Where's the Catch?

Sixty-five democrat members of the House of Representatives have written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder in the wake of his announcement that the Obama administration intended to pursue a reinstatement of the Clinton era assault weapons ban. Here is the text of that letter in its entirety:

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As strong supporters of the Second Amendment, we were very concerned to see your recent remarks suggesting that the administration will push for the reinstatement of the 1994 ban on "assault weapons" and ammunition magazines.

We believe that this ban was ineffective during the 10 years it was law, and would oppose its reenactment. Crime began falling before the ban was passed in 1994, and continued falling during and after the ban. The last time the murder rate was at its current level was more than forty years ago.

Even the Urban Institute study of the ban's effectiveness mandated by the 103rd Congress found that it could only have a limited effect because "the banned weapons and magazines were never used in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders."

It is hard to believe the ban would be any more effective in controlling crime by well-funded international drug traffickers, who regularly use grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets and other weapons that aer not available on the civilian market in the United States.

The gun control community as intentionally misled many Americans into believing that these weapons are fully automatic machine guns. They are not. these firearms fire one sot for every pull of the trigger. Some of the guns that would be banned under proposed bills have been around for more than 70 years, and are often passed down from generation to generation.

Many of our constituents lawfully own and use these firearms and ammunition magazines that would be affected by the new ban. Indeed, these are commonly owned firearms through the country. Law-abiding Americans use these guns for all the same reasons they use any other kind of gun--competitive shooting, hunting, and defending their homes and families.

Our constituents also have very real and serious problems that we in Congress urgently need to address. People are worried about keeping their jobs, paying for their families' health care, educating their children, and retiring with the kind of security their parents and grandparents enjoyed. A long and divisive fight over a gun control issue will only distract us from giving these more important issues the attention they deserve.

Again, we would actively oppose any effort to reinstate the 1994 ban, or to pass any similar law. We urge you to abandon this initiative and to focus instead on effective law enforcement strategies to enforce our current laws against violent criminals and drug traffickers.

This letter was signed by the following democrat Congressmen:

Mike Ross (AR), Tim Holden (PA), Jerry Costello (IL), Jim Matheson (UT), Sanford Bishop (GA), John Dingell (MI), Marion Berry (AR), Nick Rahall (WV), Gene Green (TX), Chet Edwards (TX), Ciro Rodriguez (TX), Gene Taylor (MS), Bart Stupak (MI), Collin Peterson (MN), Harry Teague (NM), John Tanner (TN), Allen Boyd (FL), Dennis Cardoza (CA), Eric Massa (NY), Steve Kagen, M.D. (WI), Betsy Markey (CO), Paul Hodes (NH), Ron Kind (WI), Peter Welch (VT), Leonard Boswell (IA), Tim Ryan (OH), Walt Minnick (ID), John Boccieri (OH), Joe Donnelly (IN), Tom Perriello (VA), Earl Pomeroy (ND), Ben Chandler (KY), Martin Heinrich (NM), Debbie Halvorson (IL), Travis Childers (MS), Tim Walz (MN), Peter DeFazio (OR), Solomon Ortiz (TX), Paul Kanjorski (PA), Rick Boucher (VA), Mike McIntyre (NC), John Murtha (PA), Bart Gordon (TN), Zach Space (OH), Alan Mollohan (WV), Lincoln Davis (TN), Artur Davis (AL), Charlie Melancon (LA), John Barrow (GA), Christopher Carney (PA), Dan Boren (OK), Parker Griffith (AL), Charlie Wilson (OH), Heath Shuler (NC), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Jim Marshall (GA), Jason Altmire (PA), Larry Kissell (NC), John Salazar (CO), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Frank Kratovil (MD), Glenn Nye (VA), Bobby Bright (AL), Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), Joe Baca (CA).

I would love to be the first to say that I welcome this change of heart of the party of gun grabbers... Unfortunately, I am still far too skeptical to believe in this precipitous 180 degree reversal of course. You see I believe that the Supreme Court handed these asshats a serious blow in its findings in the Heller vs DC case. Even the normally illogical democrats have to see that the old gun grabbing tactics that they've traditionally employed will be pretty well blocked. Additionally, the polls have spoken loudly. On average 70% of Americans are solidly against any further legislation infringing on our right to keep and bear.

So don't let your guard down. We've seen the democrats I believe, trying some of their new tactics on for size. They've begun blaming the on-going violence in Mexico on smuggled American weapons; claiming that 90% of the weapons used in gang killings there stem from America, but even the BATFE in hearing said that those numbers could not be substantiated.

The other tack they've taken is to go after ammunition... There's been moves to use OSHA to complicate the storage of munitions at sporting goods stores to such an extent that ammunition would be prohibitively expensive. There's been efforts to saddle ammunition with exorbitant taxes and others have tried to initiate legislation to force the registration of ammunition or the introduction of prohibitively expensive tagents into the the powder that fills them.

Make no mistakes my friends this is nothing more than the latest attempt to lull us into complacency. They have not changed their stripes, just their hunting tactics.