The Gun Vote and 2014: Will There Be an Electoral Price? 538

[rrneck]

31. What (I think) you just advocated has already happened.

It sounded like a good idea at the time until people looked at it and figured out what would be involved in actually implementing the law. Senators, not to mention congresspeople, are fairly aware of their constituencies desires since that's how they get elected. They took a look at the legal and political ramifications of a registry and walked away from it.

Everybody was watching, so there was no possibility of "letting it begin" without examination. Liberal partisans on the far left forget, as partisan will, that there are a lot of liberal gun owners who would be adversely impacted by the law. That makes support from the left soft. Resistance from the right was energized and vociferous. It never had a chance from the beginning.

The truth is that gun control laws are about as good as they can be. Tightening them further endangers people, invades their privacy, and infringes on their constitutional rights without offering any remedy. Democrats are supposed to be "reality based" but legislation like Manchin/Toomey was anything but that.