rounds in their magazines than we do.
Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning. The nine bystanders shot by police officers in NYC in the process of killing a criminal in August would probably offer an alternative reason why we should limit the number of bullets the police are allowed to carry.
And remember, boys and girls, “progress” reads “communism” here.
I think this represents a challenge and an opportunity for us. On the one hand, Obama got elected while losing the independent vote, which is pretty bad. On the other hand, so did Bush (or pretty darn close to), so things can swing both ways. Moreover, for all the talk of demographic inevitability Romney lost in lily-white Minnesota and Wisconsin. In fact, he’d still have lost both those states if every hispanic voter there had gone for him.
A non-trivial number of people in Wisconsin voted for Scott Walker in June and then Obama in November. I seem to remember polls in PA showed Romney only getting 60% support among voters with a gun in their house. There is clearly a (once again non-trivial) block of voters the Democratic party *could* wind up losing over this – it’s just that they are invisible to the kind of people who run lefty think-tanks.
Now, long-term, we do need to do something here or the cultural aspects of the demographics will do us in. It is crazy that the people who live in the inner cities, who are more likely on any given day to need a gun than those of us parked out in the suburbs or the country, live under the worst laws and keep electing the people who wrote them. But they do and they will because we have a yawning cultural disconnect there. Arguably that is more of a ‘Republican Party’ branding problem than a ‘Gun Owner’ branding problem, but it is real. And even though we could run off reams of statistics as to why they should support our views it won’t work because politics is mostly driven by emotion, and you don’t give a fair hearing to someone you think hates you.
In the inner cities, schools aren’t going to have the NRA come in and do Eddie Eagle, and there aren’t going to be easy ways for a positive gun culture to take shape there. I really believe that it is on us to change that somehow. I don’t know how – it would be very awkward at first I’m sure – but maybe there are outreach efforts that could be done. Small scale things perhaps, like offering to do a safety course at a school or take a youth group target shooting.
If, after we’ve fought this assault off, we spend the next 10 years on that, the number of districts the antis are safe in will evaporate.
Great comment. Thanks for leaving it.
I’ve always been intrigued by the large and growing numbers of minorities I see at the range. Here in Northern Virginia, invariably there are as many or more koreans and other south east asians at the public ranges (NRA, Shooters, Blue Ridge) than there share of the population would suggest. And they are mostly shooting ARs and other “tactical” type of guns. I think this is largely lost on – and a lost opportunity for organizing – the RKBA powers to be. Indeed, I mention public ranges, cause when I go to the Izaak Walton League’s outdoor range – I NEVER see any Asians or other minorities.
There are also LARGE numbers of African Americans throughout the south who are very pro gun. Even within the Democratic caucus. One of the more amazing things I ever witnessed was Benny Thompson (D-MS) schooling a black Democrat from North Carolina (I like him, so I am not mentioning his name, and it would be too easy for his people to identify me if I did) on guns and the ludicrousness of gun control and its role in helping blacks protect themselves during the civil rights era at a fundraiser for said black Democrat (this was in late October 2008 – both left from that fundraiser to drive to the airport to pick up then candidate Obama and take him on a surprise tour of black churches in rural E Carolina the next morning). Unfortunately, many in their leadership are either 1) corrupt and willing to sell out to the Democratic Party Machine or other high bidders (see the Jesse Jackson model, Chicago generally), 2) good party soldiers and wiling to compromise principles – especially on so called “assault weapons” that they don’t need in the inner city, or 3) simply removed enough from the trench ground battles of the post civil war and civil rights years to even realize this. In any case, the NRA would be well served to start aggressively reaching out to minorities in a big way.
Its a battle we can win (and, incidentally, Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics/Latinos all have significant populations who would enjoy – and could benefit from affordable food – hunting creating another opportunity to make them allies. No Fudd comments please, I’ve addressed Koreans and ARs already. If your trying to break into Black leadership, hunting is a great way to do it. And in the south, that is dealing with epidemic populations of feral hogs, the best tool to manage/address them and get some free tasty pork is the AR15)
Hmmm, South Korea not surprisingly has universal male conscription, although it’s not clear if all of them go to boot camp. According to the article they’re very serious about it and have the longest terms of service behind Israel (no surprise) and Singapore (a tiny city state in a rough neighborhood).
Pity so many of those in the US step down to an AR-15 after the import ban and no doubt some behind the scenes pressure stopped Daewoo from importing their well thought of piston assault rifle only 5 years after it went into service. Then again, from the Wikipedia article it was only then, in 1984, when it started supplanting the M16A2.
Their well publicized defense of their LA neighborhood during the Rodney King riots, supported by all right thinking people, lots of them in Virgina, probably plays into this. It was certainly the case that a lot of them ran convenience stores and building food concessions when I was in the D.C. area 1991-2004.
And Dry cleaners. They still do. Nearly all of the building concessions that I can think of. And most of the convenience stores.