Even more so than actual wins at the federal level on this topic, and that's the really sad part (this goes for both the NRA and Trump). We got a nice speech today, that was (mostly) about guns, but gave no direction for planned or even desired policy goals. For a guy like Trump who makes a point of clearly telegraphing top-level plans for policy goals he actually intends to pursue ("We're going to do X; I'll make it happen!"), this is quite telling. Bringing up "the wall" was not only completely off-topic for an NRA speech, it was also a far more specific plan for actual policy initiatives than anything offered on the gun front. I've said it before and I'll say it again; gun owners are incredibly cheap dates for DC politicians, wanting nothing more than some occasional kind words for the most part.
So self defense is a "sacred right"; that's nice, and "no duh," and it's refreshing to see a man in the big chair actually say it for once, but how about we do something about the state laws & federal justices who deny that sacred right to millions of Americans, daily? It's not like this is an issue where he has no power or requires a ton of cooperation from the uncooperative. There are a handful of things he could do in a day, legally unassailable uses of his executive discretion, to make life better for lots of us. There are even more things he is easily aware of (uh, HPA for instance? The bill none other than his freaking kid has been promoting for months?) that he could lend his open support to in order to shift them up on Congress' docket.
Yeah, the HPA isn't as big ticket an item or as important as Health Care Reform...but that's precisely why something might actually get accomplished if they'd only spend a week or two getting it to the floor. Put it this way; what portion of the (R) electorate would be upset if congress 'wasted' that much time getting a silly pro-gun bill passed, as opposed to bickering for three weeks about taxes or healthcare without accomplishing anything substantive?
Uh, they never were; that's why they had to pass laws & invent regulations that seek to make us law-breaking gun owners, so they can do what they want to us "righteously." Funny, I could have sworn the NFA and GCA and ATF and all the other three-letter-infringements were still laced into a boot pressed firmly on our faces...I must have missed that "crashing end" somehow.
TCB
