Category: 2008 Election

Bitter points to an interview in Field and Stream where McCain talks about his positions on guns.  He’s still supporting regulating private transfers, but he’s definitely mellowed on the issue a lot since 2002-2003 timeframe.  The real fear is that a Democrat congress will send McCain a private sale bill and force him into a position where he either has to flip-flop, or piss us off.  Either way, the Democrats win.

I’m actually surprised the Republicans in Pennsylvania didn’t try that with Ed Rendell more in his first term, when they controlled both the Senate and General Assembly.

The Inky is editorializing against Congressman Pat Murphy because he apparently doesn’t hate guns enough:

It sure looked that way yesterday, when Murphy voted with the National Rifle Association – and against the best interests of cities in his own backyard trying to stem gun violence, including Philadelphia.

Murphy was among 85 House Democrats who joined 181 Republicans in approving a bill that would roll back gun-safety measures enacted by the District of Columbia, after the Supreme Court struck down the city’s 32-year-old handgun ban in June.

I’d be willing to go to bat for Congressman Murphy if he was legitimately having a change of heart on the gun issue, but what does one of his staffers say?

Aides insist the congressman hasn’t changed his stripes. He still favors a ban on assault weapons and supports “reasonable gun laws.” The District of Columbia vote was about “striking the proper balance between constitutional rights and reasonable restrictions.”

Who is running this campaign?  If you want to play the moderate-on-the-gun-issue suburban Democrat, the way Murphy is playing it is exactly wrong.  It’s guaranteed to get him no allies.

I’m angry with Murphy’s support of the so called “assault weapons” ban.  This violates one of our commandments, “Thou shalt not support gun bans!” HR1022, which Murphy has signed on to a sponsor, will ban most of the firearms that high-power competition shooters compete with, including the AR-15 and M1A.  It will ban the Ruger 10/22.  It will also ban all semi-automatic shotguns.  That’s not moderate.  That’s extreme.  Murphy will get no support from us, no matter what he does on the DC issue, if he doesn’t withdraw his sponsorship of this bill.

On the other side of the card, the radical gun control activists in Philadelphia are furious that Murphy is supporting the Second Amendment when it comes to the Heller decision.  Now even the Inky is calling him out for his ridiculous triangulation on this issue.

Patrick Murphy did not win Bucks County in 2006.  He lost it narrowly.  Because Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District includes parts of Montgomery County, and the City of Philadelphia, that was enough to win him the seat. Running on gun control, but only sort of, is exactly the wrong politics to play for this district.  Murphy needs to pick a side, and I think the Congressman would find that truly embracing gun rights would find him a lot more support than gun control.

There are more than a dozen shooting clubs in Bucks County, several of which have memberships in the thousands.  A lot of these guys are union members, and have common cause with the Democratic Party on other issue.  Why is Congressman Murphy throwing these votes away for what measly support he’ll get from the few gun control proponents out there?

Right now his triangulation is ensuring that on the gun issue, Patrick Murphy is losing votes on all sides.  That’s never smart politics.

Congressman Jason Altmire was one of the representatives to get up on the House Floor last night to speak in favor of HR6691:

When the D.C. City Council decided to ignore a ruling from the United States Supreme Court and when the District of Columbia decided to play games with the Constitution of the United States, it was they that brought us to the point where we are today, where congressional intervention is necessary to uphold the rights of Washington, D.C. citizens under the second amendment to the Constitution.

As a signatory of the amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn the unconstitutional gun ban, I was outraged at the D.C. Council’s new gun restrictions. So I joined with Mr. Childers of Mississippi to help craft the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, which is the text of the amendment we are debating here tonight.

This bill repeals D.C.’s gun ban and permits law-abiding gun owners the right to keep their firearms in ways that will ensure their availability and use for self-defense. This amendment ensures that the intent of the Supreme Court and of the second amendment are upheld for all citizens, including those who live in the District of Columbia.

As I said before, when it counts, Altmire has been with gun owners.  While I greatly appreciate the work Congresswoman Hart did for gun owners when she was in Congress, I think it’s hard to agree that Jason Altmire hasn’t been a leader on this issue.

The Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate for Governor of Delaware, who’s a dyed in the wool gun hater, has a blog that allows comments.  Be polite.  Be concise, but let’s put some pressure on.  Let him know gun owners are watching.

Hat tip to Mike W of Another Gun Blog

From Today’s Whipping Post:

H.R. 6842 – National Capital Security and Safety Act (Closed Rule) (Sponsored by Del. Norton / Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

The rule provides for 1 hour of general debate and makes in order the following amendment:

Childres Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (60 minutes)

This essentially means Norton’s bill, that would just nicely tell The District that they should really think hard about complying with Heller, will receive a brief polite debate, and promptly be replaced by HR6691, that would actually restore the Second Amendment in The District.  After that, it will go to the house floor for a vote.

There has been some talk in the blogosphere that this effort is just political theater.  Well, in the sense that the chance of getting this all the way through is slim, it is.  But why discount political theater?  Most of the political discourse in Washington that people see is theater.  That’s not to say it can’t be useful.  So why proceed with HR6691 even though there’s little chance of actually passing it?

• It gets everyone in The House on the record as to whether or not they support Heller.  They can’t just get away with saying “I support the Second Amendment” or “I have a concealed carry permit”.  They have to choose sides.  My Congressman, who runs around shouting the latter quote, despite his support for gun bans, decided he couldn’t afford to oppose HR6691.  That was a useful signal that he’s worried about the gun owner vote coming out against him.
• The bill will now head to the Senate, where it’s most likely that Harry Reid is going to do everything he can to keep it off the floor to prevent Obama and Biden from having to take a stand on it.
• We can now put the Blue Dogs, at least one of which has been running around being telling Montana gun owners that Obama has a great record on guns, in the position of getting behind a discharge petition to get it onto the floor no matter what Reid wants to do.  This is the same game that was played in the House.  We might also get to find out whether our own Senator Casey is, in fact, still alive.
• You never know.  The bill might very well end up passing.  It’s an uphill battle, but it could happen.

So we’re in the position in 2008 where the Democrats really don’t want guns to be an issue.  That’s why Barack Obama has been running around telling everyone he supports the Second Amendment, and won’t take their guns.  We would really like guns to be an issue, because that will rally our base in an election year where people think other things are more important.

We have absolutely nothing to lose by pushing this bill, and everything to gain.  It will force Obama to take a position on Heller that’s more than just lip service.  You can bet he won’t be voting for any discharge petitions, and you can definitely bet he won’t vote for the eventual bill, and that will be one more club we can beat him with.  Is it political theater?  Absolutely.  But good political theater wins elections.