Saturday, March 27, 2010

Why Obama Isn't Gonna Take Your Guns: The Short Answer

Bill Clinton got tons of shit from the right because of his 1994 crime law which restricted assault rifles. The far right will never forget this as long as we live, but here are a few quick reasons why Obama has no interest in doing anything about guns in the US: he doesn't need to. Crime is on a major downswing and has been since the mid-90s.



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It's obvious Clinton tried to restrict weapons, not because liberals hate the 2nd Amendment, but because crime was at an all time high in the US in 1992:



I'm not saying Clinton's weapons restrictions reduced crimes; let's not confuse correlation with causation. I'm just saying that in the reality of left wing politics in the US, gun restrictions is sooo 1992.
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3 comments:

  1. Candidus5:06 PM

    "...here are a few quick reasons why Obama has no interest in doing anything about guns in the US: he doesn't need to. Crime is on a major downswing and has been since the mid-90s."

    Enacting the so-called "assault weapon ban" in 1994 had nothing to do with reducing crime, and more to do with catering to a core constituency's fear and demonstrating to the rest that the Democrats were "doing something" in the War on Some Drugs – even if it was only fighting the symptom. The weapons targeted by the law were not banned by it, continued to be sold with only cosmetic modification, and were never being significantly used in crime in the first place.

    "I'm just saying that in the reality of left wing politics in the US, gun restrictions is sooo 1992."

    The actual short answer why Obama chooses not to push gun control is because the issue has become a well-known political loser. It was more of a factor in the Democrats' loss of Congress in 1994 than was the Contract With America (both Clinton and Gingrich have acknowledged that), and is regarded as the reason why Gore didn't carry his own state in 2000.

    Also, the window of opportunity to ban "assault weapons" has pretty much closed since the early nineties. There's been a huge shift in their acceptance over the past 20 years, even within the gun culture itself. AR-15 pattern weapons are becoming as ubiquitous today as lever-action Winchesters were in the Old West. Remington is even selling them as hunting rifles.

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  2. cs10:36 PM

    I thought arming everyone in bars, schools, and playgrounds was the key to reducing crime. I say your statistics are off.

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  3. Candidus1:51 PM

    "I thought arming everyone in bars, schools, and playgrounds was the key to reducing crime."

    (shrug)

    How much crime might have been prevented had Ann Richards not vetoed the Texas concealed handgun bill in 1993?

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