https://twitter.com/BretStephensNYT/status/755568258154192896
Posted on 10/05/2017 11:43:03 AM PDT by NRx
...Given all of this, why do liberals keep losing the gun control debate?
Maybe it’s because they argue their case badly and — let’s face it — in bad faith. Democratic politicians routinely profess their fidelity to the Second Amendment — or rather, “a nuanced reading” of it — with all the conviction of Barack Obama’s support for traditional marriage, circa 2008. People recognize lip service for what it is.
Then there are the endless liberal errors of fact. There is no “gun-show loophole” per se; it’s a private-sale loophole, in other words the right to sell your own stuff. The civilian AR-15 is not a true “assault rifle,” and banning such rifles would have little effect on the overall murder rate, since most homicides are committed with handguns. It’s not true that 40 percent of gun owners buy without a background check; the real number is closer to one-fifth.
The National Rifle Association does not have Republican “balls in a money clip,” as Jimmy Kimmel put it the other night. The N.R.A. has donated a paltry $3,533,294 to all current members of Congress since 1998, according to The Washington Post, equivalent to about three months of Kimmel’s salary. The N.R.A. doesn’t need to buy influence: It’s powerful because it’s popular.
Nor will it do to follow the “Australian model” of a gun buyback program, which has shown poor results in the United States and makes little sense in a country awash with hundreds of millions of weapons. Keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill people is a sensible goal, but due process is still owed to the potentially insane. Background checks for private gun sales are another fine idea, though its effects on homicides will be negligible: guns recovered by police are rarely in the hands of their legal owners, a 2016 study found.
In fact, the more closely one looks at what passes for “common sense” gun laws, the more feckless they appear. Americans who claim to be outraged by gun crimes should want to do something more than tinker at the margins of a legal regime that most of the developed world rightly considers nuts. They should want to change it fundamentally and permanently.
There is only one way to do this: Repeal the Second Amendment.
Look for a political bloodbath to take place in 2018 because of this effort.
You know folks, it might be an interesting trade-off.
We give up our guns, and they agree to close every Leftist newspaper, televisions station, and network in the nation.
Of course we’ll only turn in 10% of the guns we own, but they’ll have closed 100% of their papers.
Eh, never-mind. This would be one more bill our government would enforce like it does our immigration laws. No, it woudln’t enforce half the bill. It would enforce the gun part.
Gun buy back programs are great for when you inherit non-functioning cheap guns. $50 - $75 a pop adds up to nice new free guns pretty fast.
Cain killed Abel with a rock
killers gonna kill...that is why they are called “killers”
...history happened before guns were invented..
stupid on parade...
It amazes me that almost everyone assumes that the amendments grant rights, that repealing the 1st or 2nd amendment would remove the freedoms mentioned in each.
Further, since the Constitution delegates powers (and only those powers) to the general government, there is no Article 1, Section 8, authorization to invade any of the rights mentioned in the 1st and 2nd amendments.
It’s well past time we insist that they amend the constitution, if they want to grant additional powers to federal government.
Paul Ryan makes me sick.. He’s speaking right now on FoxNews.. He’s so ignorant about guns.. I know more and I barely knew anything before the Insane Leftist gun grab.. He’s trying to act so tough.. He’s an idiot!
I was under the impression that the original amendments in the bill of rights cannot be repealed.
[The 2nd amendment ultimately guarantees and protects the rest of the Bill of Rights, including the 1st amendment, from being taken away!]
The 2nd Amendment is the guarantor of the Bill of Rights.
If they want a revolution they should repeal the 2nd amendment.
“You won’t need the 2nd amendment until they TRY to take it away from you”
“Repression breeds violence”
“Don’t you know you can count me out”
On the 45 record the line reads,
“Don’t you know you can count me out, in”
“Repeal the Second Amendment”
too bad the Dems won’t add this particular plank to their national platform and then feature it prominently in all elections ...
New York Times, Jan 9, 1966: the front page banner of the New York Times said in giant letters: “God Is Dead...!”
Don't even joke about this. You will have to KILL ME and MILLIONS MORE Americans to make us give up our guns. We've seen this movie before, and it only ends in death and destruction. NO. I WILL NOT COMPLY.
Nah, I din’t mean it. Thanks for the response.
The reason Leftists won’t make a serious effort to repeal the 2nd Amendment isn’t just because they know they cannot get 38 states to agree to take the first major step to dismantle the Bill of Rights, it’s also because they fear their fellow Leftists will see just how much the Left is despised — if not outright hated — by a significant majority of Americans.
They tried that. One of Harry Reid's last acts as Senate Majority Leader was to have the Senate vote on a Constitutional amendment that would have gutted the First Amendment's protection of free speech. Liberals hate the First and Second Amendments. I hope they go all out in trying to repeal both. A landslide in the midterms would be assured.
The election of our President has made one thing tragically and painfully, true - too many Americans hate America.
I can't see any other way to solve this, we must slug it out. The attacks by leftists, physical and verbal, from all walks of life. The predation of citizens by thugs. The undermining of our way of life, our borders, our Rights, our Sovereignty.
Bring it.
I hope everybody here on Free Republic understands that a repeal of the SECOND AMENDMENT would end in
GULAGS, GAS CHAMBERS, and KILLING FIELDS.
“Why do liberals keep losing the gun control debate?”
Because they begin their argument thus: “Resolved, that every citizen in possession of a firearm is a potential mass murderer”.
Simple.
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