[A Conservative Teacher] For Shame! Democrats Ruin Opportunity to Pass Meaningful Legislation on Gun Violence

[A Conservative Teacher]

John over at Powerlineblog wrote in a post called ON GUN CONTROL, THE DEMS DON’T HAVE THE VOTES:

...One difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals like to propose new legislation without giving any thought to what laws already exist. Conservatives generally start by asking what the law is currently, and whether the solution to a given problem might be better enforcement. The current gun control debate is a good example: Obama is self-righteous “after what we saw happen in Newtown,” but he was president for four years before Newtown. What is his record with respect to enforcing the myriad of gun laws that have long existed? His record is terrible. The Obama administration has prosecuted 30% to 35% fewer gun cases annually than the Bush administration. Criminals are already violating lots of gun laws, but President Obama never cared, or made it a priority, until he saw an opportunity for political gain.

Another difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals favor legislation based on emotion, i.e., how it makes them feel about themselves. Conservatives–how old-fashioned can you get?–evaluate proposed legislation based on whether it will do any good. Again, the present background check proposal is a case in point. Compared with banning average-sized magazines, which would, overnight, make it illegal to use many millions of firearms–perhaps more than half of all pistols owned by Americans–the expansion of background checks is relatively benign. But it would also be completely ineffective....

...Meanwhile, the well-informed side of the gun debate, as exemplified by the National Rifle Association, is firing back against the ignorance being propagated by the Left. This NRA video, which deconstructs an ad on which Michael Bloomberg spent a great deal of money, is priceless. It turns out that the “gun owner” in the Bloomberg ad–now, supposedly, an enthusiastic advocate of gun control–has no idea how to handle a firearm and is, in all likelihood, an actor hired from a New York agency.

So the debate goes on, between the well-informed, who want to fight crime and promote firearms safety, and the ill-informed, who want to score meaningless psychic and political victories.

And that increasingly describes the difference between conservatives/Republicans and liberals/Democrats. On one hand you have largely a group of ill-informed people who shout slogans, use emotional attacks, rarely rely on logical arguments, arbitrarily cite random 'data' to support their 'arguments,' and seek to pass policies which are pleasing and make them feel better about themselves because they don't give to charity or go to church- troll through their blogs and websites and organizations and go to their events and rallies if you doubt my characterization of them as so.

And on the other side you have largely a group of better-informed people who talk about 'crazy' stuff like the Founding Fathers and the purposes of government and political philosophy, who rely on logical arguments, who rarely use emotional appeals even when doing so would probably help them out, who spend a lot of time actually debating points of policy and the merits of legislation, and who seek to pass policies which actually achieve good and better protect the life, liberty, and property of free citizens because they honestly care about people as evidenced by their giving to charity and going to churches- troll through their blogs and websites and organizations and go to their events and rallies if you doubt my characterization of them as so.

There are real ways to combat gun violence- I myself detailed 6 Ways to Help Prevent School Shootings. I am sure these policy proposals have their flaws, but they should have formed the basis of the conversation and not what the Democrats and liberals focused on. There was a great moment in our nation to actually take steps to combat gun violence and school shootings- and the Democrats and Obama and liberals instead used these tragedies in an attempt to take legal guns away from non-violent citizens out of a greater desire to control them and their lives.

'For shame!' I would cry at these liberals and Democrats who wrecked a great opportunity to do good by pushing for legislation such as that which was advanced in the Senate. For shame indeed.

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Posted By A Conservative Teacher to A Conservative Teacher at 4/19/2013 10:00:00 AM