Rand Paul, "defender" of the Constitution, mouthpiece for the NRA.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
takes to the op-ed pages of the
Washington Times (where else?) with a screed that could have been ghost-written by Wayne LaPierre, justifying his filibuster threat of any proposed gun safety laws.
It's nothing you haven't heard before directly from the NRA:
Restricting Americans’ ability to purchase firearms readily and freely will do nothing to stop national tragedies such as those that happened in Newtown, Conn., and in Aurora, Colo. It will do much to give criminals and potential killers an unfair advantage by hampering law-abiding citizens’ ability to defend themselves and their families. Potentially on the table are new laws that would outlaw firearms and magazines that hold more than just a handful of rounds, as well as require universal “background checks,” which amount to gun registration.We are also being told that the “assault weapons” ban originally introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein is not happening. We can only hope. But in Washington, D.C., bad ideas often have a strange way of coming up again.
These laws are designed to sound reasonable, but statistics have shown that gun control simply does not work.What constitutes reasonable? If limiting rounds and increasing surveillance were really the solution to curbing gun violence, why should we stop there?
Because the Second Amendment. Gun registration as surveillance. Heavy-handed government, dangerous criminals, home invasions, really, you know the drill. Paul then reminds readers of his recent heroic not-a-filibuster "filibuster."
When I stood up for the Fourth and Fifth Amendments during a filibuster a few weeks ago to address drones and executive power, it was not because I was partial to those amendments, important as they are. When I came into office, I took an oath to uphold the Bill of Rights.
Rand Paul wasn't filibustering on drones. He was grandstanding. He wasn't preventing any legislation from coming to the floor, he was using regular debate that would have otherwise just been filled up with quorum calls and pleasant classical music on CSPAN-2. The vote on John Brennan was going to happen and Paul wasn't going to stop it. Now he's making himself out to be the hero, the last line of defense for the Constitution.
Now this, his threat to "work diligently to stop" any gun legislation is a filibuster. And he and his cohorts will thwart the majority and block legislation that the country is demanding painlessly, without even having to stand on the Senate floor and declare themselves. That's a modern-day filibuster, and that's what needs to change.
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