Wiser politicians and diplomats realize that Otto Von Bismarck was right when he said, “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable-the art of the next best.” Instead of wasting time on stupid stunts and games, true public servants use their time pursuing things that are both possible given the circumstances and beneficial to the populations they purportedly serve.
But more of the same nonsense in the Senate has clearly demonstrated that the Democrat Party is far more interested in trying to make an art of the impossible, instead opting for cheap political points with another “assault weapon” ban that everyone knew had no chance of ever becoming law.
As Stephen Gutowski at The Reload pointed out, Schumer already knew he didn’t have the votes to pass the law, even if he only needed a bare majority. He also didn’t have a prayer at all of getting 60 votes together to overcome the inevitable filibuster. Even if there was somehow a path through the Senate for the bill, it would never get past the House of Representatives. And then there’s the whole constitutionality issue.
But none of that was the point. Schumer sent the bill to the Senate floor for some legislative seppuku intended to embarrass Republicans in an election year. Knowing that he had zero chance of getting past a filibuster, he tried to pass it by unanimous consent, knowing full well that it only takes one Senator to derail that.
The bill was quickly killed by a lone Republican objecting to its passage yesterday and Democrats and the Gun Control Industry reacted on cue.
Today @SenSchumer, @SenatorDurbin and @SenWarren came to the floor to pass the Assault Weapons Ban.
Republicans blocked it.
Enough is enough.
We will keep working to get this done. pic.twitter.com/yeDnCRRTbL
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) December 6, 2023
The New Republic was characteristically restrained in its reaction to the bill going down in flames . . .
AR-15s are nothing short of civilian-killing machines. As The New Republic’s Colin Dickey noted in his review of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15, Eugene Stoner’s 1954 invention “exists to extinguish human lives.”
Its popularity within the contemporary American canon comes from an early failure to land its place in the military arsenal that it was designed for, kneecapped by Army bureaucracy that frowned upon a weapon developed out of house.
The gun’s subsequent infiltration of the public sphere has made the AR-15 the bestselling rifle in America. Roughly a third of Americans are estimated to own a gun, according to a 2022 Ipsos poll, while one in 20 U.S. adults are expected to own an AR-15, according to a Washington Post/Ipsos survey that same year.
Further still, the modular rifle has become ingrained in the American consciousness by way of mass casualty events, favored by killers who are looking to do as much damage to the human body as possible.
By propping this sure-loser bill up for Republicans to say “NO,” Democrats were given a talking point. They might as well have said, “We would-a got away with it, too, if it weren’t for those darned Republicans and their dog, Scooby Doo.”
It’s always worth noting that the text of the bill was clearly not going to affect the criminal use of semi-automatic firearms. Thugs and gang members tend not to comply with gun control laws and, just as during the Clinton “Assault Weapons” ban, this one would have had done nothing to reduce violent crime.
As usual, the gun control industry and their political party showed that they’re all flash and no bang. It was all choreographed kabuki. They offered a useless bill they knew wouldn’t pass the Senate, would have died in the House, or would’ve been struck down in the courts…all to produce a campaign talking point.
If they were actually serious about “gun violence,” they’d do as their own experts recommend and fund programs that target the actual causes of violence without trying to deny law-abiding people their right to keep and bear arms. But they have zero interest in any of that.
If anything, this latest stunt hurts their political ambitions. Republican overreach after the Supreme Court decision returning abortion law to the states turned the red wave into a pink splash in 2022, and handed the Democrats some minor gains in off-year elections in 2023.
If Democrats could manage to resist the urge to control every aspect of people’s lives and focus on a few libertarian issues, they’d have better prospects in 2024. Instead, they decided to make it clear to America’s pro-gun majority that they are not our friends.
Their intent is to embarrass Repugs by making them vote against the bill. So they can try to use it as a talking point in the election. Hell, I am more inclined to vote FOR them if they oppose it.
If anyone should be embarrassed and crawl back under the rock from which they came it should be Gun Control democRats. After all The History of their Gun Control Confirms It…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=m-l7TO01-Sg&feature=shared
I see nothing for anyone on the right to be embarrassed about. This is being pushed on the basis of lies. If anyone should be embarrassed it’s Schumer.
Being embarrassed by their actions or ideology is something Liberal/Progressive Demoncrats will never be accused of. Simply because the ‘Ends’ always justifies the ‘Means’.
Schumer embarrassed? Not a single word of truth or fact has passed that man’s lips in 30+ years. he is incapable of shame or embarrassment.
If the democrats want an AWB, why didn’t they do it from 2007 to 2010 when they had complete control of Congress. RINO Bush even said, “Send me a bill and I will sign it”.
Both parties are and have wasted time with pro and anti bills knowing they can’t pass anything. Don’t let bias blind you.
That was and continues to be the reasoning behind the federal bureaucracy. So as to enact regulations that they don’t want to openly vote for, because they know they wouldn’t pass the stink test.
With two retiring Repub congressmen, Biden is very close to a full sweep: Congress, Senate, and the Dope in Chief. These announcements seem more of a finger in the eye from the Uni party in D.C.. Luckily it takes 2/3rds in the Senate to keep that Eel of a Senator Shum at-bay.
“Defend pro Hamas protestors/rioters while disarming Jews.
Heck of a plank in their platform!
Replace Hamas protestors with the Braunhemden (brown shirts) and you have the Nazi Party.
So Jenn is one of the fools that think 2022 election was about infanticide and irresponsible sexual activity. Keep you pants on girls and get a clue.
The red wave was completely attenuated and even turned back because of aborch laws. The lifers threw our chances to finally get back more of our gun rights for the ability to control what happens inside of women’s own bodies. No doubt about it.
Great work Einsteins.
it is now where it should be.
except i’m still paying for it.
u.s. constitutional protection was always nonsense. statewide is too, but that is where it belongs.
The pro-abortion women have thrown their children’s future under the bus. Democrats will turn the US into a two-caste country, with 250,000 elites and 329,750,000 pissant peons.
Republicans should counter with a bill that would give reparations to all black americans* by giving them a Full-Auto M-16 or M-4, 1000 rounds of M193.
*or anyone who identifies as a black american.
We are going to need all the weapons we can get… our country is being invaded as we speak.. gun up ..ammo up.. prep up…
“The True Story of the AR-15, Eugene Stoner’s 1954 invention “exists to extinguish human lives.””
Well no shit, Sherlock. If a crazed maniac enters my home uninvited, or, God forbid, a pack of them, harsh language is not gonna work. JFC these people are stupid. “Oh, that’ll never happen!” Sure, tell that to the Israelis.
1 in 20 adults x ~250 million adults = ~12.5 million owners. Yet only a small handful actually use them for “killing as many people as quickly as possible” as advertised.
Yes, that info, along with many other facts, gets lost in the democrats’ “all heat and no light” rhetoric on gun control.
RE: “AR-15s are nothing short of civilian-killing machines. As The New Republic’s Colin Dickey noted in his review of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15, Eugene Stoner’s 1954 invention “exists to extinguish human lives.”
Sounds like a Gun Control dick is signaling nutcases to criminally misuse the AR-15 in an effort to advance Gun Control. I.E. the motive for the Louisville shooter was to demonstrate how “easy it was” to buy a so called Assault Weapon. Obviously the hero minded deranged perp ran with the Gun Control football following the Nashville shooting…Apologize dick.
Gun Control is a steady hand!
The New Republic – is wrong.
“The True Story of the AR-15, Eugene Stoner’s 1954 invention “exists to extinguish human lives.””
Stoner did not invent the AR-15. Jim Sullivan (initially that started the work on it) as well as Robert Fremont (who joined in after Sullivan had started), by scaling down the AR-10 for a civilian only rifle, and together (more Sullivan, because by the time Fremont joined in it was already about 90% done by Sullivan) they both completed the scale down into an intended civilian version.
Armalite wanted a rifle for the civilian market. That’s why Sullivan and Fremont worked on the scale down, Armalite wanted to capture a growing market niche desire for rifles with military styling cosmetics so they selected the AR-10 for scale down to what was going to be the 15th rifle in the Armalite design series (thus the ‘AR-15’ – Armalite Rifle 15) to market a civilian semi-auto modern day (of the day) ‘sporting’ rifle. (thus the adoption of the term ‘Modern Sporting Rifle’, or MSR for short, is more correct for reflection of the original invented purpose and design of the rifle.)
All Stoner did was take that scale down civilian rifle, make some changes for the military market for a new rifle for the military. Stoner took the existing AR-15 civilian platform and changed some things to create a rifle to appeal to the military, he did not ‘invent’ the AR-15 rifle platform nor was it invented as a military weapon. Because of the way Armalite designated their designs series at the time Stoners changes were not a new design worthy of a different designation because they did not change the foundation of the rifle from its original civilian rifle design and intent, and as a result the AR-15 designation stuck with the Stoner changed version for the military. Note here, there was the civilian rifle AND a changed version that was not a civilian rifle – its actually two different rifles at this point, its only the designation stuck with it due to the way Armalite designated designs.
“Its popularity within the contemporary American canon comes from an early failure to land its place in the military arsenal that it was designed for”
No, the AR-15 was not designed for the military, it was designed for the civilian market. What Stoner did for the military was no longer the AR-15 in reality, it just didn’t have a different designation due to the way Armalite designated designs for their design cycles. Stoners changes would, after some Colt redesign, become the M-16 for the U.S. military. The U.S. military does not use an AR-15 and never has, nor is the AR-15 a U.S. military firearm and never has been.
The AR-15 for civilians was more popularized by Colt, thus fulfilling the original intent of the AR-15 to be a civilian rifle and that’s what we have today, a civilian rifle and not a military ‘weapon of war’ or ‘assault rifle’ and it was not invented to “extinguish human lives” and was invented to be a civilian sporting rifle for general sporting and varmint animal hunting.
I think you might missunderstand the deveolpment purpose of the ar-15.
From Wikapedia.
“Eugene Stoner of Armalite (a division of Fairchild Industries) had been advised to produce a scaled-down version of the 7.62mm AR-10 design. In May 1957, Stoner gave a live-fire demonstration of the prototype of the AR-15 for General Willard G. Wyman, Commander-in-Chief of CONARC. As a result, CONARC ordered rifles to test. Stoner and Sierra Bullet’s Frank Snow began work on the .222 Remington cartridge. Using a ballistic calculator, they determined that a 55-grain bullet would have to be fired at 3,300 ft/s (1,006 m/s) to achieve the 500-yard performance necessary”.
If you want to see a picture of his AR-15 and the other early Armalite “full auto AR-15″ military trail submission” check this out.
https://smallarmsreview.com/the-complete-guide-to-colt-m-16-models-part-i/
You had me at “The New Republic is wrong.”
That pretty much sums up the entire rag.
It’s amazing. I’m a life long Republican and Life Member of the NRA. I also understand how much of a s**tbag Trump is …I was ready last year to hold my nose and vote for the Democrat. Then they turned back to their same old dumb culture war against the second amendment. It’s in their DNA- they will continue to undermine the second amendment no matter the cost. It’s amazing that there’s no effort to actually heal or unite the country.
“It’s amazing that there’s no effort to actually heal or unite the country.”
To what purpose? There is power in lording over a divided populace. If you don’t/can’t have power, what is the point in being in a position of power?
The National Divide is so great & permanent that the only viable solutions are to reduce the Federal Government back to its original four cabinet departments or dissolution. Sorry.
“The National Divide is so great & permanent that the only viable solutions are to reduce the Federal Government back to its original four cabinet departments or dissolution.”
Nah, the majority of people voting are leftists. With that much drift, eventually the majority will grow until no one remembers the alternative. Bread and Circuses work as incentives.
If there is to be “dissolution” it will come with a whimper, not a bang.
This is part of a campaign to make the Supreme Court appear illegitimate. Until they get rid of the current members of the court and install their own woke judges, they will not stop. By passing all these laws which they claim are reasonable, but are, in fact, directly in conflict with the Constitution, they run a campaign whose function is to convince people that the Supremes are not reasonable and therefore illegitimate. They’re doing the same kind of propaganda campaign with abortion and with several other states’ rights issues.
Have you carefully listened to newscasts lately? When a cop carries an AR15 around a crime, it is described as a “long gun”, but the perp always has an AR 15 or assault rifle !
It’s amazing to watch this Jewish lawmaker. Continue to try and disarm the Jews along with everyone else in the United States.
There were plenty of jews who worked for Adolf Hitler. And many of those jews were open about their heritage and still worked for the n@zis.
The history channel has a seven or eight part series about all the collaborators of Adolf Hitler.
I’d rather they waste their time on bills that will go no where. Any bill that they pass will be politically motivated, economically suspect, and generally bad for Americans.
“I’d rather they waste their time on bills that will go no where. Any bill that they pass will be politically motivated, economically suspect, and generally bad for Americans.”
“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
– -Gideon John Tucker, 1866
Murder has long been illegal. Likewise armed assault. Likewise armed robbery. Likewise abduction/kidnapping. I could go on and on.
In all of these crimes, any instruments employed in their commission should be distantly secondary or irrelevant. Knives, guns, hammers, clubs, fists, sedans, vans etc. etc…the crime should be all that matters. Weapons specs should have never entered any criminal codes.
Prosecute and punish the offender of/for the specific crime. The criminal’s enabling instruments should be irrelevant, especially under any government that constitutionally recognizes self-defense as a God-given right.
Strange how I never saw an AR-15 while in the Army. Plenty of M-18’s, M-14’s, and M-4’s, but no AR’s Even a few real AK-47’s. As well as a number of other weapons unavailable on the civilian market. Strange as well how I’ve owned several AR pattern rifles for decades and have yet to use any of them to extinguish any human life. Coyotes, woodchucks, and other assorted varmints with the AR-15. Several deer and hogs with the AR-10. But no humans. Am I using them incorrectly? Or are my rifles defective in some manner.
What is also rather strange is how more people are killed non firearm weapons than are killed by long guns in general.
Sorry, typo, should have been AR-16’s. Not AR-18’s.
You seem to be among the ~12.5 million Americans using them incorrectly, if their 1 in 20 adults figure is accurate.
Seems that the DEMONcRATS are trying to stir up their base of anti-gun control freaks.
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