Following Tuesday’s come-from-behind victory in the Georgia 6th District Congressional race and a lesser contested election in South Carolina, Democrats are now 0-4 in their “Trump Resistance” effort and it is time for Republicans to act like they are in charge, because they are.
From now on, the GOP is going to have to perform, and that means action on issues important to the people who put the party in command. This is especially true for the nation’s gun owners who want more than lofty promises from the Republican majority to be followed later by excuses that Democrats “blocked” certain measures.
Put bluntly, Second Amendment activists want to see swift passage of National Concealed Carry Reciprocity – a big issue in the wake of the Virginia shooting so members of Congress can legally carry for their own protection while in Washington, D.C. – and the National Hearing Protection Act. The latter will remove the red tape hassle for owning a silencer.
Gun owners are a huge voting bloc, and they will no longer take disappointment in stride. With more than 15 million Americans legally-licensed to carry, and with many states participating in reciprocity agreements, it makes no sense for Congress to let national reciprocity gather dust.
The National Hearing Protection Act is also important to a growing number of shooters who understand the many advantages to widespread access to suppressors (aka “silencers”) without all the red tape. These devices could greatly help range operations that are now being encroached upon by suburban sprawl. Likewise, it will allow hunting without concerns about noise.
Silencers will also be useful on indoor gun ranges. Suppressor advocates consider opposition to the devices to be specious at best. For anti-gunners to be suddenly concerned that silencers will make it easier for criminals to do drive-by shootings amounts to nonsense, say gun owners.
Put another way, gun owners must use this time to their advantage. This is hardly the time to fold up the tents and go home after declaring victory. They should continue supporting those organizations that won elections or court cases and actually accomplish something.
The National Rifle Association has some 5 million members and an aggressive legislative agenda. The Second Amendment Foundation has a smaller membership but is waging expensive gun rights legal battles all over the map. SAF’s sister organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, would love to expand its grassroots efforts.
After Tuesday’s special election rout, Democrats mired in the “Trump Resistance” movement should take a hint from Star Trek’s Borg: “Resistance is Futile.”
The party spent a fortune — $23 million worth – in an attempt to put Jon Ossoff into Georgia’s 6th District Congressional seat only to have voters elect Republican Karen Handel, the first woman ever sent to Congress from the Peach State. The race strengthened the impression that the Democratic Party is in disarray. They’ve been losing since Donald Trump pulled the political upset of the century last November, defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in a race that the pundits and pols all expected her to win in a walk.
Wednesday morning, some were suggesting that the hype about the Handel-Ossoff contest outcome being a “referendum on Trump” actually turned out that way, just not the way Democrats had hoped.
Several things appear to have influenced the outcome. Last week’s attempted slaughter of Republicans by liberal loon James Hodgkinson at a Virginia baseball field brought conservatives out of the woodwork. Wednesday’s report from the FBI that Hodgkinson acted alone and had bought his guns legally some years ago took away another popular meme for the “party of gun control.”
The would-be assassin was a hate monger of the highest order, a fact that liberals seem unable to accept. They can’t blame “easy access to guns” for the crime, and he bought them at a retail gun store, not a gun show.
The fact that Ossoff was something of a political unknown who didn’t even live in the district he wanted to represent also played against him.
Although Democrats may now be asking themselves if the “resistance” campaign is worth it, Republicans should not feel too smug. They now firmly have the reins, and if they don’t move this freight wagon down the road to deliver the goods, they may lose the important support from people on whom they depend at election time.
