Republicans were calm, cool and collected in their support of the bill while Democrats came off as rambling old coots who didn’t really understand the issues involved. It was like the Nixon / JFK debate all over again.
But there was one belle of the ball. Rep. Trey Gowdy, in my opinion, takes the cake for the title of “best speaker” in this debate.
In the closing arguments of the debate he opened his remarks with a reading of the second amendment and went on to illustrate in an impassioned statement how the second amendment is treated as a “second class citizen” instead of with the same regard as the first and other amendments. His speech ended with wild applause from the Republicans in congress, which was well deserved.
Rep. Bill Pascrell, on the other hand, was the obvious loser. He opted to use the opinion of MAIG and his own position as a representative of New Jersey to talk down to the rest of Congress like a grumpy old man trying to shoo those damned kids off his lawn.
Watching the debate was like watching the typical stereotypes of Democrats come to life. It seemed like every Democrat believed law abiding citizens with concealed carry permits were no better than common criminals, and didn’t believe that the second amendment ranked on par with the sanctified first amendment.
It made me glad I moved to Virginia, and confirmed my resolve to never ever move back to New York.
The bill still has to pass the Senate (which has a Democratic majority) and be signed by the President before it becomes law, but this is the closest the measure has ever been to becoming a reality.