With Congress back after a two-week break, it seems the anti-gun movement may be looking at a stark realization: they have a long row to hoe if they’re hoping to pass significant anti-gun measures through the Congress.
When talks between Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Harkin fizzled out before the break, even cheerleaders in the national media started to whisper that the 60 votes to pass “significant” gun control bills might not be there. Now, they’re starting to give the National Rifle Association credit for more effectively putting the pressure on Congress by their constitutents.
Should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid be able to muscle a bill through the Senate, the House of Representatives would be an even tougher fight. Many Democrats in the rural states face reelection in the fall. Meaning? Gun control legislation might be something they’d support, but career survival is more important.
So anti-gun supporters in Washington are scrambling to pass: something.
Closing the “gun show loophole” might be a compromise possibility, but many members of Congress have returned home to Washington after being chastened by their constituents.
And after dropping $12 million on television ads pushing gun-control, New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns’s leaders are reportedly frustrated that the steam seems to be dropping in the public’s boiler when it comes to approving more governmental intrusion into their private lives.
So they’re pulling out all the stops to try and drum up public support in areas where resistance has grown.
Tonight, President Obama speaks before a hand-picked crowd in Hartford, Connecticut. The speech will be another attempt to use the “bully pulpit” to demand Congress give him the votes to pass gun control. The speech will undoubtedly be given rave reviews in the media, but the fact of the matter is that neither the media -nor the President- have a vote in Congress.
On Friday, the legality of universal background checks proposed by Sen. Chuck Schumer’s S.374 the “Fix Gun Check Act of 2013” was questioned by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). According to an ACLU spokesman, the proposal’s treatment of private transaction records leads to concerns regarding “the creation of government databases and collections of personal information on all of us.”
Across the country, however, there are still significant pieces of legislation being considered. In Texas, we’ve been told that the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence will consider HB1862 tomorrow. That bill repeals the longstanding ban on switchblade knives. As is the problem with many outdated bans on “switchblades” the language is so broad as to include-and prohibit- the most popular knife of today: the assisted opening or “automatics” favored by everyone from electricians to EMTs.
Action on that bill would come as good news to attendees of the combined Lone Star Knife Expo and Dallas Arms Collectors Association’s “Texas Mega Show” set for the Dallas Market Hall this coming weekend. Last year’s event featured more than 2,000 tables and 10,000 knife and gun enthusiasts.
If you’re attending, stop by the Knife Rights booth and get a look at some of the more than 200 custom knives, firearms and other prizes that make up this year’s Ultimate Steel Spectacular.
