Best summer ever for gun sales

[beardown]

June, July, and August were all records for background checks by the ATF for gun sales.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/09/its-best-summer-ever-gun-sales

Snip---
The summer has seen a renewed push by many Democrats, including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for new gun control measures in the wake of several shootings. Some experts have said they believe the advocacy for new gun control is driving the record sales.

"Whenever there is a call for gun control, sales increase," Larry Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told the New York Daily News. "Unfortunately, this is a pattern that repeats itself."
---end snip

Regardless of whether or not the new gun control advocacy is causing the record numbers, my question is why is the Democratic party still pushing the same failed measures? They've had no problem in turning their backs on the working poor and unions and the middle class when it got them big corporate donations. Why not scale back the gun rhetoric and work with the large number of Democratic gun owners on advancing gun criminal control measures and probably bring in or at least stabilize several hundred thousand, if not millions given the surge in gun ownership, gun owners voters who might be one issue voters. Gun ownership rights voters? If for no other reason than to prevent adding millions of more gun owners to the pro gun owner side of the equation which will make any future gun confiscation measures much more difficult.

The cynic in me thinks that perhaps they are intentionally boosting gun sales as payback for campaign donations, but I think it's more a case of pandering to gun confiscation voters the same way that repubs pander to Christian fundamentalists. It's pure voter math to me. They will win more pro gun votes than they will lose anti gun votes by working with gun rights people to work on gun criminals control and not gun confiscation pandering.

Many of us here are the rights worst nightmare. Liberals with a gun. Well, maybe second worst. Worst would be a black liberal with a gun.

[Fred Sanders]

1. The old "if only Democrats would be more like Republicans on gun control canard" is a gruesome

distrotion of logic that died long ago along with the credibility of the NRA and Fox.

[beevul]

2. Says the guy that claims to be "coming for all our guns". N/T

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

3. good one... "credibility"

[branford]

4. You should be very pleased, there's only a small minority of pro-gun rights Democrats

left in Congress and many of the states after the 2012 and 2014 elections.

Of course, we lost control of the Senate, the Republicans have their largest majority in the House in generations, and Republicans control a clear majority of state legislatures and goverorships.

The entirety of both a long-term and short-term progressive agenda has been imperiled, but elected Democrats are "purer" than ever concerning guns. At least we'll surely be able to pass a "progressive" anti-gun agenda. Oh, wait...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. You know what would be really, really effective at countering GOP canards?

Not validating their "Democrats want to take your guns" talking points.

[branford]

6. Sadly, according to some on DU, it's either not as bad or doesn't count

if "Democrats want to take your guns" if it's in the purported interest of "gun safety."

This is clearly very different from any GOP accusations, and should have no electoral repercussions for Democrats...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. Don't you just hate it when they lie by using verbatim quotes?

I swear their crew would hire a one-man band to go traipsing down Main St. of a Democratic enclave blaring out that gunnerz were under-endowed child-killing homicidal gun humpers and when the NRA posted the video of that very same feat they would squall about evil NRA talking points and then beat their breasts wondering why the district went red in the subsequent election.

[branford]

9. What are you talking about?

I've been repeatedly told that more than 90% of American favor strict gun controls, ... or unicorns, ... I get confused sometimes...

[DonP]

10. Now, what percentage of Democrat voters that own guns are they trying to drive away?

Isn't it something like 20% or so?

I'm just curious as to the margin we'll need to "win" elections by, if only some gun owners stay home or say F' You to the "All gun control all the time" and "Let's do what Australia did" platform they want to put in place.

IIRC, most national elections are only won or lost by a percentage point or two, so how many Dems can we afford to piss off with this crap rhetoric before it has an impact on national elections the way it has had on state elections and mid terms?

(Are we getting election advice from another Canadian? Haven't we been through all this before? It does not end well.)

[branford]

11. It's not just the Democrats that might stay home,

Last edited Thu Sep 10, 2015, 01:13 AM - Edit history (1)

it's the independents and Republicans that will rush to the voting booth to cast their ballots against any candidate supporting gun control.

We get two for the price of one; some Democrats, mainly in very important purple states like CO, FL, and OH, stay home, and it's a hot button, cultural and personal issue for many of our opponents.

[DonP]

14. Aw, thats OK, they'll just blame the evil NRA

We've lost seats at the state and local level in mid terms over the gun issue and every time they just blame the evil NRA for pouring money into the coffers of their opponents.

In Colorado where we lost control of the legislature and 3 seats, Bloomberg outspent the SAF/NRA et. al by something like 6 to 1 but they still refuse to accept that their flavor of gun control costs seats.

Better to be "pure of heart and mind" ... than elected.

[beardown]

12. We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition,

This is how the democratic party platform starts out on guns. After some other quotes including these that are often times called for by pro-gun members of this group "We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements..." the oxymoron finish of "...reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole—so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few."

The numbers show that the AWB is only going to impact a nearly statistically insignificant numbers of gun crimes and thus not commonsense in many of our opinions as a good cost-benefit equation to undercut the Constitution yet again. The platform acknowledges "law-breaking few". Why do YOU push for gun confiscation which violates the Constitution and goes against the statement of scale in the Democratic platform? You should be careful using the term 'gruesome' as your disregard of not only the Constitution, but the Democratic party platform is much closer to gruesome than you'll ever be able to recognize.

The repubs are bat-crap crazy about not only gun control, but virtually every other issue on the planet. If you can't see the difference between working out the details of how to accomplish the majority of the Democratic party platform on guns and the bat-crap crazies, I not only question your judgement on gun control, but how to win elections and per your goals amend the Constitution.

When you spend too much time on a high horse your brain may entropy a bit. Come down with us unwashed masses, shoot a few clay pigeons, and lets work out meaningful and Constitutional solutions to the "irresponsible, law-breaking few".

[beardown]

13. Per the non gun "more like republicans" statement

I'm considerably more concerned with the mass stampede of the majority of the democratic elected officials and the DNC as they have turned into full blown republican groupies on banking regs, union busting, disassembling the safety net, trashing the environment, and a plethora of other issues. I seem to have missed your outrage about this rightward march to a corporate feudal system that many of the candidates you drop to your knees to grovel and offer support. More Americans die due to bad pharma, lack of health care, and vaporous mental health system than from guns to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of brown people that happen to have the bad luck to have sited their nations on top of our oil.

In terms of being more like repubs, gun rights folks are the sane ones in the Democratic crowd.

[Fred Sanders]

15. Another passive-aggressive NRA-supplied word salad comment.....better than some.

[beardown]

16. Thanks. Perhaps better ranking than I'd give it myself.

Got a bit riled up and hurried so word salad might be over rating it.

330 or so million Americans. Unless you are a mega rich corporation, most of the rest of us have to compromise. The reality of the gun situation in the nation is that we aren't likely to ban guns and yet we do have a gun violence problem.

The more we seek out common ground on a democratic party side of the aisle (because as noted the repubs have completely lost their minds) the better the solution will be. I believe that there is a solution that will preserve the RKBA and that will greatly reduce gun violence, but it's going to take economic and social reforms that the repubs and the DNC side of the party reject as not advancing the corporate agenda.

I grew up when guns were common place and in the back of many trucks and students would go hunt after school. The war on some drugs started the quick downward slide and now increasing social and economic pressure has boiled up anger and over-response. I think we can achieve getting or keeping guns out many of the worst offenders. Then things like building an adequate mental health support system and other support structures are not only within the scope of the Constitution, but are actually achievable in less time than amending the Constitution and confiscating guns which is a solution I don't support anyway. The key difference is reducing gun violence as opposed to removing guns. Neither is easy. I believe the former is more within the scope of the current Democratic platform and would garner more votes than the latter.

[Hangingon]

18. I don't think you write "word salad".

Your post was grammatically correct and cogent. I see plenty of word salad around here.

[Eleanors38]

17. Another exp of using slop-shot psychological terms as personal attack?

Sounds like it.

[branford]

19. Feel free to respond to the number of other posted comments responding to your

"if only Democrats would be more like Republicans on gun control canard" post.

Hint: Simply decrying the purported general evils of the NRA or FOX does not constitute a substantive, no less cogent or persuasive, argument.

For instance, how's your "Democrats should act like real Democrats" strategy working with known gun control proponents in Congress in actually passing legislation, changing public opinion, or most importantly, electing Democrats nationwide?

[ileus]

7. We should be the party of progress...giving up the 2A to the GOP is stupid.

That being said, I only bought one new pistol, and traded up one off facebook all year.