Monday Morning Reading List

Start out with this excellent and thoughtful blogpost from Daniel Mitchell at the International Liberty blog on why the current European trainwreck should strengthen our resolve to oppose any gun control measures:

I’ve learned over the years that things are usually never as bad as they seem (or as good as they seem), so I don’t expect that a nightmare situation will materialize, but I certainly can understand why wealthy people have contingency plans to escape. 

But what about the rest of us? We don’t have property overseas and we don’t have private jets, so what’s our insurance policy? 

Part of the answer is to have the ability to protect ourselves and our families. As explained here, firearms are the ultimate guarantor of civilization.

Read the whole thing, of course. And jere's some good reasons to keep the phases set on "BBQ," a long AP article on how the current administration is "mouse-trapped" on guns as a political issue:

"Gun control is a fight that the administration is not willing to pick. They're not likely to win it," said Harry Wilson, author of a book on gun politics and director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Virginia. "They certainly would not win it in Congress, and it's not likely to be a winner at the polls. ... It comes down to one pretty simple word: Politics." 

Administration officials say they are working to develop the gun safety measures promised after the Giffords shooting, and they say have taken steps to improve the background check system. White House spokesman Matt Lehrich says the White House goal is to "protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens while keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them under existing law." 

But when it comes to guns and politics, Democrats haven't forgotten what happened in 1994. That year, President Bill Clinton was pushing for passage of a landmark crime bill featuring a ban on assault weapons, and then-House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., twisted Democrats' arms to get it through the House. Come November, Democrats suffered widespread election losses and lost control of the House and the Senate. Foley was among those defeated, and Clinton and others credited the NRA's campaigning with a big role in the outcome. And when the assault weapons ban came up for congressional reauthorization in 2004, it failed.

Let's not get cocky...we've got to get through this face of a Republican nominating procedure to see which dweeb we get, then make sure he or she has his or her head screwed on right! In fact, I'll work for the Republican nominee because it is critical that our voices be heard LOUDLY!