Backpedaling on the new 'assault weapons' ban

February 27, 8:49 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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Nancy Pelosi (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Well, that didn't take long.

It seems Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that the Obama administration would seek a new ban on semiautomatic firearms was premature, and the damage control teams have arrived to put the torn facades back up.

First, we had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "throw[ing] cold water" on the idea:

“On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference.

That sound bite appropriately raised some eyebrows, because as The Hill pointed out:

[T]hat phrase is the stock line of those who don’t want to pass new gun control laws, such as the National Rifle Association.

More cover came from the shill gun rights group, American Hunters and Shooters Association, in president Ray Schoenke's open letter to Holder, where he noted:

“The Obama administration shouldn’t be distracted from handling the important economic issues currently facing our country. This type of legislation will only disillusion the millions of law-abiding gun owners who voted for Barack Obama, believing that he did indeed support their right to own firearms.”

Thanks in no small part to your efforts, Ray.

Here's the thing: Anyone who doesn't think Pelosi is champing at the bit to reenact one of her pet hates is deluding themselves.

I rise in strong opposition to the repeal of the ban.

She'll ban importation if she can:

PELOSI, STARK, MCCARTHY (NY) WARN THAT CHINESE WEAPONS LOOPHOLE FOR CHEAP ASSAULT RIFLES WILL BE REOPENED IF PNTR IS PASSED

And she'll use whatever misdirection she can to ban their ownership:

You can do more as soon as we solve this insanity over the gun legislation in this town that's going on now--which I don't understand.

...if you need an assault weapon to hunt, if your aim is that bad, you should just take up another sport.

...if we had intelligent legislation to handle guns we would be doing even more.

Does that sound like she just wants to enforce what's on the books to you?

As for Schoenke, he needs to try and recapture whatever credibility he can with all those sport shooters he duped into supporting Obama. But isn't it curious that AHSA founder and past president, anti-gun activist John Rosenthal, had this to say?

Restore and improve the Federal Ban on Assault Weapons

And isn't it curious we don't see Mr. Rosenthal issuing a statement condemning his colleague's defense of what he deems "the weapon of choice by gangs, career criminals and terrorist organizations"?

That's OK--they've put a facade up on that, too. Still, c'mon, John--how about an open letter to Ray?

With all this running for cover going on, it would be easy to lose focus on the jewel in the crown. So perhaps it would be helpful to once again review the words from the official White House website. Don't take my word for it--take theirs:

Obama and Biden...also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

So what was going on with Holder?

The guy just let us see the cards before everyone was ready.

Anyone who thinks we're not one highly publicized incident away from a reinvigorated full court press to ban semiautomatics and more is kidding themselves.

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A note of clarification

You'll note when I use the term "assault weapon," I always encase it in quotation marks.  That's because it is a deceptive term for semiautomatic firearms, designed to confuse the uniformed into thinking that the firearms in question are machine guns.  In case you weren't aware, semiautomatic firearms do not "spray bullets"--they are designed to fire one round with each squeeze of the trigger. That opportunistic politicians and the media perpetuate this illusion--when they should know full well where it came from--should tell you all you need to know about the sincerity of their intentions.

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Update--GRE PR

I forgot to mention this when I first posted this column: Check out the latest Gun Rights Examiner press release.