- An Idiot's Guide To Gun Control

... because so many idiots seem to be interested in it.

In todays's WSJ:

An almost cosmic disconnect has been building in the political sphere since the tragedy of Sandy Hook. On the one side is the gun-control community, which sniffed a rare political opening and is determined to use it to the max. Vice President Joe Biden's gun-violence task force has given that community a vehicle for its ambitions, even as it has encouraged it to ramp up its demands.

By this week, the elites were calling for a gun-control agenda unmatched in modern times. The closing of the gun-show "loophole"? Restrictions on large-capacity clips? An "assault weapons" ban? They want all that, plus a national gun database, and a background check for every gun sale, and similar checks for ammunition sales, and regulation of Internet transactions, and Michael Bloomberg crowned emperor. (A position for which Mr. Bloomberg no doubt believes himself suited.) The media have reported all this as rational, reasonable and doable.

On the other side is the reality that any of these proposals must, in the normal course of things, pass Congress. A few quick facts about that body. 1) More than half of its members have an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association. 2) The few members today calling for gun control are the same few who have always called for gun control. 3) The House is run by Republicans.

The reason Ikaika and I have both been quietly hoping for the Democrats to go big on gun control was that we both knew a big bite at the apple would only mean the Democrats choking on it faster. There will be no national gun control laws. The best the anti-gun left can hope for is a failed attempt at national gun control, that is then used as a model by the more devout anti-gun states. Look for the dropped national ball to be picked up and run with in places like Illinois, California, New York, Connecticut, and.... New Jersey.

With that said, I have to give the journal credit. This is the first 'coastal media' piece that I've seen which isn't just cheerleading for gun control, and is actually looking at reporting the news around the issue.

%%%%%%%%%%%%UPDATE%%%%%%%%%%%%

Since the congressional debate is always more fun when Republicans are demonstrating how utterly insipid the Democrats are, I would like to offer the following facetious suggestion.

If Biden's committee is going to put forward legislation that's really supposed to prevent a shooting like Newtown, lets put an exception in the legislation which automatically repeals it if another shooting takes place. If it's another shooting in a "gun free zone" (which it almost certainly will be) then that legislation gets repealed too.

"OK Joe, you can have your law. But if it turns out that it doesn't actually work it's automatically gone. Deal?!"