Part-time South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg currently spends his days running far behind people like Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democrat presidential nomination. That’s probably more fun than running his increasingly crime-ridden city. And like all of the other Democrats running for President, he doesn’t like guns.
But what he said in recent days says more about him than it does about America’s gun owners.
Begging for votes in Iowa, he talked about his experience serving in Afghanistan and how carrying a firearm affected him.
“Over time,” he said, “I realized having a gun made me feel smaller, not bigger.”
Was he playing on the old anti-gun trope that American men own guns to compensate for small genitals? You make the call on that.
Mayor Pete was all-in on reaching a deal with Congressional Republicans to get more gun control restrictions passed into law while President Trump at least appeared open to a compromise.
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor argued now is a “golden moment” to pass gun legislation, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that the majority of Americans support so-called red flag laws, banning high-capacity magazines and prohibiting the sale of assault weapons.
“When even this President and even (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, we know that we have a moment on our hands,” Buttigieg said. “Let’s make the most of it and get these things done.”
That, of course, was before House Dems decided to press for Trump’s impeachment, in all likelihood killing any chance for a grand bargain on gun control before the election.
Buttigieg isn’t a fan of Robert Francis O’Rourke’s radical honesty about where the Democrats stand on civilian disarmament, either.
“I frankly think that that clip (about confiscation) will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying Democrats are coming for your guns,” Coons told CNN Friday morning.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.