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Federal Assault Weapon Ban Update

By now you’ve probably heard that Dianne Feinstein’s Assault Weapon legislation was killed in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) after the legislation narrowly passed out of committee. Many are understandably saying that this is good news, and by itself I agree. Having said that, I wish that Feinstein’s legislation would have gone to a vote, and here’s why.

Senator Reid said that he didn’t allow the assault weapons and magazine capacity legislation to brought to the floor for a vote because it had no chance of passing. This I agree with – it has no chance. It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that the dear sweet Democrats did not have the votes needed to pass the legislation even in Senate, let alone in the Republican controlled House. Here’s how Senator Reid phrased it:

I’m not going to try to put something on the floor that won’t succeed. I want something that will succeed. I think the worst of all worlds would be to bring something to the floor and it dies there.

On the surface this sounds great, but what happens next? Senate Democrats are currently working on gun control legislation that will be brought to the floor for a vote sometime after the Easter break. What exactly will be in this legislation is not clear at this time, but Reid did say that he would allow both the ban on assault weapons (semiautomatic weapons) and high capacity (standard capacity) magazines to be voted on as separate amendments to the legislation. So this is something we definitely need to keep an eye on.

What’s Really Going On

Here’s what’s going on, and why I wish Reid had let the legislation come to a vote.

What you are seeing is politicians who are worried about the not too far off 2014 elections. There are several Senate seats open for contest in 2014 in conservative states, and the Democrats are scared that even voting on gun control would kill their chances. And you know what? They’re right for a change.

Think about it for a second – by not letting the legislation come to a vote, Senator Reid protected the 30-40 senators who would have voted for it. Now their opponents in next year’s election can’t run ads saying “Senator XYZ voted to take away your guns”. This one issue alone could have turned the Democratic controlled Senate into a Republican controlled Senate.

This is exactly why I wanted Feinstein’s legislation to come to a vote. Voting would have identified the enemy to the common voting public who isn’t paying attention, and it would have secured us a couple more years of not having to worry about gun control legislation with a Republican controlled House and Senate.

As it stands now though, barring another high profile mass shooting, the 2014 elections will determine the next round in the semiautomatic weapons and magazine capacity debates.

Constant vigilance my friends.

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8 Responses to Federal Assault Weapon Ban Update

  1. Eric Lopez March 21, 2013 at 10:02 am #

    Good point Moderno!

  2. Camo March 21, 2013 at 10:13 am #

    Gun rights still under full attack!! http://nagr.org/triple-threat.aspx

  3. Ira G March 21, 2013 at 10:15 am #

    as always , well done!!

    http://www.smallarmstrader.com

  4. Christopher Gleason March 21, 2013 at 10:37 am #

    Unfortunately, the evil witch is not done…She is going for a magazine ban amendment…We have not won this war yet…

  5. scott rylander March 21, 2013 at 12:24 pm #

    WELL SAID !!!!!!!!!!!

  6. Phil Katz March 23, 2013 at 7:53 am #

    Studies Show Conclusively Restrictive Gun Laws Do Not Reduce Murder, Suicide or Violence
    By Imperator March 6, 2013

    Harvard Law Review
    US National Academy of Sciences
    Centers for Disease Control
    Centre for Economic Policy Research

    Harvard Law Review:
    WOULD BANNING FIREARMS REDUCE MURDER AND SUICIDE?
    A REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AND SOME DOMESTIC EVIDENCE
    DON B. KATES* AND GARY MAUSER**
    From Page 2: “International evidence and comparisons have long been offered as proof of the mantra that more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths.1 Unfortunately, such discussions are all too often been afflicted by misconceptions and factual error and focus on comparisons that are unrepresentative. It may be useful to begin with a few examples. There is a compound assertion that (a) guns are uniquely available in the United States compared with other modern developed nations, which is why (b) the United States has by far the highest murder rate. Though these assertions have been endlessly repeated, statement (b) is, in fact, false and statement (a) is substantially so.”
    From Page 6: “two recent studies are pertinent. In 2004,
    the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released its evaluation
    from a review of 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government
    publications, and some original empirical research. It failed to
    identify any gun control that had reduced violent crime, suicide,
    or gun accidents.15 The same conclusion was reached in
    2003 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s review of then extant
    studies.16”
    The following study confirms the Harvard Law, US National Academy of Science and Centers for Disease Control findings that gun control does not reduce murder or violence when the United states, where legal gun ownership is on the rise, is compared to Europe with strict controls on private firearms ownership:
    Centre for Economic Policy Research:
    Crime in Europe and in the US: Dissecting the ‘Reversal of Misfortunes’
    Paolo Buonnano, Francesco Drago, Roberto Galbiati and Giulio Zanella
    “Contrary to common perceptions, today crime is more widespread in Europe than in the US, while the opposite was true thirty years ago. In 1970 the aggregate crime rate in the seven European countries we consider was 63% the corresponding US figure, but by 2007 it was 85% higher than in the US.”
    The literature clearly indicates that the unintended consequences of gun control will be a rise in the victimization of the law abiding population by emboldened criminals.

    Like us on Facebook: “The Olde North Church” and “New York Sons of Liberty”

  7. Michial Smith March 26, 2013 at 10:34 am #

    well when it comes to voting….don’t vote for liberal turds…that freaking simple