The Slippery Slope Redux

Probably the most "misunderstood" battle line in this current war is our insistence on no ammunition capacity limits for magazines. The strategy we've been pursuing is two-fold — there are so many standard capacity magazines out there that any such legislation would be an unenforceable joke; secondly, all guns are made to be reloaded quickly and efficiently, therefore any arbitrary magazine capacity limit can not and will not achieve what its backers expect.

As a commenter noted on yesterday's post, that strategy is not without obvious risk. We've gone down that path because it seemed and still seems like the best way to derail the proposed legislation...remember, our goal is to WIN this battle, if we have to win ugly, we'll win ugly.

I think, however, that we need to start moving toward the core argument — stated simply, if we say it's okay with us for the government to say how many cartridges we can have in our firearms at any one time, then we give the government the right to set that number at "ZERO!"

And it will. We already see that process happening. Connecticut Bill #122: Restrict All Guns to a Single Shot :

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: 

That the general statutes be amended to establish a class C felony offense, except for certain military and law enforcement personnel and certain gun clubs, for (1) any person or organization to purchase, sell, donate, transport, possess or use any gun except one made to fire a single round, (2) any person to fire a gun containing more than a single round, (3) any person or organization to receive from another state, territory or country a gun made to fire multiple rounds, or (4) any person or organization to purchase, sell, donate or possess a magazine or clip capable of holding more than one round. 

And from Andrew Cuomo in his New York "State of the State" address yesterday:

“I say to you forget the extremists. It’s simple — no one hunts with an assault rifle. No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer and too many people have died already,” Cuomo said.

Wow...that didn't take long! Less than a month from 10 rounds to one round. How long do you think it will take to get from one round to no rounds? There is no "reasonable" gun control, no "national conversation on guns," no "third way," no "middle ground." There is only an all-out war over civilian disarmament. Period. I've had gun owners contact me and ask about how they can argue 30 round magazines with other gun owners who are with us on no registration (registration always leads to confiscation), on no AWB ban (the AR is the most popular rifle in America and no different from any other semi auto rifle, including the Ruger 10/22), but waffling on magazine capacity. This is your argument, and, please, show them the examples from CT and NY!

Some interesting news from WSJ Online:

Despite the press's exuberant efforts to cast congressional gun supporters as having changed their minds, there has been no actual movement. Senate Democrat Joe Manchin caused a media sensation when he declared, immediately after Sandy Hook, that nobody needed "30 rounds in a clip." Less reported was that it took the Democrat about the time necessary for your average West Virginian to drive to a ballot box to clarify that statement and to add that he's "so proud of the NRA." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, even with the press's best efforts to parse his remarks, has committed himself to nothing more than a "thoughtful debate." 

... Over in the House, when asked recently what was more likely—passage of gun control or Speaker John Boehner becoming a pagan—a senior GOP leadership aide told Buzzfeed: "Probably the latter."

Another data point from Yahoo News, a largely liberal news outlet, under the headline of, "Is an Assault Weapons Ban Out of Reach?":

But Biden's omission of the ban from his description of his package of proposals on Thursday suggests an assault weapons ban is out of reach. (It's still possible that the ban could be included in Biden's final proposal, which will be announced Tuesday, and both Biden and Obama have voiced support for the ban on other occasions in the past few weeks.) A lot has changed since 1994—including public opinion,the legal landscape and the political might of the NRA. 

"I don't think a ban on assault weapons—which is a ban on some of the most popular rifles in America—is likely to get support," said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and Second Amendment expert.

From ABC News, thoughs on the Administration backing away from an AWB and NRA commentary:

But opponents of such a ban predicted it would not have the votes to pass in Congress. David Keene, president of the NRA, speaking on NBC Friday morning, said he doesn’t believe there will be an assault weapons ban. Congress won’t support it, he argued, and from his view it did nothing to stop violence when it was passed in 1994. “I do not think there is going to be a ban on so-called assault weapons passed by Congress,” he said.

Remember, these are only data points. You are a member of the NRA, aren't you? If not, JOIN NOW! Yesterday I called Colorado's 2 Senators and wrote a long letter to the Governor. What have you done this week to save the Second Amendment? What are you going to do next week to keep the pressure on Washington and your state governments? We must keep the pressure cooker building up! All of us need to be on the same page!

The next big administration push will be to separate the shooters from the hunters! Don't fall for propaganda (like, for instance, that Gabby Gifford's organization is "moderate." It is the same crap in a different sack). I think they'll fail — if we stick together!

UPDATE: We are hearing that an AWB and "universal" background checks will be part of the final package that the White House will send to Congress, according to senior officials.