TIM ACKARMAN:

Put down the gun control and slowly back away. This one really perplexes liberals. Polls show that the majority favors assault weapons bans and other “reasonable” gun control, yet your party gets hammered on this issue at the voting booth. Let me explain.

There is a small but highly vocal element in your ranks that would like to see all guns banned. Red state guys (and plenty of gals) want none of it.

Most of us could care less about owning assault weapons. However, we don’t believe banning them will significantly impact crime. And we worry about what guns they’ll come after next. We fight for AK-47s today so we won’t have to battle for grandpa’s Model 12 (it’s a classic shotgun) tomorrow.

While there may be roughly equal numbers of gun control advocates and opponents, its foes are much more likely to be one-issue voters. So until you marginalize the extremists on your side, those on the other will continue to clobber you.

Yup. I am what most would call an extremist on gun rights. However, my position on the issue is actually based on the Constitution, case law, and lack of evidence that gun control affects crime. The anti-gun folks must constantly lie or mislead to make their point, which is what extremists tend to do. Good to see someone call them on it.

Posted in uncategorized on December 6th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |