Here they come!

[Mayo]

Looks like the gun control advocates are energized. From The Brady Campaign:




The Brady Campaign insists that candidates supporting "a common sense approach to gun violence prevention" did very well on Tuesday.

"In races where the Brady Campaign endorsed candidates went head-to-head with competing candidates endorsed by the NRA, Brady won 5 of 5 governorships (Patrick in Massachusetts, O'Malley in Maryland, Rendell in Pennsylvania, Doyle in Wisconsin and Blagojevich in Illinois) and 4 of 4 U.S. Senate seats (Cardin in Maryland, Cantwell in Washington, Stabenow in Michigan, and Nelson in Florida).

Overall, candidates endorsed by the Brady Campaign won over 95 percent of their races, the group said on its website.

According to the gun control group, "The results should have a profound impact on the ability to fight illegal gun trafficking and gun violence in the coming years."

 

[Phenom]

Yeah, and I'm Rosie "Miss Piggy" O'Donnel.

 

[DonP]

Brady not relevant politically

The Brady group has no real relevance at the national level any more. Heck, even Kerry stayed away from them in '04.

Even the recent Dem wins won't change their lack of clout in DC.

For the most part the Dems were smart enough, with the exception of a few big city mayors, to stay far away from their gun grabbing positions.

Don't take a Brady press release for anything more than what it truly is, wishful thinking.

They were "110% behind Tammy Duckworth for Congress" here in Illinois. Helmke and Sara actually came to one of her major press events and appeared on stage with her to tout the latest version of an AWB proposal here in the workers paradise of Illinois.

Tammy lost.

More noteowrthy was that none of the media people wanted to interview the Brady types after the event on gun control issues. Bet you didn't see any of that mentioned on their "Press Page".

As far as grass roots support, if it wasn't for the checks from McKelvey and Soros they'd have to turn off every other lightbulb at their HQ.

 

[C. Rabbit]

As far as I can recall, gun control was not mentioned at all in the Cantwell-McGavick race.

I suppose they're grasping desperately for relevance.

CR

 

[drclark]

The anti-gunners are over-reacting in a "woohoo!" sort of way. We are over-reacting in a "we're doomed" sort of way. All in all, I believe that not much will change over the next two years.

The Democrats barely have majorities in both houses of congress. Alot of the Democrats elected are supposedly pro-gun moderates. I would think that they would be smart enough to not try anything too extreme in the next two years. The last thing they want to do is energize the conserative republican base heading into '08.

I would also expect that the effect of this election will cause the remaining republicans in congress to re-discover their conserative roots. From what I have read, the repubs didn't win because alot of their conservative base stayed home.

If anything, I don't expect any major anti-gun legislation until Democrats solidify their control of congress with a comfortable majority with a dem as president. Barring another Columbine/DC-sniper type event of course.

What I do expect is the dems to put more pressure to "end the war" in iraq, push amnesty/comprehensive immigration reform, push the global warming agenda and try to roll back some of Bush's tax cuts.

drc

 

[hksw]

Hmmm, underestimating your enemy, good idea.

 

[AJAX22]

I think the Dems may actually hold themselves to a more mainstreem platform for the next two years, they view the 08 elections as a total lock, and I think they realize that having the representitive branch runs out immidiatly and starts grabbing guns and infringing 2A is probably the only thing they can do which will piss off america enough to upset there little executive tea party in 08 and give the republicans a chance to maintain the presedency.

I base this on absolutly nothing, its just an opinion.

 

[Number 6]

I think the Brady Center should read the definition of spurious correlation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spurious_correlation

 

[Glockfan.45]

Gun control didnt get mentioned once in any election campaign that I watched. It seems to be a dead issue at the moment. I will be optimistic and hope the Dems learned a lesson in 94 .

 

[drclark]

Not trying to under-estimate the "enemy". Also not saying that there is no need to pay attention to politics either. Just trying to be a bit realistic and sick and tired of the "we're doomed" mentality.

The Democrats won this time; nothing is going to change that now. We need to focus on the incomming represenative and senators and let them know that any new gun-control legislation will be vigorously opposed.

drc

 

[hnk45acp]

I saw a piece on CNN last night about the new Democrats in Congress. They mentioned how conservative they were, some were pro-life and many were pro 2A. They mentioned that as long as congress stayed away from the three Gs (Gays, Guns, God... I think it was) that they could count on them. There were I think at least 6 of them including Tester in Montana. So let's hope it holds

 

[History Prof]

Hmmm, underestimating your enemy, good idea.

I agree. If the speculation that the Brady Bunch is just full of hot air is true, wouldn't that make now the perfect time to take action? If these young Dems are really pro-RKBA, make them prove it. If you live in a district where one of them got elected, start your letter writing campaing immediately after they're sworn in. Make them publicly DENOUNCE the Brady Bunch, rather than silently answering the questions on the NRA questionnaire "correctly."

 

[Lone_Gunman]

If these young Dems are really pro-RKBA, make them prove it.

Thats a little unfair, considering that the Republicans did next to nothing for 6 years with simultaneous control of the Senate, House, and Presidency.

The only thing we got was the gun manufacturer's lawsuit protection act, which was nice, but not really a roll-back of any anti-gun legislation.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I think the Brady Center should read the definition of spurious correlation.

Surely you don't expect them to be able to comprehend such long words!

 

[History Prof]

Thats a little unfair

It would be if I expected Repugs as a whole to be pro RKBA. My personal political desire would be to see the Libertarians and the Constitutionalists as the two major parties and the Dems and Reps to fade into history (yes, I vote R, but only because I know Ls and Cs will never upset the applecart, and Rs are "better than" Ds on the issues I vote on). And, at least *MY* congress critters (except Mccain) do speak out, at least, against the BB.

 

[thexrayboy]

Maybe the Bradys are laughing it up prematurely and maybe they know something we don't. It's entirely possible that the democratic party strategists and the VPC/Brady bunch are working deals behind the scenes.

And yes we the people sent a message to Washington with this last election but the question is did the people who got elected hear the message and if so did they understand it. Or did they substitue what they wanted to hear for the message the voters sent. Time will tell.

Just because nobody is talking about gun control in DC right now does not mean they aren't thinking about it. Remember when you were young and took that pretty young lady to dinner and a movie? I bet you were thinking thoughts about a subject that wasn't being discussed then either but it was still something that was of definite interest. And just like the goal of those teenage yearnings the Dems would like to do to the 2A the same thing. Just
in a more quiet fashion so as to limit the political fallout.