Lessons Learned

A major rallying cry by the right wing is the struggle against gun control. Over a decade past the Democrats lost congress due in part to the insistence of suburban Democrats to enact tough gun control legislation, and the disinclination of rural Dems to buck the party. This cost them in subsequent elections. It is likely, considering the close margin by which Bush 43 won the 2000 election, that Al Gore sunk his own Presidential hopes when he embraced the resurrection of Clinton era gun control legislation.

Now, thanks in large part to the excesses of the previous administration, Democrats again hold the White House and both chambers. The backlash against the Bush administration’s assaults on Constitutional liberties played a large part in the sea change, but there was more to it. Democrats, it seems, have learned a lesson.

In a Senate vote last week, a bill permitting concealed handgun license holders to carry in national parks passed when 27 Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with the Republicans. This week will bring even more change when the same Democrats take a giant first step toward overturning Democrat promoted legislation passed during the gun control heyday of 1994. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee members are this week expected to pass the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act out of committee. The bill, co-sponsored by Virginia Democrat Jim Webb and North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, will then go to a floor vote where it is likely to pass with only minor opposition.

Today’s Democratic Party is not your father’s Democratic Party. Big city Dems remain stuck in the mire of the past decade, so they may continue fighting for gun control and against the Blue Dogs who have stepped out of line (see article on Kirsten Gillibrand), but the hardheads are in the minority and their gun control views will be marginalized by more reasonable Dems.

UPDATED May 21, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stinging defeat for gun-control advocates, Congress has voted to allow people to carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.

The House approved the measure, 279-147, on Wednesday, one day after the Senate acted.

A total of 105 Democrats in the House joined 174 Republicans in supporting the gun measure, which essentially restores a Bush administration policy that briefly allowed loaded guns in national parks earlier this year. The measure, which is included in a bill imposing new restrictions on credit card companies, allows licensed gun owners to bring firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are allowed by state law.

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