Libercontrarian

Crushed between the wheels of capitalism and big government.

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I suspect that the Republican party will lose a number of seats in the House and several in the Senate this November. Furthermore, I suspect that Colorado will have a Democrat for a governor as well, seeing how Bob Beauprez is something like 17 points behind Centrist-Leftist Bill Ritter.

What does this mean for the common gun owner?

Nothing, I'll bet. The new "third rail" in American politics is gun control. The Democrats discovered this unpleasantry after taking a severe flogging in the '94 election, when they forced the completely unnecessary, utterly ineffective and un-Constitutional "Assault Weapons Ban" on an unsuspecting public. That such a foolish political action was taken shortly after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobbaco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) initiated the FBI's slaughter of the Branch Davidians, and the same bad actors attacked Randy Weaver's wife and her "Assault Baby" a year previously, was truly the nail in the coffin for the Federal Government's half-witted conspiracy to marginalize and criminalize ordinary citizens.

These days, we have the Interweb, blogs, and other sources of non-aligned information to affect change upon the political landscape. The scoundrels who occupy both of the scheming and worthless parties know and revile this fact. Truly, for the Fourth Estate, who seem to enjoy manufacturing the news whenever facts don't serve the political intent of the editors, this is a gigantic hindrence to them as well.

Yeah, gun owners will stay safe. The enemies of free-thinking people won't be able to hide in their Senate chambers or newsrooms, conspiring with the enforcement-soldiers or talking heads, without their every move being reported upon by people everywhere - remember the MemoGate scandal!

Clinton himself has said that the organization of gun owners - remember that this was largely before the Interweb became a viable entity - was responsible for the painful loss the Left experienced after that election.  From awbansunset.com:

The Federal ban on "assault weapons" became a top priority of the Clinton administration in early-1994, and was passed by a very narrow margin (216-214) in the House of Representatives (where the most resistance was expected). On September 13, 1994, about a month after being passed by the Senate, the "Crime Bill" (which included the ban) was signed by the president.

A few months later, Democrats were eviscerated at the polls, losing nine seats in the Senate, and a whopping 54 seats in the House of Representatives, handing over control of Congress to the Republicans. Among the casualties was then House Speaker Tom Foley (who, thanks to some last minute rule-breaking and arm-twisting, was largely responsible for the ban passing in the House); a district tossing out a Representative who holds such a high-level position of seniority and leadership in Congress was quite a rare event. In any case, President Clinton stated that 20-21 of the seats lost in the House were directly due to their votes on the ban. Considering that the Repubicans' post-election majority was only 14 seats, it is clear that Clinton's "assault weapons" ban cost his party control of the House.

 What the Republican party did with their newly-won power is a different story for a different post, mind you - their misuse of the mandate of authority handed to them by the people will be the cause of November's coming defeats. Nevertheless, I don't think gun owners will have much to worry about - crime is low, and even the Democrats have enough common sense not to rally their opposition with valueless new gun bans. There are too many ACTUAL problems in America for them to deal with, although I have no reason to think that they will have any more grace or intuition than the Republicans have had for the last ten years.

posted by: underwhelmed at September 18, 2006 21:32 | link | comments (1) |

Comments:

#1  19 September 2006 - 19:49

 

I sure hope you are wrong.

One thought I heard on Denver's AWB was that if we get a Rep. governor that the law will lay dormant, unenforced, particularly if the term limits for Supreme Court judges becomes reality.

I presently live in unincorporated Arapahoe but intend to move to property I own inside Denver next year. I don't want to have to house my FAL somewhere else just because of a few morons with firearms phobia.

I've given money to Rick O'Donnell and wish I could also give my vote as Perlmutter isn't worth having.

Let's hope the Democrats do what they are best at. Shooting themselves in the foot.

Hyunchback

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