Gun Control & RKBA

Why are assault weapons still a topic?

This is the sub-issue that gives me migraines. There are three options in my mind, and I'm not sure which applies.

1) Democratic Party leaders are truly so stupid and dishonest that they believe that "assault weapons" bans have merit. On the subject of gunz they take a faith-based position in contrast to the reason-based positions they take on all other issues. (Same applies to the base of course.)

2) Democratic Party leaders know that they have painted themselves into a corner with decades of hysteria and lies, and are at the point where they can't back away from the position and admit that they erred. Even if they did, the base is so hopelessly brainwashed that they wouldn't listen. (GOP equivalent --- Obamacare is an abomination) For example, a friend of mine believes that "assault weapons" fire at a faster rate than other semi-auto rifles, and no amount of proof will move him off that position.

3) Most cynically, Democrats are serving the interests of the 1%, keeping the fight going with Republicans on this hot-button social issue so as to keep attention diverted from the real problems we face.

Are these in the platform just because they are opposite Republican goals?

I think that's part of it. Democrats tend to be truly empathetic, and see "gun control" as a natural position that empathetic folks would take. An ego-reinforcing dynamic. Of course what restriction supporters stubbornly refuse to consider is that most "gun control" measures are not only misguided/useless, but self-defeating. Contempt for all things gun related drives this denial.

Given the fact that Democrats see their position (mistakenly) as righteous, they fail to see the truth -- which is that many of their areas of angst constitute culture war.....owing to the fact that laws regulating magazine capacity (one example) don't make a damn bit of difference w/regard to saving lives. More than anything else, culture war fires up the opposition, and in my view that is the chief threat to Democratic Party credibility/relevance.