Yes, it is pathetic, but I guess I should expect nothing less than pathetic incompetence from the government these days.
This was the best opportunity the country has had in ages to achieve intelligent, meaningful, reasonable gun control that respected individual rights while preserving public safety. There were countless proposals put forth from both sides that I would have supported, and many “pro-gun” folks would have as well. As I have mentioned before, I have sold guns online, and I have always insisted on a background check. Many gun owners feel the same way - no one wants criminals to have guns. But we also would like legislation that respects our judgement and does not uselessly and blindly inconvenience us while doing nothing to stop crime.
But instead of actually listening to the other side and attempting to reach a meaningful compromise that would achieve their stated goals without imposing on the rights of normal citizens, the Democrats figured 20 dead kids would be enough to exploit our collective emotional response and allow them to ram through the same tired bullshit their fanatic base has been fantasizing about for the past two decades. And thanks to their hubris and miscalculation, they’ve wasted the opportunity to get anything done.
It continues to amaze me how after all this, there are STILl people who don’t know these basic facts. It would be like not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shia in 2004.
What sort of concessions did you have in mind? What would make you comfortable with a national registry?
But if they actually did what they purported to do, would you support the bill?
OMG, zombies, they’re real!!! Its the zombieapocalypse! Bet you wish you had an assault weapon now.
I’ve been saying this since they brought up the assault weapons ban in December. BTW, where was Feinstein yesterday, I wonder why she wasn’t invited to the post mortem of the failed gun control bill? She was so front and center with her AWB for the 2 or 3 months following the Newtown massacre. maybe the gun cotnrol advocates have figured out taht they have done the equivalent of letting the “tea party” of the gun gontrol side of the argument run their politics for them.
You mean like senator Baucus from Montana (who had the closest election of his career after he voted for the AWB in 1994); or
Mark Begich of Alaska (the first Democrat to represent Alaska since Reagan won in 1980, I can’t think of a more pro-gun state than Alaska); or
Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota (who won by less than 3000 votes and is generally very pro-gun rights); or
Mark Pryor of Arkansas?
Which of those senatorial seats would you like to see flip to the Republican side?
They motion was defeated by 6 votes, all of the Democrats could have fallen on their swords over this minimally effective legislation to make a point but it wouldn’t have made a difference without at least 2 more Republican defectors. It could have happened if they hadn’t let Feinstein lead the charge on gun reform but they did and they can only blame themselves.
This is pretty much how I feel. I support gun rights (perhaps not as much as some but more than most people i know) and this was an opportunity to severely constrict criminal access to guns while imposing a moderate but not onerous burden on law abiding citizens. I think a little bit of sugar in the form of a national CCW and a law against confiscation at any level of government would have been just the right amount of sweetener to make the national registry seem a little less bitter. Hell, you could even require police departments to sell some subset of confiscated guns at auction and a few other symbolic (but totally meaningless) things that would placate the gun nuts.
If you really wanted to grease the skids, you could remove the ban on the manufacture and sale of select fire weapons while keeping them subject to the NFA, this would have the bonus effect of reducing the value of some private arsenals by 90%+.
Can you imagine what that would look like prior to passage? You would have gun owners who own select fire and other naughty weapons fighting to KEEP gun control laws the way they are rather than loosen them. Some very strange bedfellows would be made during the debates.
What were the stated goals that this bill would have accomplished? It would have been trivially easy to circumvent, criminals would still be able to acquire firearms, etc. Firearms used in crime are not generally acquired through gunshows per se - rather straw purchases. Nothing in this bill would have done a thing to prevent Lanza. This was far from intelligent, meaningful, or reasonable.
Like I mentioned, not without meaningful concessions.
Federal shall issue with national reciprocity. At a minimum - details would matter.