There’s news today that the Senate Democrats have chosen not to include Senator Feinstein’s cherished “Assault Weapons Ban” proposal in the gun control bills to be brought before the Senate. But before you go cheering the “big win” against what might be the stupidest law I’ve ever seen in my life, there’s a good chance that it will rise from the grave to attack other bills, leaving a wake of destruction in its path.
While the official AWB may be dead, there’s nothing stopping Dianne Feinstein from trying to tack it onto every piece of legislation she can find to try and turn it into law.
There’s little doubt that Senator Feinstein is on her last legs as a politician. She’s getting on in years, and won’t be around to haunt the Senate chambers much longer. There’s already some talk that another vehemently anti-gun politician from California will take her place in the next election, continuing the tradition of California trying to expand their failed gun control laws to the national scale.
With her impending retirement, Senator Feinstein is appearing to be worrying about her legacy. So far, the only thing she is really known for is serving as president of the board in San Fransisco when Harvey Milk was assassinated, and her failed 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which is generally considered to have done nothing to stop violent crime. She’s looking for something to leave a lasting impact on the U.S. government, and the new sunset-free AWB is what she appears to have fixated upon.
Right now, the AWB has the best chance of passage. Standing on the bodies of dead schoolchildren and waiving the bloody shirt, she can wrangle the best emotional argument possible for passing the law. Even so, she has been blocked by her own party from advancing her bill to the Senate floor. Its a body blow to her legacy, and one she probably isn’t going to take lying down.
If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, I look forward to watching as Senator Feinstein will try repeatedly in the next few months to tack on her AWB to every piece of legislation with a good chance of passage. Nothing will be safe, like a zombie trying to claw its way out of a deep grave it will try to latch onto whatever it can find. And every single time, Senate Democrats will be forced to show their true colors as they vote down the amendment or risk the ire of their Republican leaning constituents.
From rollcall.com:
Although Feinstein refused to label her measure “dead”— “I don’t give up,” she said — she sounded an unusually pessimistic note about its chances after conferring with Reid, who informed her that he would not bring the bill to the floor as a stand-alone measure. The Judiciary Committee passed the assault weapons ban on a party line vote on March 14.
The AWB isn’t dead. And there are still a good number of “feel good but do nothing to help” gun control laws on the horizon, despite the best efforts of my new favorite Senator Ted Cruz. Reminds me of Churchill’s quote about this being the end of the beginning.
Soooo…anyone still wanna buy my Olympic Arms AR for $3,500? Er…no? I guess that whole idea about getting rich by flipping downscale AR’s isn’t going to work out as well as I’d planned.
I think Cabela’s already knew this. Last week and today, they (Cabela’s) had plenty of ARs on the rack from around $999.99 to $2100.00. WW to Sigs respectfully.
Mlllaaaarrrrrrgggfhhhh, biiiiiiiillllsssss… *chews on legislation*
I can’t stop laughing at you. That is a brilliant comment. +1000
So who’s buying and who’s shorting gun stocks?
Short term I would short, but generally I’m still bullish.
Especially on ammo… Or am I just saying that to raise the price? Hmmm…
ummm…AWB was 1994…
Meanwhile, the Hi- Cap Magazine Ban Beast looms!
^^^^ This. One round won but this is a 10 round fight.
No way, this is a 30 round fight, lol
So….my backordered uppers will be delivered tomorrow and I can finally buy 22lr from Wal-Mart this weekend…right?
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
As long as the Democrats have control of any part of government we have to worry about a possible AWB. 2014 isn’t far off and they working to defeat the GOP.
Supposedly there will be 2 votes. One with the 2013 AWB with the magazine capacity ban, and one vote with just the the magazine capacity ban. The dems think the magazine ban has the greatest chance of passing. We have to keep fighting!
We need to kill that Mag Ban.
You are correct sir. We need to celebrate this small victory, but we are not done yet. We must keep the pressure on and get all this crap put in the trash, then we all need to make sure that these gun grabbers get put out in the street in 2014!
Harry Reid has to worry about Dems holding senate after mid terms next year, and within another year, time for campaign for 2016. Doubt he gives a hoot in hell about Difi’s legacy
Glad to see you go, and she’s got a very large lagacy!! The one women Tyranist natzi!! That tried to unwrap the very fiber this GREAT CONTRIES BIN BUILT APON!!
I totally agree and have said for a long time, that all she has in her legacy is the AWB. She got a “lucky” break when Milk and Moscone were killed by Dan White and now she will end her reign with little to say for it.
I hope gun nation learns a lesson from this episdoe. Count the votes before you go crazy. For the foreseeable future the votes won’t be there at the national level. The political demographics say that short of some crazy event the Democrats can’t take back the House. Democratic voters are too concentrated in a minority of the districts to win the House. This will not take the steam out the anti-Second Amendment forces in a states where the Democrats and Chris Christie control all aspects of governance. We will still have to fight those probably losing fights.
Don’t worry about an AWB being enacted through the back door. Harry Reid sees this as a win-win for him and control of the Senate. He isn’t going to let Feinstein muck up the Senate trying to sneak an amendment into legislation or the budget. Even if it passes the Senate the House will kill it in the conference report.
I have to gloat. If you stayed awake in history class when you were a junior in high school you would not have run around in a panic. Now it’s time for everyone who does not live in a deep blue state to calm down and stop buying up every standard capacity magazine, every round of ammo and every AR out of fear that the feds are going to disarm you next week. Besides you can always buy a Remington 750. It is the poor man’s battle rifle. They are still going for $750-$850.
I wasn’t worried about AWB 2.0 at the Federal level after the first week of drum-beating. The signaling was there early.
The real fight is at the state level. Here in CA we have a shyt-ton of introduced legislation, each bill worse than the last. At least we haven’t had any dead-of-the-night emergency sessions to ram stuff through.
Related: since I started doing volunteer work for the Firearms Policy Coalition, I evolved beyond hating on Leland “Goatfscker” Yee and have added a bunch of new names to my enemies list. These tinpot tyrants enrage me with their contempt for 2A rights and demonization of CA gun owners.
Raise your hand if you hate it everytime a California poll something to the effect “The California Law should be a model for the whole country”
Don’t the CA polls have enough on their hands screwing up CA?
United Nations Treaty…that’s next on the agenda with John Kerry carrying the football.
Let see. Feinstein couldn’t get 60 Senators to vote for her bill so how would a treaty get to the magic 67 votes? You are just looking for a reason to continue your panic buying.
Negotiations opened Monday in New York on the Arms Trade Treaty. The NYT is already in full libtard mode. Time to write your congress critters is now!
What a brilliant, inventive idea. The Republicans should have designated agents provocateurs to subtly egg her on to tack the AWB onto every bill they don’t like. Maybe somehow even get the bill tacked on to Obama’s cabinet and court nominations. Much better than a filibuster.
As far as CA pols – and NY pols, and Chicago Pols, etc. etc. ad naseum – they are trying to remove incentives for liberty-minded people to leave their collapsing little bailiwicks. Can’t run a totalitarian government without citizens to squeeze dry, can we?
Confirmations aren’t bills. They stand and fall on their own.
I just shake my head at the lack of knowledge of the American political system that knows no spectral bounds.
Believe me, I was aware of that; I was being sarcastic. Note the use of the word “somehow” in that sentence.
Wouldn’t it be great, though, if it could be done.
As it is though, committees ask the “tough questions” of the candidates, and then almost invariably, the confirmation is voted on along party lines. Case in point: Hagel.
The way I read this is that the AWB is bumped from the broader bill, because Reid knows full well that including it would assure defeat; there are too many dems who oppose the ban who would feel compelled to vote against the entire billif that ban remained in, but may vote for mag restrictions and universal background checks. But she still has the opportunity to present the AWB as a proposed amendment to the gun control bill, and it will get a straight up or down vote as a standalone amendment. So as I said earlier today, the AWB is not “dead dead,” just “mostly dead.”
There aren’t 60 votes for a magazine limit or background checks as Shumer’s bill is currently written.
Its been widely reported that Shumer and Manchin are shopping the bill around. It could come out in some form or another.
Here is an idea I have, the could pass a mag ban that most of the sheepl will believe. Make a handgun mag ban of no more than 18 rounds and a rifle mag ban of no more than 30 rounds. The news would announce the mag ban, the sheepl would not have a clue and we could all move on.
Dag nabit! What about my Five-seveN and my PS90?
(OK, I don’t actually have either, but still, i’m considering it.)
You are most certainly reading the “Tea Leaves” correctly. We must stay vigilant and examine every scrap of paper that goes into the Senate for any anti-gun amendments.
I have a bad feeling that the next senaor from California will be Kamela Harris, currently the AG, formerly LA City Attorney, and an up and coming politico who is rabidly anti-gun
The name I keep hearing is Yee, but I could be wrong.
Yee doesn’t really pull any water in CA. The gun stuff is the biggest splash he’s ever made.
Being term limited out of the Legislature, he plans to run for Ca. Secty of State next.
Yee is running for CA SecState. Ironically it’s actually his chief of staff who is the anti-gun psycho, but said psycho won’t be able to do nearly as much damage once Goatfscker is out of the CA Senate.
Even if she replaces the witch she won’t have the years and sway the witch has built up over many years. She will eventually but not right off the bat.
Former SF city attorney
Ooops. Yes, you are right. But she is still to California what Lisa Madigan is to illinois–someone with high political aspirations
Attach it to any new gun control legislation. Hell, Ted Cruz should move to attach it to any new gun control legislation to see that it dies.
Anybody else here wish Frankenstein had a massive stroke fighting for her AWB and collapsed on camera, or am I just evil.
Come on. With all due respect, that’s like the FOAD in the original headline on the Joe Nocera takedown. This is not, or shouldn’t be, the Daily Kos of gun rights.
Martin, you are evil — and I’m with you on this one, if for no other reason than to watch Dr. Rand Paul try to give her mouth to mouth.
As my friend told me when he was doing his med school rotation through the ER: “An Ambu Bag is never too far away.”
So DiFi is an Ambu Bag? 🙂
Throw a bucket of water on her, she will melt!
So the party that figured a way to push through a very expensive and completely unpopular remaking of 1/6 of the US economy can’t get a little weapons ban through? Don’t you bet on it.
Like Pat Caddell says “the left fights like politics is life and death.”
But they had both houses, then, and 60 in the Senate. The numbers are different now. No reason to not be vigilant, though . . .
Not only has the makeup of the House and Senate changed, but the Affordable Health Care Act was contoured so that the NRA would not oppose it.
Say whatever you want to say about Harry Reid — whatever it is, I’ll probably agree with it — but he killed this bill and prevented a floor vote. POTUS waved the bloody shirt in his SOTU speech when he was rending his garments and pleading that the dead babies “deserve a vote.” ‘Memba that? Reid has shown no appetite whatsoever for gun control in this legislative session and has resisted the lame duck Dear Leader. Reid deserves his “B” rating.
Or, maybe he sees the writing on the wall and is protecting the senate majority and preping for Hillary in 2016. Despite what Hillary has said, she is speaking like she is running for 2016.
She probably had a stroke last year and whatever her intentions are right now four years is a long time. She will probably have another one before 2016.
Just remember that in 2005 she was anointed as the first woman President but she lost the nomination to some unknown guy. Can’t remember his name.
I have no love for Reid, but he has generally been more a Democrat than a Progressive. Unfortunately, he is Chuck the schmuck Schumer’s puppet these days. Schumer is the real prime evil in the senate. Every time I see Schumer walk on stage, I can’t help wondering who makes high end Italian wingtips for cloven hooves.
No he doesn’t, Ralph. It’s just to provide cover. This is a simple ploy to allow “no” votes against DiFi’s AWB amendment while the bastards vote in favor of other gun control legislation (mag bans, registration, bans on private sales, etc.) This was their admitted plan all along. Apparently it’s working.
Good coverage, Nick.
“waiving the bloody shirt” – I sure wish politicians would waive their rights to waving it. It would be hard to drum up support without doing so, though.
“Feinstein’s AWB Dead”
I didn’t see the AWB at first and I started to get excited.
Wasn’t it Congress-womyn Barbara Boxer (C-word) who once ranted in a “poor-me victim” voice: Leave us alone! Leave us alone!?” Now, it’s anti-gun California that just doesn’t want to leave us alone.
there’s a lesson to be learned here kiddies. Grab your scary death machines while they’re 6-800 dollars. If you think 40cents a round for 223 is expensive, just remember when it was a dollar. and most importantly, dont underestimate the value of 22 lr.
Some of us learned it last time. Like WLCE says, you younger guys pay heed. You’lle be glad you did.
Why are so many of the hard-core anti-gunners Jewish. I don’t get it, 75 years ago when the Gestapo came for their guns they just handed them over. Then when all the guns were gone the Gestapo came for them, and we all know how that turned out. Millions of gun owners are excellent history students, they know history can be repeated. Our great nation was born from a revolution. We may need another one to keep it!
A lot of hard-core pro gunners are Jewish, too. Including the lawyer who won the Heller and McDonald cases, the guy at the SAF who raised the money to pay for those cases, the lawyer at the Cato Institute who paid for and litigated the McDonald trial, the JPFO, the guy who publishes this blog — and on and on.
The common thread isn’t religion or culture, it’s politics. Most Democrats are anti-gun, most Jews are Democrats, therefore some Jews are anti-gun. Non-Democrat Jews are supportive of gun rights. It’s a Venn Diagram.
Dammit man, I thought it read Feinstein dead!
The legacy of Diane Feinstein is this: I never even thought about buying an AR until she told me in 94 I couldn’t have one. Now I have multiple AR’s and I am not alone. She single handedly launched the Black Rifle craze to stratospheric sales numbers, and is doing so again. It would almost be easy to make the case that it is a conspiracy between her and the firearms industry.
Feinstein will be able to propose her AWB as an amendment to Reid’s gun control bill which will allow senate Democrats to vote against her AWB which, in turn, will provide those Democrats cover to vote for Reid’s gun control bill (magazine ban, ban of private sales, registration, etc.) while claiming that they voted against an assault weapons ban. This was the plan all along, otherwise, Reid’s bill (and Schumer’s bill and others) had no chance of passing. This way, they’ll pass it piecemeal while claiming they voted against it. They are going to piss on your leg and tell you it’s raining. The press will go further and claim its a thunderstorm. A warm, yellow thunderstorm.
That evil witch just can’t let dead dogs lie. She will push her anti-gun agenda til the day she leaves this earth. And that can’t be to soon, IMHO. But, we need to be on the watch and push back at every push they make!!
If one good thing comes out of this mess, it will be the realization that these people will never stop trying to disarm Americans. And they will use any pretext, whether Fast & Furious, nutjobs on rampages, or gangs in big cities.
The next battle will likely be at the U.N. Will they succeed? Probably not. But they will keep trying. The only solution is to take these people out of power and keep them out.
Why do bad things happen to good people every day, yet monsters like DiFi continue to breathe? There’s about as much justice in the world as there is coming out of the DoJ.
DEAD FOR NOW. It’s only as dead as the next horrific school shooting, and I have no doubt that one’s being arranged right now.
The link between school shootings and gun ban legislation is well-established, if you will just open your mind to it. Just remember this moment.
I look forward to the crowds of wannabe merchants crying “Ah jis wanna git wot ah paid for it!”
Should be a good show.