Quote:
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"For some, the disappointment stems from the failure of the NRA to support the lawsuit that led to the landmark Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment. The case, District of Columbia v. Heller, was brought by a trio of libertarian lawyers with no formal ties to the gun-rights group. Rather than helping the lawyers, who were challenging Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns, the NRA did everything it could to stop the case. First it tried to convince the libertarian lawyers to drop their suit, saying it was too risky. When that didn’t work, the NRA tried to take over the litigation and decouple it from the Second Amendment issues. Then, after the lawyers won a big victory in the lower court, the NRA pushed its allies on Capitol Hill to propose a law that would overturn D.C.'s handgun ban and moot the lawsuit.
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The thing with this is, like Tom I think the NRA was afraid of the timing of Heller. Pushing a case all the way to the SCOTUS is risky. If the court rules against you, then that case law is there for virtually ever. I know it's possible, and has actually happened on rare occasions, but the SCOTUS rarely overturns it's own decisions. Case law established there can pretty much be chiseled in stone. Because of this, you don't take a very important issue like the individual RKBA there unless you are almost certain that the winds are in your favor. Bad case law can do a tremendous amount of damage. Because of this, sometimes it's wise to pick and choose your battles... especially the timing of them.
Furthermore, I wouldn't call any "blue dog" democrat one of Nancy Pelosi's minions. They're the closest thing to a fiscally and constitutionally conservative democrat you can get. There were a number of the "blue dogs" that I would have chosen over many self-proclaimed "conservative" republicans. I've never heard of the GOA before, so I'm not knocking it. I'm also not cheerleading the NRA over any other organization (giving Harry Reid a "B" is questionable). I am merely providing a counter-argument as to why the NRA sat on the sidelines during Heller and why I'm not jumping for joy because there are fewer blue dog democrats.
BTW, we should probably be careful referring to politics here as I look forward to this discussion. I wouldn't want it to be shut down prematurely because of blue v red.