Unfortunately Eric Holder’s comments this week on gun control may have just doomed Obama to being a one term president and likely have jeopardized Democratic control of the House and possibly even the Senate in 2010. Fortunately Nancy immediately Pelosi piped up and signaled that the House has no plans to take up gun control legislation. However, the damage is done and many in the pro-gun community are convinced that it’s now only a matter of time until Obama takes away their 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms (RKBA) and as Al Gore found out in 2000 and Clinton discovered in 1994, any hint of support for gun grabbing legislation is guaranteed to elect Republicans. Hence, an assault weapon buying frenzy is currently underway with gun shows and gun stores jammed with panicked buyers.
Of course, the left will reply that all Eric Holder is proposing is reinstituting the Assault Weapon ban and why does anyone rational believe that Americans should have an unrestricted right to buy an Assault Rifle or even high-cap magazines?
That’s a nice sentiment, but anyone that supports bringing back the assault weapon ban needs to ask themselves which would they rather have, President Palin in 2012 or a few more Glocks on the street with 17 round instead of 10 round magazines.
Yes, the choice is just that simple, force Americans to only being able to buy pistols with 10 round magazines or President Palin or someone worse in 2012. Few on the left seem to understand the extreme resentment of Clinton/Gore and the Democratic party in response to the 1994 ban on assault weapons – especially the ban on high capacity magazines able to hold more than 10 rounds (a.k.a., hi-cap mag ban). The pro-2nd Amendment crowd also remembers that the Democrats were not content with just the Assault Weapons ban and were actively discussing even more restrictive legislation in the early 90’s. In response, the Republicans were able to take back the house in 1994 and the White House in 2000 – and we all now know just how great that turned out.
It’s unclear what needs to be done to permanently undo the massive amount of damage done to the Democratic party this week by Eric Holder since no matter what Nancy Pelosi or any White House spokesman says, the pro 2nd Amendment crowd is convinced that it’s only a matter of time before Obama and the rest of the Democrats are coming to take away their guns. Possibly a strong statement by Obama in support of 2nd Amendment Rights would undo some of the damage, but the pro-gun right may say that deeds and not words are what matter. Possibly the pro-gun crowd might respond favorably to Obama also increasing (doubling?) the budget of the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP). Even better, Obama could possibly make more military semi-automatic rifles available for purchase through the CMP – which always seem to be in short supply. Especially now, given the current run on semi-auto military style assault rifles.