In between the Birthers going mainstream, Sarah Palin speaking in beat poetry, and Senator Beanball finally deciding to call in a reliever, overlooked was an unsuccessful effort by the NRA that's rather mind-blowing: John Thune wanted to force every state in the country to recognize the gun laws of Texas and Alaska.
Seriously... the same Republican Party that screams Socialism! and Tyranny! at the first sign of the federal government... you know... existing, had one of its bright young stars introduce a bill designed to overturn state laws.
Now why would they do that? Oh, right...
When this amendment went down, it was the first time in five years that the NRA didn’t get what it wanted. And the bill didn’t just fail: Two Republican senators made it fail. Dick Lugar and George Voinovich, take a bow.
Of course, this begs the question: if Dick Lugar and George Voinovich will stand up to something, why won’t all of the Democrats (20 voted for the amendment)? I’m especially thinking of the new blue state of Colorado, which saw both of its U.S. Senators, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, run scared from the gun lobby that all of a sudden thinks that states' rights is a dirty word.
Why should Colorado be more ashamed of this than, say, Montana, which also saw both of their Democratic senators vote for Texas’ laws to govern Minnesota? Worst episode of school violence in American History, anybody?
Michael Bennet was a school superintendent. Mark Udall was a freshman congressman when Columbine went down.
Does. Not. Compute.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
NRA defeated, no thanks to some new Democratic Senators
Posted by Media Czech at 9:16 PM
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5 Comments:
Isn't this a "full faith and credit" issue?
If states are required to accept other states' driver's licenses -- and there is also a push to force states to accept and recognize same-sex marriage licenses issued in other states -- then why not concealed-carry licenses?
When the federal government tries to force recognition of same-sex marriage on Kentucky in defiance of our state law and constitution, will your attitude be the same? It's doubtful.
I don't like guns either, but what does the Thune amendment have to do with Columbine? The shooters weren't concealed-carry-permit holders from another state who came into Colorado, and as minors it wouldn't have been legal for them to get such permits anyway. Nor do I see how enacting the Thune amendment would increase the risk of Columbine-like incidents.
So why use a non-sequitur like Columbine when the concerns that Bloomberg et al have cited about urban crime are much more relevant?
Does. Not. Compute.
$ure it doe$.
After watching the Columbine cops stand around with their fingers up their asses or the aftermath of gun free Virginia Tech I joined the NRA. Thanks for the reminder of boomerang liberalism.
Brenton: it's not the cause, it's the culture and the money. Bennet and Udall dove on that shiz because they wanted to get paid. They should have passed because it's particularly insensitive to ask their consituents to go "oh, well, my son wasn't killed by a concealed gun, so concealed guns are still cool."
Anon 1: You may have a snowball's chance in hell with that argument if every state had concealed carry laws. You know, the same way every state has drivers licenses, and marriage licenses.
Anon 2: Thanks for the reminder that when the shooting starts I want to be nowhere near you.
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