The defeat of a host of ambitious measures in the US Senate provided an infuriating rebuke for the Obama administration, assorted anti-gunners, and their mainstream media cheerleaders.
The president was visibly livid after he was given the vote he'd demanded and came up short, and was quick to strike back through executive actions designed to, among other goals, remove medical record privacy barriers, "clarify" the powers of Eric Holder over munitions imports and exports, and direct the Centers for Disease Control to resume the anti-gun junk science agenda that provoked Congress to defund such "research" back in 1997, after they'd made no bones about wanting guns "dirty, deadly—and banned."
Rage from the doctrinaire citizen disarmament lobby and its followers was often mob-ugly, with Bill of Rights supporters essentially blood-libeled for the actions of the lawless, and with the gulf between those who demand a monopoly of violence and those who will not back up another inch shown to be unbridgeable.
Rifts appeared between pro-gun proponents as well, particularly after Alan Gottlieb of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms not only came out in support of the Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, but revealed his group had a hand in writing it. He claimed it would prohibit a gun registry and provide numerous benefits, like restoration of veteran rights, interstate handgun sales, travel protections and the like.
Not so, attorney and author David B. Kopel shot back, calling it "a bonanza for gun control." Ultimately, because key provisions were not advanced, CCRKBA withdrew its support, but not before those defending their actions as shrewd politics and those blasting Gottlieb had at each other.
NRA was put in an uncomfortable position because they had already gone on record as being "unequivocally opposed" to Manchin-Toomey and had pledged to score the procedural vote to bring it to the floor. Meanwhile, Gun Owners of America emerged with a higher profile, as no less than The New York Times said the group had "been successful in … freezing senators … who have appeared to be on the fence about supporting bills to expand background checks."
What happens next, or more precisely, when it will happen, is anyone's guess, and may be the stuff of yesterday's headlines by the time this magazine reaches the newsstands. We know Harry Reid's mask is off and he's pulled the bill with the threat to resuscitate it, along with "other proposed amendments" when the time becomes right. We know Joe Manchin has promised not to give up, and can only wonder what will happen to his and Pat Toomey's NRA "A" ratings. And we know that New York, Colorado and Connecticut have already done at the state level what the feds could not, while New Jersey, California and other "blue states" engage in feeding frenzies of their own.
Nationally, we dodged a bullet—this time. But it's pretty apparent that we remain one "gun free zone" incident away from a renewed barrage that Obama, Michael Bloomberg, Dianne Feinstein and the usual suspects are not only prepared for, but practically salivating to unleash.
By David Codrea
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