TW: The Obama administration is apparently putting gun control on the backburner. They are doing so in the face of stark political reality. There is clearly a segment of swing voters who are willing to vote for Democrats as long as they guard their perceived precious gun rights. I fear this calculation is accurateI never have and likely never will understand the following:
"I can tell you, that assault-weapons ban is just an excuse to take away a sportsman's shotguns"
-- Dan Boren (Democratic congressman Oklahoma)
I can only speak for myself but I strongly support gun control but really could give a rat's ass if Dan Boren or anyone else wants to go shoot animals (excluding humans or my cats) or targets or the one in a million other person armed with evil intent of some sort. I just do not understand why we need automatic weapons, concealed weapons etc. in quantities sufficient to support a nation ten times our size with plenty leftover to arm other nations. The ideology embedded in Boren's comment leads to horribly narrow-minded policy detrimental to our nation and other nations' interests.
All that said Obama is right and for him to go down that path right now would be counter-productive. There are holes in democracy which permit things like vast farm subsidies, sugar tariffs, Cuban embargoes and this. So Congrats NRA!! You win (for now) but I still despise it.
From Newsweek:
"...In the past, national political leaders might have raised troubling questions about how such an unstable character could obtain easy access to high-powered weapons. They might have been even more motivated given that Poplawski's cop-killing spree was part of a near epidemic of mass homicides that have left 58 people dead over the past month. Or given that Mexico's insanely violent drug cartels are arming themselves with high-powered assault weapons purchased at U.S. gun stores and later smuggled south of the border. Yet many past champions of stricter gun-control measures are silent. These include top Obama White House officials who have squelched any talk within the administration about pushing further gun-control measures."It's weird," says Peter Hamm, the communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "When you see people like [Attorney General] Eric Holder or Hillary Clinton or Rahm Emanuel become muted on this issue, you feel like you want to call up a friend and say, 'What's up?'
Running for president in last year's Democratic primaries, Barack Obama promised to restore a federal ban on certain semiautomatic assault guns—a position that's still on the White House Web site. The ban was originally passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress in 1994 and lapsed five years ago. In recent years the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also lifted virtually all restrictions on imports of foreign-made assault weapons, permitting a flood of cheap Romanian, Bulgarian and other Eastern European AK-47s to enter the country, according to gun-control groups. "There's been an absolute deluge of these weapons," says Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center.
But Obama and top White House aides have all but abandoned the issue
...The new Democratic squishiness on guns is all about politics. Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are determined to protect the seats of "blue dogs" from rural districts who are essential to preserving the party's majority in the House. "The Democratic Party understands this is a losing issue … It's a dead loser," says Democratic Rep. Dan Boren, of Muskogee, Okla. "Its one of the reasons they lost the Congress in 1994 and Al Gore was not elected president in 2000....
...The NRA loves blue dogs like Boren. The organization feels that it's stronger in Congress than it has been in at least two decades. Emboldened by a Supreme Court decision last year that affirmed Second Amendment rights, the lobby has pushed a series of congressional measures that are diluting gun restrictions. With virtually no public notice, the Senate recently passed an amendment to the budget bill that would reverse a post-9/11 policy and allow passengers to bring guns in their checked bags on Amtrak trains. (In passing the amendment by an overwhelming margin, the Senate ignored pleas by Amtrak officials that the measure could endanger safety.) "
http://www.newsweek.com/id/193589">http://www.newsweek.com/id/193589
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