Democrats Show Little Appetite for Gun Control (G. Gordon Liddy audio link)

This past weekend my wife and I were in a sporting goods store mulling a rifle purchase and I mentioned that the fear of Obama that's been driving gun and ammo purchases since his election may be unwarranted in actual fact.

Not that he's not anti-gun, by any means! I'm sure that if he could have his way, he'd have all of our guns.

As I've said, "Obama's never met a ban he didn't like".

But I told my wife and the store employee that I didn't think the Dems would try any serious gun control stuff until after the 2010 election and that conservative Southern Democrats would be the key to stopping it.

Furthermore, since their "stimulus bill" (which of course is just a just a huge pork spending bill by another name) will not stimulate the economy, and according to the Congressional Budget Office would be far worse than simply doing nothing, many Congressional Democrats will get thrown out on their asses in 2010, maybe even enough for a GOP takeover in one of both houses.

Remember this was last week.

This week comes an AP story that backs up my assertion, even though my geography may have been off a bit.

If you would prefer to hear G. Gordon Liddy reading the first several paragraphs of this article, click here.

Democrats Show Little Appetite for Gun Control
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
By Jim Abrams, Associated Press

Washington (AP) - The National Rifle Association warned in a
campaign ad that if Barack Obama were elected president he would
try to take away hunters' guns and ammo. But with pro-gun
Democrats a powerful force in Congress, it's already pretty clear
there will be no messing with Americans' right to bear arms.

Twenty-two Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of
Nevada, joined Republicans last week in a Senate vote to negate
the District of Columbia's tough gun registration requirements
and overturn its ban on rapid-fire semiautomatic weapons. More
than 80 House Democrats voted for a similar measure last year.

"It was a pleasant surprise, but it's not a huge surprise that
elected officials are listening to their constituents," said
Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist.

It's not certain that the gun measure, attached to a bill on D.C.
voting rights, will be a part of the final version of that bill.
But with six of 11 Democratic Senate freshmen - from pro-gun
states such as Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico and Virginia - voting
for the proposal, it was a clear sign of where Congress is
heading on gun issues.

"There has been a shift in thinking among Democrats in the last
six to eight years, away from old ideas about gun control and
limiting access to guns and toward ideas about how you actually
reduce gun crime," said Matt Bennett of Third Way, a group of
moderate Democrats active on gun control issues.

That shift has been frustrating for lawmakers who have long
decried the NRA's ability to block gun control legislation.

"We do not debate guns around here much anymore," said the
Senate's no. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, during debate
on the D.C. gun amendment. "Basically, we reached a point where
there are not many people who will stick their political necks
out to vote for sensible gun control - too big a hassle."

A case in point is new Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, a steadfast
gun rights advocate when she represented a pro-gun, Republican-
leaning district in upstate New York. Her appointment to succeed
Hillary Clinton as New York's junior senator drew protests from
gun-control Democrats, but after she voted against the D.C. gun
amendment Republicans accused her of abandoning her principles
for political expediency.

Gillibrand's spokesman, Matt Canter, said the senator supports
Second Amendment rights. But she also believes that local
governments have the right to put legitimate limits on firearms
and that law enforcement must have the tools to protect the
public from gun violence, he said.

This is where G. Gordon Liddy quit reading, but the article continues:

A major turning point came last June, when the Supreme Court, in
a 5-4 vote overturning D.C.'s ban on handgun possession,
confirmed that the Second Amendment gives private citizens the
right to bear arms.

Gun control advocates were consoled that the decision also
specifies that gun rights are not open-ended, that government can
impose some restrictions in the public interest.

With the court ruling, the argument that gun control will lead to
gun bans no longer applies, said Paul Helmke, president of the
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "The slippery slope
doesn't go anywhere anymore, and I think people realize that."

For the time being, any gun-related legislation will be
incremental. Helmke's group is urging the Obama administration to
overturn a rule imposed in the last days of the Bush
administration allowing people to carry concealed, loaded weapons
in most national parks.

There will also be a push to repeal the so-called Tiahrt
amendment, named after Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., that limits the
authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives to disclose gun-trace data to the public and requires
that certain records submitted to the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System be destroyed after 24 hours.

Both the Third Way's Bennett and Helmke said it may take another
major gun crime, like the shootings at Columbine High School or
Virginia Tech, to get Congress to act on more ambitious gun
control initiatives.

Those include overturning a law enacted in 2005 that denies gun
crime victims the right to sue firearms manufacturers and dealers
for damages.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she plans to push
legislation to reinstate a federal ban on some assault weapons
that became law during the Clinton administration in 1994 but
expired under the Bush administration in 2004. Another long-term
goal is requiring that all gun shows conduct background checks
before selling firearms.

The NRA's Cox said his group is gearing up to fight a new assault
weapons ban, noting that Obama supports one and that Attorney
General Eric Holder recently linked the proliferation of
military-style weapons to the violence along the Mexican border.
"It's laughable if it wasn't so serious to suggest that
diminishing the Second Amendment will positively impact the
situation down in Mexico," Cox said.

But he said the NRA is also prepared to work with Democrats, as
it did in 2007 in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, to
pass legislation making it easier to flag prospective gun buyers
with a history of mental problems.

If this story can get out far and wide enough (hint! hint!), then gun and ammo prices may just come back down to more realistic levels. Run with it folks!

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