Republicans Choke On Opportunity to Let Democrats Own Gun Control

By Jeff Knox
Jeff Knox urges House GOP to bring firearm bills up for vote and prove their bona fides.

Democrats staging a petulant "sit-in" in the well of the House. (Photo C-Span screenshot)
Democrats staging a petulant “sit-in” in the well of the House. (Photo C-Span screenshot)
FirearmsCoalition.org
FirearmsCoalition.org

Buckeye, AZ –-(Ammoland.com)- Dear stupid Republicans:

What the hell are you thinking? What possible benefit is there in avoiding votes on gun control bills?

In what world is using the power of the gavel to block attacks on our right to arms a sound political strategy? Why would you be afraid to debate and get clear votes on legislation that will not hurt you at the polls – so long as you stand firm with the Constitution – and which will give GunVoters the ammunition we need to fire numerous gun control supporters from Congress?

Do you think that your caucus will not face just as many attack ads from Bloomberg and his ilk for blocking votes as you would for bringing gun control measures to the floor and voting them down? Have you not learned that gun control – in spite of all of the lopsided polls and claims of support among voters – is a loser on Election Day in eight out of 10 states and congressional districts? Have you not learned that GunVoters reward rights supporters and punish rights deniers, and that proponents of gun control have virtually no clout at the ballot box? Don’t you know that anti-rights voters have a wide variety of issues that are more important to them than their desire for gun control but that GunVoters vote guns first – recognizing that preservation of our firearm rights trumps all other issues?

Why would you throw away an opportunity to hold your opponents’ anti-rights position up for voters to see? Why would you hide from the opportunity to go on record as supporters of individual rights? This makes no sense at all.

For the first time in over 20 years, the Democratic Party and their leading candidates are making gun control a central issue of their party platform and their campaigns. The reason they have shied away from the issue is that the last time they pushed a gun control agenda, they were thumped by voters in the subsequent election, giving control of the House to Republicans for the first time in decades, with even the speaker of the House failing to be re-elected, and also losing control of the Senate. The shift wasn’t only about gun rights, but GunVoters’ reaction to passage of the 1994 Clinton “assault weapons” ban played a significant role in the “Republican Revolution.”

But now Democrats have fallen victim to their own propaganda, and Bloomberg’s money, and convinced themselves that being the party of gun control has no political consequences – and apparently the foolish Republicans have fallen for the same line of nonsense.

In fact, the only way that coming out hard for gun control can be kept from seriously impacting Democrats in the coming elections is if Republicans waffle and shrink from embracing the clear distinction between the parties on this issue. If GunVoters are dismissed by Republicans, no amount of cajoling from the NRA will convince them that Republicans are any better than Democrats, and instead of a GunVoter-led landslide in favor of pro-rights candidates, we’ll see GunVoters declaring “a pox on both their houses” and going hunting deer on Election Day instead of going to the polls to hunt down anti-rights politicians.

Republicans have the votes to defeat the Democrats’ ill-conceived, anti-rights proposals. They have firm constitutional grounds for opposing those proposals, and that opposition will have little negative effect on their re-election prospects, while having significant positive effect.

Not only is this an opportunity to let Democrats hang themselves with their own rope, it is also an opportunity to push a pro-rights agenda.

Rather than simply giving in to the anti-rights Democrats’ little tantrum – holding a “sit-in” in the well of the House, which by the way, Republicans should have kept up on C-Span so Americans could see their elected representatives at work – they could offer a compromise: fixed, limited debate and straight votes on Democrats’ anti-rights bills, along with fixed, limited debate and straight votes on Republicans’ pro-rights bills.

We’ve been calling for record votes on Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop’s H.R. 2710, the Lawful Purpose and Self Defense Act, which removes the unconstitutional “sporting purpose” language from the Gun Control Act, and Republican Rep. Richard Nugent’s H.R. 402, National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act. These are bills that GunVoters want to see passed. More importantly right now, these are bills that will help draw clear lines between pro-rights politicians and those who oppose individual rights, invigorating and engaging GunVoters as we head into the November elections. Not only that, these common-sense bills, unlike the restrictive proposals of the Democrats, have the potential to actually help stop or mitigate the harm caused by lunatics and radicals such as the terrorists in Orlando and San Bernardino. None of the Democrat proposals would have had any impact on those terrorists, or any in the future.

Call your Republican elected servants and tell them to stop being stupid. Tell them to embrace the winning cause of rights, give Democrats the opportunity to hang themselves with their own rope, and give GunVoters the motivation and ammunition we need going into November. All of your senators and representatives can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Give them a call – for the children – and for their own political futures.

About:
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition is a project of Neal Knox Associates, Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org

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Chuck

I’ve told people for years that both parties work for the same handlers That being the Bankers and the Military Complex