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The gun lobby’s spin operation in the wake of its sizable defeats last Tuesday is literally unbelievable. How, for example, can George Will say during the Sunday morning roundtable discussion on the Stephanopoulos show that the NRA was a “winner” when they lost over 82 percent of the 46 called races where their endorsed candidates ran against candidates endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence?
The NRA spent over 1.7 million dollars (80 percent of their independent expenditures) on losing campaigns this year. The NRA’s success rate in the U.S. Senate was only 25 percent and in the U.S. House (with some races still undecided) only 42 percent.
Arguments that some of the new winners are “pro-gun” (see my letter to the New York Times from Saturday that questions the use of this term) begs the question why the NRA spent so much money the last few weeks trying to defeat candidates like Jim Webb and Bob Casey.
The Brady Campaign endorsed candidates in 345 races across the country and, with 4 races still in doubt, has won over 96 percent of the decided contests. Supporting common sense gun violence prevention measures helped elect candidates at all levels across the country on Tuesday. I know of no candidates where this support caused them to lose.
The lesson to be learned from this election is that trying to reduce gun violence through common sense, moderate, approaches like having more gun sales covered by Brady background checks, restricting bulk sales of handguns, and strengthening law enforcement’s ability to make sure that the laws on the books are followed, helps, not hurts, candidates in all parts of the country.
Americans want positive reality-based results - not theoretical spin - on all sorts of issues from what will make us safe in the world as well as at home.
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“Americans want positive reality-based results”
True, but why are the states with the highest crime rates the same states that have the toughest gun laws? If results are what we want then why push what is obviously not working?
“Common sense” gun laws had nothing to do with the election on Tuesday. Honestly - this was completely about Iraq.
One would have to be delerious to believe gun control was the deciding factor in many of these races.
This election was a referendum on Iraq - not on gun laws.
Had this election been about “common sense” gun laws, Democrats would not have fared so well.
-Robert
I noticed that the NRA spent a lot of money defending Republicans against A-rated Democrats. Ideologically, Jon Tester and Jim Webb were probably wins for their side of the debate, but they wanted to defend the Republican majority, so they poured money into Burns and Allen’s campaigns. That’s politics as usual, and that’s perfectly understandable. But when the political maneuver is this obvious, it might be time for the NRA to admit that they’re not pure-minded crusaders; they’re just a political group. And at politics, they lost this round.
On this web site your talking about no back ground checks. I have been buying guns for 8 years now, and i have always had to have a back ground check done before i could buy a gun. I agree with the back ground check. I think people should have to go through a gun safety course befor they can buy a gun. I do not agree with limiting a law abiding person to what kind of guns he or she can have. People can buy a car that will do 200 mph but the speed limit in the US is not over 80 mph.You people talk like getting rid of guns will solve the crime problems.If some one is intent on doing you bodly harm they will do it with or with out a gun. their are 1000’s of ways you can kill a person with out a gun. If you realy want to help reduce crime,why dont you support the death pently and chain gangs for criminals. Insted of slaping them on the wrist. Yall talk like guns are the problem.Ive had guns since i was 5 years old. Iam now 30 years old. Ive never shot any one,nor did I ever take a gun to school. I dont agree with your stand that guns are easy to get.
I personaly feel that Bill Brady should shout his mouth. He got shot in the line of duty. He knew the risk befor he took the job. hope to hear from you soon Kelly Owen
Dear Mr. Helmke:
It was interesting to read your column and see the Brady Campaign’s response to the election. Just like the NRA, you put your own spin on it.
Both sides want to pass laws that make us safer. Which laws do that the best is a matter of perspective. For example, the NRA (and other pro-self-defense groups) supported the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection which prohibited government entities from confiscating (as did Major Nagin) legally-held firearms during times of natural or man-made disasters. As you know, during Hurricane Katrina there was a complete breakdown of law and order in some parts of New Orleans. Personal firearms were all that kept some people safe and from being victimized by looters and criminals. (Another example are the armed businessmen who protected their stores from looters during the Rodney King Riots.) The Brady Campaign did not support this legislation.
The Brady Campaign is widely perceived to be anti-gun, as you mentioned in your letter to the New York Times. You implied that this was unfair. Perhaps if you supported laws that protected our right to defend ourselves (which does keep us safer) that perception would not exist.
Sincerely,
Michael Sorgenfrei
Dear Sir,
I am a total and complete believer in the right to keep and bear arms for personal protection purposes and for sporting usage.
I agree that there are far too many guns in the hands of irresponsible and criminal people.
I agree that we need to remove those guns from those people.
However,I completely reject the methods that have been used by the Democrats in the past. Making every gun owner the target of gun laws and gun confiscation is not the answer.
What happened in New Orleans WILL not happen again. What you folks, whom I suspect have hidden and dangerous agendas, seem to want is to confiscate all guns and disarm the citizenry, as was done in other countries.
I am a CCW permit holder and recently, while traveling, was carrying a pistol, in a state which honors my CCW, and my wife and I were accosted, at night in a shopping center parking lot, by a man brandishing a knife and demanding money. Had I not been better armed than he, I have no doubt that we would have suffered a very bad fate. Would that have bothered you; I think not.
Simply because you seem to live in a fairy tale world where everyone is nice, you want to remove my legal right to protect myself and my family.I don’t feel prone to giving you that power. I believe that you also would stop all hunting, target shooting and the like. As I reside in an area in which the average response time of law enforcement is measured in hours or days, not mintues, one has to be prepared for self protection. Unfortunately, most large city denizens do not understand that fact and seem to have some silly concept that only the police can protect us. I handled myself quite well through a major conflict, in which I was embroiled, in Southeast Asia in the 60’s and I can do a much better job of self protection now. But, not if you take away my weapons for defense. Does that concept carry any credence with you?
In this most recent election, which you are crowing over and which you are also lieing about, as to the cause of the outcome, and you and I both know that, I was forced to vote for Republicans who I did not want to have in office, simply because I cannot vote for a Democrat, due to the anti-gun stance of the leadership of that party and folks like you.
Please be aware that there will not be a day, any time soon, when you will succeed in your goal of disarming America, so your type can control the rest of us. We are prepared to resist your efforts.
As the incredibly great increase in crime in Australia and England has shown, making guns illegal does no good, so you must have a hidden agenda which I fear is to take control of our country.
I certainly do not want to live in a country where only the government, the military and the police have weapons, as I do not trust people like Schumer, Pelosi, Clinton and you, to be a benign and benevolent leadership.
The very sad fact of gun control is that because the Democrats and anti-gunners have shown us, during the Clinton years, that if we agree with you and give you an inch, you want the mile, so we cannot concede any point, no matter how cogent it may be, for fear that you will only take that concession as proof that you should proceed in your goal of total gun banning. The fact that you took the results of the last election, which was all about Iraq and Bush, and twisted that to show that the people voted against guns, proves to me your cupidity and dishonesty; or is it simply stupidity?
Thank you,
David Reese
If two candidates are pro-gun, NRA policy is to support the incumbet. This election has seen the most pro gun democrats and republicans elected in many many years. If you do not like our Second Amendment rights, you have the right to move to another country.
The problem with the gun control debate is that everyone (your group and your opponents) has a scatter-gun attitude towards solving the problems of violence in the USA. Going after the “big guns” of industry by force of congress never works. I have to give credit (as a rifle and handgun shooter) to my opponenets for more skillful arguments. The problem all revolves around trust, and neither side of this debate on more control has a lot of it.
I know where you’re coming from on this one, but I hope you don’t mean to suggest that guns were a first-tier issue this year? Mark Foley, Iraq, gas prices, immigration, and a bunch of other national issues played in nearly every race. Sure, guns were on the menu in some races, but I don’t know that they were front-and-center in every voter’s mind. Maybe you did win votes when people thought about gun control (in certain districts), but I don’t know if there’s any way to verify that.
Looking at only one comment in 8 days shows me how interested people are in this issue. Proud member of the NRA!
The lesson to learned from this election and previous ones is that the Brady Campaign has been weakened politically since its heydey during the Clinton Administration. Democrats ran pro firearms ownership campaigns in 2006 to win in states such as Montana and Indiana.
The public has rejected the message of firearms bans, suing gun makers for crime, or retroactive licensing proposals for all owners as a solution for crime and violence that your organization advocates. Additional states have permitted trained citizens to carry firearms for self defense over objections from gun control supporters predicting “wild west shootouts”.
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