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By
Tanya
K Metaksa
Gun owners have had a great ride for the past
twelve years. When Newt
Gingrich led the Republicans to an unprecedented sweep of both houses of
Congress in 1994, a new age began for gun owners.
Even though the anti-gun Bill Clinton was still President,
Congress now consisted of more pro-gun Representatives and Senators than
it had in many years. During
these past twelve years and especially after the 2000 election of George
W. Bush, we have been able to push back the gun grabbers.
But now, after the elections of November 7, 2006,
we will likely be forced to reengage in a brutal battle against an
onslaught of federal gun laws. Power
has shifted back to the Democrats, and the difference between being the
Minority party and the Majority party is night and day.
It is not just about picking out the offices and the drapery; it
is about raw political power. It
is about setting the agenda and running the show.
In the House of Representatives, the Speaker of the
House, who sits third in line for the Presidency, will be Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi represents a district in San Francisco, California and is
one of the most liberal and anti-gun members of Congress. The
new Chairman of the Judiciary Committee will be John Conyers. He will have the power to pass legislation on gun issues, and
you may rest assured it will not be friendly.
Today many gun owners are too young to remember John
Conyers and his role in the passage of the Brady Bill and the Clinton
Gun Ban. A press release
issued in June 9, 1999 stated, “On
Mother's Day, I hope that MOMS will be able to celebrate the passing of
sensible gun safety legislation. However, if Congress has not yet acted
by May 14th to close the gun show loophole, ban the importation of large
capacity ammunition clips and require that a child safety lock be sold
with every handgun, then mothers across the country should hold Congress
accountable for its cowardly silence. We simply must ensure that
children do not have access to guns.”
Conyers is one of the poster boys for Sarah Brady and her pals at
the Brady Campaign. In
fact, if you check out the current Democrat membership on the House
Judiciary Committee, you will not find one friendly Representative.
Therefore, every subcommittee chairmanship will be anti-gun.
We
can now expect a return of the whole gamut of anti-gun initiatives.
This includes gun bans, gun show bans, more restrictions on
personal use of firearms, and more importantly, no reform of BATFE.
On November 8, 2006,
the headlines of the Brady Campaign showed the Campaign was ecstatic
about its wins. One article was entitled A National Momentum Shift: Supporters Of Common-Sense Gun
Laws Win Races From Coast To Coast, another Advocates For Assault Weapons Ban Sweep Close Contests In
Maryland, and a final one Advocates
Of Sensible Gun Laws Sweep Key Offices In New York, Give Boost To Fight
Against Gun Trafficking. Those
headlines foretell the Campaign’s agenda for the next two years.
We are going to see
the Campaign push hard for change with the aid of its so-called
Supporters of Common-Sense Gun Laws, a name used to describe the liberal
Democrats who now control the House of Representatives and the gun
control agenda. It is also
signaling its intentions to go back to work at the state level and try
to push for even more restrictive weapons bans.
And the Democratic takeover in New York State will give more
impetus to the Campaign’s efforts to go after FFLs throughout the USA.
Though the final
tally in the U.S. Senate was 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2
Independents, the
Democrats are now the majority party.
This is because the two independents, Joe Lieberman (CT) and
Bernie Sanders (VT), who is actually a Socialist, will caucus and vote
with the Democrats. That would place Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in charge of
the Judiciary Committee and put Senators Schumer, Feinstein, Kennedy,
Durbin, Biden, Kohl, and Feingold in charge of subcommittees. We all know where they stand on Second Amendment issues, and
it is most certainly not with gun owners.
Additionally, Senators Durbin and Schumer, avowed enemies of all
law-abiding gun owners, have risen to become second and third most
powerful members of the Democratic Senate leadership.
On November 7, 2006,
gun owners’ rights in the United States became much more tenuous. The
U.S. Congress changed for the worse on this issue.
Even at the state level, there were disappointments.
In Wisconsin, Governor Doyle, who has twice vetoed Right-to-Carry
legislation, was reelected, dashing gun owners’ hopes once again. Gun
owners will now be back on the defensive, and when fighting for our
constitutional rights that is not a good place to be.
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