Gun Control & RKBA

SecularMotion

(7,981 posts) Mon May 23, 2016, 08:22 AM May 2016

The Moment When The National Rifle Association Shot Itself In The Foot

District of Columbia v. Heller the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision that upended decades of Second Amendment law and handed a major victory to supporters of gun rights, was “wrongly decided,” according to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

It’s a remarkable moment for the campaign itself and in the evolution of gun politics in the United States. Hillary Clinton’s husband, President Bill Clinton, reportedly believed that his party’s support for an assault weapon’s ban cost Democrats about 20 seats in the 1994 U.S. House elections. Now, more than two decades later, the former Secretary of State has apparently decided that there is no margin to trying not to anger the gun lobby. Short of promising to send federal agents to every gun owner’s home to personally seize their firearms, it’s hard to imagine another statement the Hillary Clinton campaign could have made that is more likely to antagonize the National Rifle Association and its allies.

As recently as three years ago, President Clinton sang a cautious tune on guns, warning Democratic donors “not be self-congratulatory about how brave you [are] for being for” gun regulation because “the only brave people are the people who are going to lose their jobs if they vote with you.” A few months later, four Senate Democrats joined the overwhelming majority of the chamber’s Republicans in filibustering a popular background checks bill to death.

Yet, despite this history of many Democrats being reluctant to cross the NRA and its supporters, the organization has spent the last several years seemingly doing everything in its power to discourage Democrats from playing ball with the gun lobby.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/05/23/3780717/moment-national-rifle-association-shot-foot/

6 replies

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Highlight:

The Moment When The National Rifle Association Shot Itself In The Foot (Original Post) SecularMotion May 2016 OP

The NRA couldn't NOT endorse Donald Trump TupperHappy May 2016 #1

The moment when the gun control lobby shot itself in the foot... benEzra May 2016 #2

So called 'Gun Control' CompanyFirstSergeant May 2016 #3

This is what, the 273rd "End of the NRA" cut and paste post by you? DonP May 2016 #4

Can't be bothered to call Kamala Harris out for shooting herself in the foot SecMo? pablo_marmol May 2016 #5

guns don't have rights....people do. ileus May 2016 #6

TupperHappy

(166 posts)

1. The NRA couldn't NOT endorse Donald Trump

Reply to SecularMotion (Original post)

Mon May 23, 2016, 10:05 AM

May 2016

Pardon the double negative, but realistically, what choice did they have? Not endorsing anyone was never going to happen, not with the stakes in this election. Endorsing a third party candidate was also not in the cards. The only two third-party candidates with even a mathematical chance for winning the presidency will be the Green and Libertarian party nominees, guess which one supports the Second Amendment. And even though I would love to see the LP win this year the chances for that are slim to none, and Slim just left town.

So it comes down to selecting the least worst option. Do you go with a candidate whose has constantly flip flopped on gun rights but is at least saying the right things now, or with the candidate who is unrelentingly hostile to the Second Amendment?

To borrow a phrase, when it comes to the two main parties, all Presidential candidates are awful, but one is more awful than the other. To put it another way, this time around, the devil you know is NOT the better option.

benEzra

(12,148 posts)

2. The moment when the gun control lobby shot itself in the foot...

Reply to SecularMotion (Original post)

Mon May 23, 2016, 07:35 PM

May 2016

was when it decided to bet the farm on the "assault weapon" fraud and magazine bans. There were other things that hurt their cause as well, but Clinton's AWB was the Pyrrhic victory that all but obliterated the Brady Campaign and set the rest of the U.S. gun control lobby on a path to spluttering, extremist irrelevance. Were it not for the megabucks of a single Wall Street control freak, it'd be defunct---all largely because a stupid bait-and-switch with no relation to fighting violence morphed into the primary goal of the gun control movement.

CompanyFirstSergeant

(1,558 posts)

3. So called 'Gun Control'

Reply to SecularMotion (Original post)

Mon May 23, 2016, 07:56 PM

May 2016

Has been losing for 20+ years now.

It is a morally and politically bankrupt effort.

Gun controllers lost me twice.

First, when they considered the AWB a victory. It was useless and ineffective in every conceivable way.

Second, when they started to call themselves 'Gun Safety.' What a total, utter fraud.

And so you did not forget - the past 10 years have been the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for RKBA.

DonP

(6,185 posts)

4. This is what, the 273rd "End of the NRA" cut and paste post by you?

Reply to SecularMotion (Original post)

Mon May 23, 2016, 10:10 PM

May 2016

But none of these dire and "newsworthy" expert predictions of the "beginning of the end" for the NRA, the SAF or the pro 2nd movement in general ever seem to actually happen.

Their paid membership just keeps going up and they and the Second Amendment Foundation just keep winning in court and legislatures.

Never get tired of being wrong and looking silly, huh?