If Democrats Want Guns Off The Street, They Should Take Them Off The Table

If Democrats want guns off the street, they should take them off the table.
By Alan Gottlieb

No Guns
If Democrats Want Guns Off The Street, They Should Take Them Off The Table
Second Amendment Foundation
Second Amendment Foundation

BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- Another year is unfolding with state legislatures and Congress back in action, and there is no doubt that anti-gun lawmakers – virtually all of them Democrats – will once again push proposals designed to erode the Second Amendment, all in the effort to “get guns off the streets.”

Here is a piece of advice for the “party of gun control,” the nickname by which Democrats have come to be known.

If you’re concerned about the number of firearms in the hands of an increasing number of law-abiding citizens, stop promoting legislation that smacks of regulation, registration or outright bans. If that’s not clear enough, to “get guns off the street” you must first take them off the table.

Take the subject off the grid. Stop trying to squeeze a headline out of symbolic gestures that are bereft of substance.

Knock it off. Give it up. Walk away. In case you haven’t figured it out, every time in recent memory that some gun prohibitionist in your ranks has launched a new gun control measure, firearm and ammunition sales go up. Recall when the Democrat-controlled Congress instituted the Clinton administration ban on so-called “assault weapons” and standard capacity magazines?

There was a rush on gun stores and a ten-year supply of firearms and magazines was sold in less than a year. A couple of months later – in November 1994 – angry gun owners descended on the polls and took Congress and a number of legislatures away from your party and it took more than a decade to get some of them back.

This past year has seen record sales of guns and ammunition in response to gun control legislation pushed by Democrats from the White House on down to state legislatures and even local city councils.

Look what happened in Colorado in 2013. Two Democrats were thrown out of office by their furious constituents and a third had to take a hit for the party in order to avoid losing the state senate majority. If you honestly believe that cannot happen elsewhere, you’ve forgotten the sage advice of the late Tip O’Neill, who reminded his fellow Democrats that “all politics is local.”

Simply put, gun laws backfire and in the process, Democrats create new enemies and Republicans make new friends. Do that enough times to shift sentiment in each precinct by one or two percent, and you create a tidal wave. There are a handful of smug Democrats in safe districts, but a lot more are in swing districts where people are seething over issues including the economy, their jobs and their health care.

Do you honestly want to add gun control to that volatile mix with a campaign season just months away?

These perennial assaults on the Second Amendment will only result in a backlash that your party didn’t see coming in 1994, and what happened in Colorado should be a warning sign. So long as Democrats continue pushing measures that penalize law-abiding gun owners while doing nothing to stop crime the nation’s firearms community will conclude that the party is at war with the people, and the people will eventually fight back.

Alan Gottlieb is chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.

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Bill Levinson

Andrew Cuomo may be better for the Second Amendment than the NRA. He has probably alienated millions of voters, and we should help him alienate even more.

Keith

In response to Jamie about how it may not go well for the Demokrat/Communists this next election…..so what?? The Demokrat/Communists know the Republikrat/Fascists & Cowards don’t oppose anything they do…and that includes gun control!! The Republikrat/Fascists & Cowards are all for gun control, they just don’t implement it themselves. They let the Demokrat/Communists implement the tyranny and the Republikrat/Fascists & Cowards come along behind and enforce it. So the Demokrat/Communists don’t care about winning the elections because they know the Republikrat/Fascists will back-up whatever tyranny they implement.

Thom Paine

Our founding fathers gave us a term for any of eith er party who would cast a vote against their oath. Domestic enemies. High time they be regarded as such. A republican that voted for the NDAA is every bit as bad as a democrat who votes against the second amendment! And if “conservative” republicans dont realize that pdq? It will fragment the libertarian wing permanently .

John

My earlier comment never saw the light of day, so I’ll re-phrase the question. How many anti-gun politicians who honestly answer the questions on the Federal form would fail the Federal background check as it exists now?

Jamie

I tend not to vote republican. But I do not support these anti-gun measures. If they keep pushing anti-gun measures it is not going to go well for the democrats next election.

Old man

While it is true more democrats have pushed for gun control than republicans. We must not follow party lines blindly. A good many gun restrictions have been pushed, passed and/or signed by republicans. President Regan and both Bush’s signed restrictive gun control. My own republican Senator is more anti gun than pro gun. So vote for the person based on their record not their party affiliation.

John

I wonder how many politicians can pass the current NCIS background check that’s required to purchase a gun?

Daniel Bassett

I’ve been voting Democratic my whole voting life. I’m a union member and I have always voted where my paycheck would most likely continue. This will not be the case any longer. I can no longer sit and watch what is happening to my country. I own guns, and I conceal carry everyday(permitted to do so). I have never been so ashamed of what my past votes have done. I actually voted for the same people who want to take away my rights that were given to us by way smarter folks than we have governing us now and enough… Read more »

oldgringo

I speculate Democrats own more gun than do Republicans and Independents combined…Why…
Because every shooter of noteriety since John Wilkes Booth has been a Democrat or an offspring of a Democrat…Therefore they must own more guns…Not one shooter of noteriety was a Republican…An Independent…A Tea Party Folk…A Conservative…or an Eagle Scout…No other conclusion can be drawn…Democrats simply go “batty” when they have a gun in their hands…Maybe there ought to be a law against Democrats owning firearms!

TSgt B

Well said, as usual, Alan. Let ’em keep digging their own grave(s), so to speak. We’ll take all the help they’ll give us.