"Gun" Rights and the "New" Congress
With the Democrats taking control of the Congress what do we have, as gun owners, in our future? First, I submit that gun rights are really human rights. Rights to self-defense, rights to political freedom, the right to defend freedom of speech, the right to defend being born of a particular race...
Anway, I don't think that much will happen due to gridlock. Sometimes gridlock is a good thing. The Dems are not united. They had to put up conservative candidates to beat the Republicans. No liberal won unless they ran unapposed like Pelosi, just look at Lamont who lost to Lieberman. Will these folks really be so beholding to Pelosi and Schumer that they will abandon their values to vote for these things? Maybe, but not with political pressure from home. I think they are smart enough to realize that they used the liberal leadership to give them an "in" in a party that is socialist but that when that older, often aging, leadership goes the new class will be the leadership. Also, these freshman senators and representatives realize that they will not be re-elected if they radically deviate from their campaign persona. The margin is much better than it seems as the RINOs are gone (e.g. Chafee and Dewine) and there are not 60 votes they thought they needed. I think the two houses are still divided, even among the Dems as the Reps have such a short time to their election cycle.
The Dems will also be distracted, continue to be distracted, by their hatred of Bush and his cabinet. They are already working towards trial or hearings on all those poor souls who served the past 6 years. The first lamb up for slaughter will be Rumsfeld.
The Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has served the country most of his 72 years and done a darn fine job the whole time. He was brought in to restructure the Army and was confronted with going on a war footing at the same time after 9/11. His replacement Gates may be different in temperment but not in accomplishment nor in ability and that will not make much difference for the management of the war. After all, it is the circumstances surrounding the war that will effectively make the decisions for the leaders, not the Secretary of Defense. Still, it will distract the Dems. Distracted, we will not be so easy a target.
What concerns me more is that our
perceived weaknesses will encourage our enemies to take a greater risk and again attack us here in the homeland. That will be disastrous for the Dems but it can be more disastrous for shooters in that components will become hard to get either due to simple non-availability or to increased cost as a result of rising fuel prices and competition with military requirements. If it is a major attack, it could seriously damage our economy or even require the restructuring of our transportation system. In that case you'd best be prepared to get along with what you have. That includes .22 LR ammo. At least your "excess" can be traded.
