Often times, when writing about gun rights, I have stated that it is not a Democrat or Republican issue. And while that may be true when speaking about the voting populace, the everyday Joe, it does not seem to be the case in government. For weeks now, all I have seen are headlines of gun control legislation passing this committee or that, a state legislature here or there and always down party lines. While there are exceptions, the voting record makes it clear. The Democratic Party is no friend of the Second Amendment.
The most recent example of this phenomena happened on Thursday with the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to reinstate the assault weapons ban. The vote marked the first significant challenge to expiration of the ban since it reached sunset in 2004 and expired.
The photo shows a Republican on the left and Democrats in the center and right, but that depiction could not be further from the truth.
The ban still faces an unlikely uphill challenge to pass the full Senate and has even less chance in the House—today. Make no mistake; there is an agenda here. This action is an attempt to get the issue front and center and being voted down will not end it. This is a long fight and we should all be thankful it is happening now.
It is important to point out that given the Democratic-led, party-line stance playing out against the Second Amendment across the country, we would have already lost our gun rights had the entire timeline been moved back a few years to when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Had this legislation been introduced a few years ago when the health care debate was going on we would have all been disarmed or turned into criminals by the Democrats.
That is not to say we are out of the woods until the next round of national elections. The Judiciary Committee’s votes, coupled with the actions of democratic lawmakers in New York, Colorado and California—just to name a few, have given us a peek into the Democrat’s agenda. A few years ago, I would not have thought they would have dared bring these bills up with any seriousness. However, we don’t need to look any further than one of Obama’s most trusted advisors—Rahm Emanuel—from his first administration to understand the Democratic agenda.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
And given the tragedy in Connecticut, it is evident that the Democrats have been lurking in the shadows for the opportunity to capitalize on just such a heinous act, which was already illegal. The fact that the new proposed laws would have done nothing to prevent such an act is of little importance to lawmakers.
Democrats started small by misleading the public with rhetoric and inflammatory labels such as assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Without such falsehoods their gun control legislation would never have made it this far.
For the Democrats it has never been about the will of the people or common sense, it has been about waiting for the right crisis. Feinstein has been quoted on numerous occasions boasting about the number of years she has worked and waited for the right political climate to reintroduce her gun control legislation.
Soon the Democrats will have to open their hand once again and show their cards when this legislation goes to the full floor for debate and a vote. However, they will not show all of their cards. I watched the Health Care vote live on TV. I watched the cowardly politicians hang back and wait until the vote had already been decided before going forward and voting against it. This was not done out of a belief of right or wrong, but shrewd and calculated attempts to mislead voters as to the true color of their allegiance. Political careers first and the people be damned. I see no reason to believe that these same politicians would not use the same tactics this time around.
They started small by misleading the public with rhetoric and inflammatory labels such as assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. It has been pointed out that the weapons in question do not come close to meeting the definition of an assault weapon. The magazines are standard issue and capacity for every law enforcement agency across the country, but somehow outrageously dangerous in your hands or mine.
Here is just another example of the hypocrisy of the left. First, Gifford’s husband is caught buying an AR-15 then photos surface of Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords holding an AR-15 for a campaign photo.
The Democrats fight may be an uphill battle, however we need to take action now and show them just how steep that hill really is, and how treacherous the climb can be. We need to expose the hypocrisy of Mark Kelly testifying before Congress one week and being caught buying a Modern Sporting Rifle (AR-15) the next. We need to speak loud and clear through e-mail campaigns, phone calls and with our support of pro gun groups such as the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, National Association for Gun Rights and others.
Most of all we need to remember the old political saying, “All politics are local.” While it is the national legislators getting most of the press, we need to focus on the grass-roots effort. We need to show our support for the efforts happening in our local communities and states. The national organizations are doing a great job managing the big picture and our support is critical to that effort, but it is every bit as important to support the organizations fighting for your Second Amendment rights on a local level.
