I've been watching the gun control thing unfold since the mid 50s. My 2nd Amendment rights are the most important thing to me. I could care less that the pro-gun candidate is a fire breathing pro-life preacher or a lesbian Wiccan. The pro-gunner will get my vote every time.
Guns owners are in good shape politically because public opinion toward guns has changed drastically since the AWB and Brady passed in 1994. WebleyMKV summed it up pretty well. Do not assume that because a person has a D after his name that he/she is an anti. Likewise, do not assume that all the folks who have an R after their names are with us on gun control.
In 1994 the AWB passed the US house by one vote. The AWB was put over the top when the minority leader of the US house voted for the AWB. 76 majority party members of the US house voted against the AWB and 38 minority party members voted in favor of the AWB.
In 2004 the US house did not take up extension of the AWB. In 2004 the US senate voted to extend the AWB by a vote of 52-47. 10 (R) senators voted to extend the AWB.
An AWB would pass the present US senate with the help of about six minority party senators. No gun control is going to pass the US house anytime soon. Last fall 65 majority party members of the US house wrote letters to the white house telling them to lay off gun control.
http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm...ode=20040302ff
Quote:
Ten Republicans broke party ranks on the assault weapons vote: Warner, Chafee, Fitzgerald, DeWine, Lugar, Voinovich, Susan Collins of Maine, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Six Democrats voted against extending the ban: Baucus, Nelson, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Zell Miller of Georgia and Harry Reid of Nevada.
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