Republican Congressman Quits Race After Backlash Over His Gun Stance

[In It to Win It]

Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.) said he'd vote to ban the AR-15 after the mass shooting in Buffalo. Now he's dropping his reelection bid.

A Republican congressman is dropping his bid for reelection after backlash from his own party over his stance on stronger gun regulation.

Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.) said he would support a ban on the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle following the white supremacist mass shooting in Buffalo last month that left 10 people dead and the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman killed 21 people.

“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” Jacobs told reporters last week.

“I can’t in good conscience sit back and say I didn’t try to do something,” he added.

But on Friday, Jacobs announced he would abandon his bid for reelection after intense backlash from his own party, including from local party leaders who pulled their support, The Buffalo News reported.

HuffPost

[Chainfire]

1. To try to do anything good or honorable is a death blow in the Republican Party.

[In It to Win It]

3. Which is so ridiculous!

It's crazy to me that the Republicans you can work with -on certain issues- end up leaving and being replaced by someone who is even more right-wing and less compromising. Then their side complains that government doesn't work and yet, they install people whose sole mission is to ensure that government doesn't work.

[barbaraann]

2. Translation of "intense backlash;" death threats. n/t

[enough]

4. No doubt.