Gun control has become the new ‘third rail of politics’. Democrats learned that lesson in the 2000 election, when gun owners provided the margin of victory. It was payback for years of vilification by Bill Clinton and his surrogates.
Since then, the Second Amendment has achieved a new respectability in the public consciousness, along with the common sense realization that criminals – who are by definition not law-abiding – will always have weapons. The Heller decision last year resoundingly affirmed that the Second Amendment is an individual right – a proposition that only a judge could ever have doubted.
But the Democrats appear ready to drink the Kool Aid once again.
Back on February 26, Eric Holder publicly opined that Congress should re-institute the ‘assault weapon’ ban that lapsed in 2004 because of a supposed ‘flow of weapons’ from the U.S. into Mexico. As I commented at the time, the MSM have been dutifully repeating the arms smuggling meme.
Only one problem with the meme. It’s not true. None of the agencies involved along the border have been willing to provide proof to back up their claims and it’s reasonably clear that arms in bulk are flowing into Mexico from Central America, not the U.S.
But back to Kool Aid. In recent Senate Judiciary hearings on Mexican violence, the Dems were definitely ready to imbibe.
In the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Chairman Durbin also made it clear he thought American guns, and not drug lords, drug users or illegal gun traffickers are the cause of violence in Mexico. Durbin had a terse exchange with Senator Jeff Sessions when Senator Sessions stated that American guns were not the problem. Durbin snapped back at the Senator from Alabama, stating his firm belief that guns were indeed the problem.
In addition to Durbin, Senator Dianne Feinstein used this forum to express her long opposition to American gun owners’ rights. In her remarks she made it clear she intends to use this crisis as an excuse to promote new gun laws here at home. During her remarks, she repeated the claim that 90% of seized guns come from America, and also stated that there are over 2,000 guns smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. each day.
Feinstein even tried to elicit support for that number from a representative from the BATFE. But when he responded that the number was much lower, most likely in the hundreds, Senator Feinstein was clearly unhappy that he would not endorse her anti-gun soundbite.
I think everyone’s getting tired of crisis-mongering as a pretext for rights-grabbing. I’m somewhat surprised, however, that Durbin and Feinstein would be so driven that they’d flirt with party political suicide. Well, maybe not. Durbin compared our troops to the SS and Pol Pot. And Feinstein is from San Francisco.
Enough said.
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