Robert Farago
The Truth About Guns
4/18/2013
“Vice President Biden told White House allies in the gun control fight Thursday that President Obama will be announcing new executive actions on gun violence in the days after the Senate voted down a gun violence bill,” buzzfeed.com reports. “On a conference call with ‘stakeholders,’ Biden told gun control advocates that the fight is not over and that eventual action on gun control will come. Press were not invited to the conference call; a participant provided BuzzFeed with access.” The White House is already walking back Biden’s promises. But here’s part of the transcript :
Look, I know you’re going to say that I’m just being an optimist and I’m trying to put a good face on this. But, you know, I’ve been around here a long time and we’ve already done, because of you, some really good things. Number one, the president is already lining up some additional executive actions he’s going to be taking later this week…
The article continues at The Truth About Guns.
Related: Reid pulls gun bill, lawmakers gear up for protracted battle on background checks
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively pulled his party’s gun control bill Thursday after a critical background check amendment failed to garner enough support, as he and other Democrats vowed to resume their push for new gun laws in the months ahead.
“Make no mistake, this debate is not over,” Reid said. He acknowledged that he and President Obama had agreed to hit “pause” on the current package, but said the Senate would “come back to this bill” and take up expanded background checks…
…Mr. Obama’s effort at emotional blackmail has failed, and in bitterly lashing out at those who called him out on his demagoguery, he went some distance toward confirming that he is, in fact, a demagogue.
Three months into his second term, Mr. Obama is becoming an increasingly bitter and powerless figure. When a man who views himself as a world-historic figure and our Moral Superior commands things to happen and they don’t, it isn’t a pretty sight. See yesterday’s Rose Garden statement for more.
After his gun control proposals were defeated today in the Senate, President Obama gave a speech in the Rose Garden, surrounded by Joe Biden, Gabrielle Giffords, and Newtown parents. He went on what can charitably be described as an angry rant. If only he had shown this much emotion about, say, Benghazi!…
…But why was Obama so angry? I wrote here that it was odd for Obama to make gun control the signature issue of his second term, since there has never been any chance of significant gun control legislation being enacted. It couldn’t possibly get through the House. So why, today, was he so irate about its failure in the Senate?…
Who Cares What the Majority Wants on Guns? Whether Democrats like it or not, this issue concerns the Constitution.
President Barack Obama has been struggling to wrap his head around the “unimaginable” idea that Congress may “defy” the American people and stop a vote on a gun control package compromise. The notion, he says, resists the “overwhelming instinct of the American people” after the massacre in Newtown, Conn., to pass gun control legislation…
…whether Democrats like it or not, this issue concerns the Constitution — where stuff was written down for a reason. That’s not to say that expanding background checks or banning “assault rifles” would be unconstitutional (though you may believe they both should be). It’s to say that when you begin meddling with protections explicitly laid out in the founding document, a 60-vote threshold that slows down stampeding legislators is the least we deserve…
…when our peerless leader says that “90 percent of the American people support universal background checks” he really means that roughly 90% support the current law and a bare majority favor extending that law to family transfers.
I wonder if he knows he is wrong about this?…
NRA President Slams Obama’s “Public Rant”
“He’s attacking the NRA, he’s attacking our members, he’s attacking citizens and senators of the United States, threatening them and all the rest. I think that’s really not a seemly way for the President of the United States to respond to a legislative defeat.”…
…See, Fox did wrong by thinking the lives in West, Texas mattered.
MSNBC, on the other hand, played it perfectly…
