Nice! That was a pleasure to read.
This is why I am a Life Member of the NRA.
If he fails to oppose advancing the UN Small Arms Treaty after a message from the voters like this one, he should be tried for treason and hanged.
The Lugar defeat was a huge victory for the Tea Party, NRA, and other conservative organizations. I would hazard to guess that Senator Hatch probably had a very sleepless night last night.
I like to remind fellow conservatives that both Lugar and Hatch did a few things important to conservatives that hopefully other conservatives will keep doing.
In Hatch’s case, he defended dietary and herbal supplements against the onslaughts of the drug companies that want to outlaw them, or put them under intolerable government controls.
There were several times when Hatch was almost alone in doing this, and it was probably one of the most important conservative things he did. Which is not much compared to what he should have done, but still important as a single thing.
The drug companies and the nanny-staters are still at it, however, and won’t stop until they have monopoly control over everything people want to consume, be it food or medicines.
Defeating Lugar is an act of common sense.
The NRA compiled a list of Senator Lugar's shameful anti-Second Amendment record at http://www.nrapvf.org/elect-mourdock.aspx:
- He voted to confirm both Elena Kagan, and Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, one of only four Republican Senators to vote for both. (Vote 262, 8/6/2009, and Vote 229, 8/5/2010)
- He voted to reinstate the ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles. (Vote 24, 03/02/2004). He voted for the original semi-automatic firearm ban. (Vote 375, 11/17/1993)
- He voted for passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2004 only after the semi-auto ban and gun show regulations had been added to the bill, making it unacceptable. (Vote 30, 3/2/2004). In 2005, he also voted for PLCAA, but he also supported a gutting amendment that failed. (Vote 208, 7/28/2005)
- He voted for the Brady bill. (Vote 394, 11/20/1993)
- He voted for campaign finance reform. (Vote 64, 4/2/2001)
- He voted for legislation to regulate gun shows out of existence. (Vote 111, 5/20/1999, Vote 134, 5/20/1999 and Vote 25, 3/2/2004)
- He voted to ban the importation of standard capacity magazines. (Vote 240, 7/28/1998, Vote 116, 5/13/1999)
- He voted to mandate that a trigger lock be included with every handgun. (Vote 17, 2/26/2004)
- He voted against interstate right to carry reciprocity. (Vote 237, 7/22/2009)
- He voted against a bill to restore the Second Amendment rights to DC residents. (Vote 160, 2/26/2009)
- He voted to commend the "Million Mom March", which has called for gun registration, gun show restrictions, and the semi-auto ban. (Vote 104, 5/17/2000)
- He voted to ban using the Internet to list a firearms for sale for anyone other than licensed dealers. (Vote 119, 5/14/1999 He voted to ban hunting in the Mojave National Monument. (Vote 87, 4/12/1994)
[I also note that whoever is updating Free Republic's software has added code removing attributes from the <table> tag. That means that I cannot use the "bg" attribute to specify a background color to highlight quotes.]