Seems there may be something happening here, or have I been abusing my stash of Quaaludes…
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It’s nothing more than political theater. I will be very surprised if action is actually taken, even if the Dems take both houses of congress in the fall.
This isn’t to say I don’t WANT reform of our gun laws, but I don’t think anything will happen and the sit-in is just an election year stunt.
yellowjacketcoder. Really, a “stunt”. You don’t think this can go viral? Do tell…
Even if it goes viral, it’s still a stunt.
But, honestly, I don’t understand what’s different. Isn’t this 20 years of gun control politics in a nutshell? The only difference this time is a bunch of Democratic Congresspeople singing “We shall overcome” with visual aids that wouldn’t pass muster for a middle school science fair. Normally they go about being ineffective in a much more professional manner.
The sit-in is already over anyway.
It is clearly only a stunt, and no significant legislation will get passed in the near term.
On the other hand, given that until recently the mere thought of the NRA being angry with them turned law makers into quivering piles of jello, this stunt indicates that cracks are beginning to form, in what had been an unassailable wall.
Yes, it’s a stunt. Doesn’t matter if it goes viral or not. What matters is the votes. With the House in Republican control, nothing is going to get passed. With districts gerrymandered the way they are, the House is not going to flip in November. Everything else is just mugging for the cameras.
I agree with the first part.
With the second part, I think the NRA control is only over Rep politicians. Dem politicians have long sought gun control despite the ire of the NRA. No substantial cracks in the wall, just the same bricks in the wall and the same hammers flailing on one side.
The NRA’s victory is so complete that people don’t even remember what the battlefield looks like.
Gun control advocates are fighting for tiny scraps of policy that just might maybe affect .1% of gun murders. Stuff like banning assault weapons or expanding background checks has the hope of preventing a handful of murders each year. Those are the new goals. Even stipulating all of the assumptions and values that make them worthy policy, they are the political equivalent of delaying Medicare eligibility by six days to save a few hundred thousand dollars, or amending the Endangered Species Act to protect eight specific bald eagle eggs in Northwest Alaska. Indeed, the pro gun control crowd is now so thoroughly humiliated and impotent that their only hope is to try to take guns away from Muslims in Dearborn who have nothing to do with terrorism.
Mentally healthy, non-criminals are the ultimate source of the vast vast majority of guns used by murderers. Handguns account for about 90% of gun murders. And there are millions and millions of guns circulating. Therefore, gun control policies that would have any hope of meaningfully reducing US gun violence would have to ban the ordinary purchase of handguns and probably confiscate many of them. I’m not aware of a single elected politician who is even talking about that. Are there any? Hell, do any of the American gun control proponents on this board even think it’s a good idea for Democrats to propose banning and confiscate all handguns?
Republicans regularly talk about abolishing the IRS. Their nominee for President wants to kill the families of terrorists. But Democrats cannot talk about real gun control. That’s how thorough the victory of gun rights proponents is.
So, no, I don’t think there’s any evidence of the worm turning.
Really? From this side it looks like gun owners are barely holding very recently taken ground against never-ending counter attacks. We’ll call it a victory when the current status quo has lasted through a liberal-majority Supreme Court and a Democratic-controlled House and Senate for two terms running.
Those are rather lopsided victory terms, though. Even if the NRA doesn’t hold back some trivial change to background checks or even a ban on AR-15s, those are nothingburger policies that are the constitutional rights violations equivalent of being told you cannot protest in a public park at 10am because the Mayor doesn’t like your politics, and so you must come back at 2pm.
On any realistic assessment of the full range of gun control policies, the NRA’s victory is every bit as complete as the ACLU’s victory on access to birth control for non-married adults. That is, it’s possible that some trivial part of it will be chipped away, and it may well be under “never-ending counter attacks,” but no sane person expects them to succeed.
Oh well, I guess its over. Nevermind.
Perhaps. Only time will tell. It took only about fifteen years from gay marriage being held as a ridiculous example by Scalia (in Loving v. VA) to becoming a reality.
Wayne Lapierre: “The solution to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Well I know who the bad guy with a gun is.
Still feels more like “not losing” than “winning”. I consider victory to mean “you can stop fighting now”.
The Worm is drifting near the bottom of the Tequila bottle.