Friday, December 14, 2012

Once Again



For those of you who wonder why the issue of reasonable gun control is as dead as Diogenes, Bill Clinton explains in his autobiography, "My Life":

"The NRA had already lost the fight to defeat the Brady Bill and was determined to prevail in this one so that Americans would retain their right to "keep and bear" rapid-fire, large magazine weapons designed for one purpose only:  to kill a great many people in a hurry.   These weapons worked:  crime victims shot with them were three times more likely to die than those whose assailants had fired regular handguns."  (p. 610)
...
"Just before the House vote (on the "Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act"), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn't drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (pp.611-612)
...
"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (pp. 629-630) 
"One Saturday morning, I went to a diner in Manchester full of men who were deer hunters and NRA members. In impromptu remarks, I told them that I knew they had defeated their Democratic congressman, Dick Swett, in 1994 because he voted for the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. Several of them nodded in agreement." (p. 699)

When then the day comes that being a member of the NRA triggers the same public gag reflex as being a  member of the Klan, things will change.

Until then, it won't matter how many Americans are butchered by lunatics packing more firepower than the Continental Army.

(Originally published July 23, 2012)

12 comments:

Grung_e_Gene said...

From time to time we needs must sacrifice our blood and our loved ones upon the Holy Altar of the Second Amendment in whose non well regulated militia we pray...

valdemar said...

An object lesson in how to run the village to suit the village idiot. Good post.

One Fly said...

That is for damn sure!

watchdog said...

I've been saying the same thing in a variety of threads over on Crooks & Liars. The NRA has control of the dialog and it must be taken from them. They have been allowed to hijack the second amendment and redefine it to their liking (mostly by a magic trick in which the sentence "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state" magically disappears). Previous supreme courts would constantly refer back to the 1939 Miller decision which did not follow the NRA narrative; they waited until they had some real activist judges in the Supreme Court and then had them vote the NRA definition as the final word on the meaning of the second amendment.

The US has a culture, a gun culture. Completely different from anything else in the world. There have been a variety of people who have stated that armed people in the theatre could have stopped this guy before so many had died. That is an old west mentality based on myth, for one thing the gunman was wearing body armor from head to toe, for another thing it was dark in the theater and the gunman threw in smoke bombs to make it even more obscure.

Our ridiculous gun culture needs to change, badly and the NRA (the most useless organization in America today) needs to go as well, or go back to being what they were before a bunch of Birchers took it over in the 70s, a club to promote better marksmanship only.

ChiefD said...

I think part of the key to changing the terms of the discussion is to take on the NRA on their own terms--the Constitution. Let them argue the "right to bear arms" clause. The Left needs to counter with the "well-regulated" clause. Hey, it's in there, too.
ChiefD (used to be CapD--got a promotion)

Chaz said...

When then the day comes that being a member of the NRA triggers the same public gag reflex as being a member of the Klan, things will change.
...... probably might pay you something for that sentence, some day.

To honor our guns, a song of the day from the late Dave Carter, from drum hat buddha. That's Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer. Mustn't forget Tracy.

slender and wicked, flame in her eyes,
pearl white and nickel 'round the curve of her thighs
smooth as dry whisky, but cold to caress
she slid like a viper from her tooled leather dress

and the youTube url-

http://youtu.be/1LM9m5okKyw

Mister Roboto said...

Mike Huckabee's commentary on the school-massacre was about what you would expect.

Anonymous said...

Have 10,000 young black men and Muslims join the NRA in one months time. Spend the next month going on cable news networks touting that the NRA has had 10,000 black men and Muslims join their crusade in just the last month alone. Sit back and watch the nation neuter the NRA's political clout on its own. The end.

Berto

Bisham said...

Interesting notion Berto, if the NRA was dominated by blacks and latinos can you imagine what the limbaugh-tomized crowd would be saying about it? The black panthers with concealed carry permits? The Bloods and the Crips united and with non-profit status, lobbying congress?

Ormond Otvos said...

Now THAT is a brilliant idea. Even better, subsidize the Black Muslims' membership fees. Pay for them to practice at gun ranges. Buy them ammunition.

Kathy said...

Americans are brainwashed into really, truly believing that

Guns = Freedom
Guns = Patriotism
Guns = Honor, Duty, Country

and last but not least-

Guns = masculinity.

blader said...

+1 on Black Muslim join NRA idea