Posted on 04/05/2013 7:34:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Rarely has the political class whipped itself into a lather that has abated so quickly. After the Newtown, Conn., massacre, so many invested so much hope in President Barack Obama’s pledge to “use whatever power this office holds” to pass new gun-control laws.
The president has certainly done his part. He has held rallies. He has used children as props. He has held events with parents of the little victims of Newtown. He has shamed the nation for its alleged forgetfulness over the terrible events of that day.
Yet the needle of public opinion is moving the wrong way. CBS News found that support for stricter gun laws dropped from 57 percent to 47 percent, and CNN from 52 percent to 43 percent. The headline on a CNN story on the latest polling was titled “Polls Suggest Congress Might Have Waited Too Long on Gun Control.” It has waited all of four months.
But the assault-weapons ban has been deep-sixed by Democrats in the Senate. Same with any limit on the size of magazines. The argument now is all about increasing the reach of background checks, although any bill that can pass Congress will be much less extensive than the president or his supporters would like.
The gun-control debate has shown the president again to be hopelessly detached as a legislative mechanic and ineffectual as a shaper of public opinion. Before writing rhetorical checks that his own party’s majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, couldn’t cash, the president might have at least consulted with the wily old son of a gun about what was plausible and adjusted accordingly.
It is true that 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks. Who can be against background checks? Heck, even the National Rifle Association wants states to keep more complete records of who is prohibited from purchasing guns.
But it gets complicated quickly when you try to control almost every transfer of a gun. Senator Chuck Schumer’s current version of the bill would forbid a “temporary transfer” to a friend for target shooting if the range is not “owned or occupied by a duly incorporated organization organized for conservation purposes or to foster proficiency in firearms.” Got it?
Surely, we can figure out a way to do more at gun shows. But despite the obsession with them, gun shows are beside the point. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “in 1997, among state inmates possessing a gun, fewer than 2 percent bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show, about 12 percent from a retail store or pawnshop, and 80 percent from family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source.”
Gun control always founders on the paradox that it is possible to write new laws for the law-abiding but difficult or impossible to reach criminals who don’t care about laws. Michigan has required a permit to purchase a handgun since 1927. The rule has evidently made no impression on those bent on doing harm to others in Detroit or Flint.
The gun-control debate has subtly shifted away from Newtown even though the president keeps bringing his case back to that atrocity. Nothing that happened in Newtown had anything to do with background checks. No background-check law will ever prevent someone like the mother of Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza from buying guns unless the parents of children with autism-like symptoms are to be banned from owning firearms.
The president’s push for new gun laws looks, at this juncture, like a complete fizzle. He has failed to sway red-state Democrats and failed to maintain the heightened public support for new gun-control laws. The most concrete effect of his advocacy has been, if the anecdotal evidence is to be believed, to stoke increased gun purchases on fear that the government wants to ban guns. He set out to lead a great crusade for gun control and ended up the best friend the gun industry ever had.
— Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.
And ammo. Do they still make .22 LR? Somebody needs to open a new factory.
The elites tried to use Newtown to spark a Kristallnacht against the Second Amendment. Didn’t work this time. Next time will be worse though.
He and his ignorant, over reaching coleagues in the state and local legislatures are providing all of the campaign material we need to clean house in 2014.
Let me know when the EPA and ATF approve that new facility....
Ha! It’ll be right after they approve a new oil refinery.
Gonna be in a gun show here in MA tomorrow. I’m not going to even bother. I have enough ammo for now easily and the lines will be ri-god-damn-diculous.
We have won the technical arguments hands down, but its neck and neck with the moral argument. Thank god we Travis McGee and his not being a typical conservative stick chaser.
“The Great Gun-Control Fizzle (Obama has become America’s Best Gun Salesman)”
Ha!!
THAT’S possibly the BEST (only) ‘work’ he’s EVER done!!
Go and walk around, even play tourist. I’ve noticed people seemingly watching those entering gun shops as well as a show. Could be merely scoping the extent of the crowds, which are getting larger and larger.
Imagine the headlines if it is seen there is a fall-off of gun show attendance.
Last week I spotted a couple of guys in a car across the street from a gun shop I entered. Still there, sitting, as I left (empty handed of course). They were NOT happy when I waved at them.
Bring a camera next time and take their picture. That would shake them up.
Agreed. Can we re-load .22’s? LOL! I found some on line the other night. 500 rd “brick”. $149.95! WTF!!! I went to the storage area and looked at the last “brick” I bought and the price tag was plainly printed $24.95. I could make some money here but then I’d have to pay the $149 to replace it. Found some .223 at $849.00/1000 rds. Just wondering? Will ammo prices do like gas prices did and settle in finally at about 2/3rds of what it is today? Man I hope not. Thanks king hussein, you asshat.
Worked at the stat level though. Look at NY, CT, MD, CO and probably DE and MA. RI and NJ are already write-offs, as is CA.
Basically a “gun free” NE United States (except for the extreme North (VT, NH and ME) as well as PA.
Good news on the national level however, at the state level, the federal courts need to step and fast. We are quickly becoming a nation where the 2nd amendment only applies in the “red states”. If you try to exercise you 2nd amendment rights in many blue states you are forced to jump through a maze of convoluted laws meant to discourage you, a modern day bunch of “Jim Crow” laws for guns.
That is because gun shows are expensive.
You can get them cheaper at the store.
The NRA is pushing the point, rightly I think, that mental health records are not available to those doing background checks for gun purchases. However, I see a grave danger in the mental health aspect of so-called background checks: Who shall decide what constitutes a mental aberration? Communist regimes take those who buck the official line of the government and send them to re-education camps; thus government could render dissenters ineligible to pass a background check on mental health grounds. Would someone, for instance, who opposes abortion, gay marriage, or forced income redistribution be declared “anti-social justice” and an enemy of the nation? Don't laugh. Think how far we've come in 5 years.Exactly. Google "slow schizophrenia." Here's a link to the Wiki page on that subject.
Any state where there is one party, Democrat rule is at risk!
These bastards have only hardened our resolve.
No quarter. No mercy. No remorse.
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