There are a number of wonderful subgroups on Daily Kos. There is the WGLB GLBT group, the GUS (Give up Smoking) group, the IGTNT diaries, the birdbloggers, the recent chess tournament, the home repair bloggers, the dKos university, Black Kos, Mojo Friday/NFTT, Brothers and Sisters, Pooties and Woozles, and on and on and on. It helps to add to our sense of community and fosters the different approaches we can bring to expanding the appeal of the Democratic party to more Americans. I think that it makes sense to add one more: RKBA (Rallying Kossacks Behind Amendment 2).
Jump.
NOTE: Although much of this diary is written in first person, many Kossacks have contributed content, revision and suggestions:
h/t KVoimakas, Shadan7, buddabelly, Caoimhin Laochdha, maxomai.
I've noticed a disturbing trend lately.
Since the episodes in New Hampshire and Phoenix especially, calls for more gun control are growing from our side of the aisle.
These calls have always been present but with every tragedy caused by a person in need of mental health care these voices get loud again.
Gun Control and the continued calls for more gun control have lost us as many elections in the last 40 years as any other reason. Gun control cost us too much in the past to repeat the mistake. If we wish to hold and increase our gains, in the mountain west especially, gun control must not be A GOAL we as a party accept and strive for.
The right will use these episodes to trap us and we are walking in and closing the door behind us.
I have read again and again on these pages how we should set up "2nd Amendment zones."
When did we become the Bush administration?
Bush arrested people for wearing tee shirts so we should do the same to people with legal firearms.
Folks, Bush is not our model for appropriate government action. We as a country dumped the Bush administration and all it stood for.
We need to fight to stop Bush like actions, not just change the target. Many voters out there have turned away from our party even though they should be ours. Many vote against their own interests for one reason only: we are seen as "Gungrabbers".
If we could change this one thing, we could cement our victories and increase our margins so things like the 60 votes needed for cloture would no longer be a problem. Jon Tester and Jim Webb have shown us that Democrats can win in traditionally Republican areas. They are both pro 2nd amendment, this is not a coincidence. Some who push for gun control intentionally push buttons in the attempt to provoke an outburst.
Once that reaction happens it's used as proof the respondent is too "angry" to have a firearm. All firearm owners are just angry people "compensating" (read tiny penis) and their anger proves they aren't fit to own firearms.
This is circular logic at its finest and yet this is becoming more common as proponents of gun control see their goals receding. I would hope that we as a community are too smart to use such nonsense in conversations amongst ourselves.
Remember, we are all on the same side in the end.
We all want the same basic things and work to the same long term goals.
Okay, here are some of the basic tenets I have in mind for this subcommunity, which, like any others, needs members who will commit to taking rotating turns at publishing diaries.
We recognize that the SCOTUS decision in DC v Heller essentially divorces the prefatory clause of the Second Amendment from the operative: The Court reasoned that the prefatory clause gave one reason for the Second Amendment, but it did not limit the right listed in the operative clause—the second part of the amendment—to own weapons only for militia service:
"The prefatory clause does not suggest that preserving the militia was the only reason Americans valued the ancient right..." The Court also reasoned that elsewhere in the Constitution, such as the First, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments, the phrase "the right of the people" is used only to refer to individual rights—that is, rights held by people as individuals. It is this phrasing that is used in the operative clause of the Second Amendment. Finally, the Court reasoned that the right to own weapons for self-defense was an "inherent" (in-born) right of all people. "It has always been widely understood that the Second Amendment, like the First and Fourth Amendments, codified a pre-existing right. The very text of the Second Amendment implicitly recognizes the pre-existence of the right and declares only that it ‘shall not be infringed.’"
Before you clamor at me about how this decision came from George Bush's hard-to-starboard Supreme Court, read on:
We reject the prevailing perception that gun control vs gun rights should be a left vs. right issue.
We refuse to cede the ground of Second Amendment rights to the Republicans, instead wishing to deprive them of this critical wedge issue.
We support the entire Bill of Rights.
We see a direct link between the current health care struggle and the presence of dissenters who show up armed at town hall meetings.
We consider as a very real possibility their aim is to goad Democrats into bringing forth gun control legislation as a reactionary, emotionally-driven political response.
We remember that the failure of health care reform in 1994 was followed by more Democratic moves for gun control in a failed attempt to rally the base on the left.
Instead we gave the greatest gift we could have given the Republicans to rally their base, we lost control of Capitol Hill, lost control of the discourse, and lost control of the Executive Branch in 2000.
Granted, other factors were in play as well, but this was one important component.
We are determined not to repeat this mistake, and are cognizant that this may well be the GOP's tactic.
We maintain that gun control is a losing issue.
We assert that calls for gun control will serve no purpose but to energize the right and cost us elections.
As to guns at town halls, insofar as no laws are broken, we support the right of people to be dumbshits.
And most of us don’t agree with liberals carrying as a form of parity, but those that do won’t be excluded from this group. We will speak out against the misuse of firearms regardless of what form it may take.
In the current environment or in any other, we will stand against the display of firearms where the intent is to intimidate and anger.
The only appropriate reason to display a firearm is in timely defense of life. Brandishing is never acceptable.
We reject the NRA and the GOA as partisan, right wing shill organizations and do not support them. We hold the NRA particularly responsible for a great deal of the current anti-Obama hysteria.
Before I set forth what I have in mind for this proposed dKos sub community, whether this idea succeeds or fails, I pledge that I will no longer, as I have in the past, react to goading and needling with angry outbursts.
dKos Community Norms
I am acutely aware this is a divisive issue. I understand that the existence of this group will not be received well by many.
If you are interested in this group, please indicate as much in the comments. Let's spin it up. My email address is in my profile. You can also contact KVoimakas (his email is in his profile.)
I guess the next step is to do a roll call and get a diary schedule going.
This oughta be fun. :)