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Let Freedom Ring,
Posted on 12/20/2012 8:53:25 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Pelosi: Harry Reid and 'Big Money' Are the Reasons I Didn't Hold Any Votes on Gun Control from 2009 to 2011 John McCormack December 20, 2012 11:09 AM
At a press conference in the Capitol on Wednesday, House Democrats lashed out at opponents of new gun control measures.
“There are no arguments against doing something,” said Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut. “The notion that more Americans, quote unquote, in the words of Governor Perry ‘packing heat’ will make us safer is not founded in reality, facts, or history. It is founded in the fantasy of testosterone-laden individuals who have blood on their hands for articulating that idea.”
Rep. John Larson, another Democrat from Connecticut, agreed with his colleague and said that "to do nothing is to be complicit" with mass murder.
But when nearly 260 Democrats controlled the House from 2009 to 2011, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi didn't hold a single vote on gun control. Why not?
“Perhaps you’re familiar with the 60-vote rule in the Senate," Pelosi told me. "Our members are very courageous. They’ll walk the plank on any tough vote. But I don’t want them to walk the plank on something that’s not going to become the law.”
“This is a very high priority for us," Pelosi continued. "But because of what is—money. Let’s face it. Big money out there on the side of those would be opposed to gun safety.”
“The fact is if there was no prospect of success, we wanted the members to be here to continue to make the fight, so that when there was a prospect of success they would be here rather than being cleared out by the NRA,” Pelosi added.
Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, the Democrats' chief deputy whip, chimed in to support Pelosi. “We had the votes to pass sensible gun legislation through the House, but when the Senate said that they couldn’t do it with the 60 votes, the leader made the decision that this really wasn’t the thing to do at the time," said DeGette. "We were trying to pass health care reform and other issues."
From 2009 to 2011 there were either 59 or 60 Democrats in the Senate, plus five Republicans who had voted for the "assault weapons ban" in 2004 (Judd Gregg, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, George Voinovich, and Dick Lugar). In other words, it was Democratic opposition in the Senate, chiefly from Majority Leader Harry Reid, that disuaded Pelosi from holding a single vote on gun control from 2009 to 2011.
Of course, Pelosi was more than willing to vote on other measures, such as cap-and-trade, that stood little chance of passing the Senate. Why did Pelosi choose to ratchet up pressure on Senate Democrats over cap-and-trade but not gun control? "Well, I’m not going to speculate about that," DeGette told me following the press conference.
So, Pelosi, which red state democrats are going to throw away their house seats to get gun control passed? Or are there any left after you made them "walk the plank" on Obamacare?
That's just factually false. He should read More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott. Sure, people should have to train regularly to be allowed to "pack" outside their homes. But what else a gun, in the hands of a "good guy," has much of a CHANCE(*) of stopping a "bad guy" who's killing people? (Don't say "gun laws" because these guns were legal EVEN in CT and were stolen from the person who bought them legally.)
*-- Of course, having a "good guy" with a gun is no guarantee of stopping a sicko bent on using deadly force. For example, if the sicko were wearing a suicide vest with a deadman switch. But it's statistically the best chance.
LoL! That "esteemed" group have taken a beating since 2004, I think Susan Collins is the only one left in the new Senate.
“”He should read More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott.””
He should read..The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Somehow the term ‘gun safety’ from the mouth of Her Highness Pelosi is just somewhat indescribably odd.
Any time a firearms-related thread is created on FreeRepublic, please be sure to add the "banglist" keyword to it so that interested FReepers don't miss it. Just a suggestion.
Let Freedom Ring,
Hey demon known as pelosi... your own voters will turn on you if you try it biotch!
LLS
Just realized:
Why can’t anti-gun advocates argue their side without denigrating me as a person?
Usually I argue my side with facts and history. They tend to begin their debate by calling me a testosterone-fueled animal or something.
"...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
bkmk
Well, the militia could be “well-regulated.” I admit I’m not sure whether the militias of 1791 — namely the whole of the (adult male non-felon) population — bore any requirement of training. Probably not, on the one hand ... but on the other hand that may have been because it would be unthinkable that a lad would grow up then with no rifle training at all. Obviously today I’m okay with a basic training requirement for CCW permits. I understand you aren’t, and that’s ok. Long’s I get my permit ... which in CA puts me SOL!
Permit? Why do you insist upon agreeing with the concept that you must ask government to grant you your God-given rights?
If only we had more like you in the courts (and voting in California).
Well thank you, but I'm just a run-of-the-mill Freeper.
If the California legislature and courts were suddenly to be vacated, and re-manned with a random selection of people from this community, that state would soon become the freest, most productive, safest, most affluent, and abundant place on earth.
I agree. As things are, however, California’s governmental bodies, including courts, are 70% stocked with people who have never matured politically from age 20 (at which age even Churchill agreed only a heartless man would not be a Communist). It’s a bunch of 40-70-year-olds who are like college sophomores, trying to out-liberal each other.
Too true, and the effects of that are evident in California's dramatic decline. It's one of the primary reasons I pulled my family out by the roots and relocated to Texas.
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