Cruz’s Gun Control Deception

[DonP]

24. "The majority of Americans DO want gun control - based on polling data. "

Suuuure they do.

They just don't ever actually get around to voting or supporting it as if they do. Answering an anonymous survey, with vague questions to make yourself feel good is cheap and easy. Doing something is what counts. Exactly what kind of "Gun Control" were they thinking of when they said "yes"?

You can always believe a poll or "your lyin' eyes", when the DoJ publishes record high NICS background checks every month for over a year. Might as well believe in Kellerman, Bellisles and the tooth fairy as that poll.

But control minded folks feel that, well, "if we just control sales to the law abiding folks, eventually, maybe, it will be harder for bad guys to get guns. Let's try it and see what happens."

"One life is too many" is nice "Happy Unicorn Thinking". No one is ever going to eliminate the criminal element that always manages to find deadly weapons, no matter what laws are passed and feebly enforced.

So, when a single mother shoots a home invader it's "one too many"? A store owner stops a robbery and that's "one too many?" An Uber driver in Chicago stops a gang hit on the street by shooting the criminal, is that "one too many"?"

Do those people need to be disarmed? Or pass some kind of test to see if they are "worthy" of having a gun?

The 2013 CDC study showed that defensive gun uses, not just shootings but defense use overall, outnumber murders by at least a factor of 10. Most estimates are far higher.

"Nobody wants to take your guns" is a trite refrain we hear regularly from people who really want to feel good about themselves and think they are being "reasonable".

It's supposed to lull pro 2nd people into backing off, like they did in '94 and just let a few "reasonable new gun laws pass".

But the hard facts are there are plenty of people that want to take them away, including some here on DU that support the "Australian" model. E.g. forced confiscation without compensation.

Oh, just to get the players straight.

The NRA is 5+ million citizen members, Dem and GOP, that pay $35 a year to join. Their lobbying arm is the NRA-ILA. The NRA proper is a 501-C3 and isn't allowed to lobby or co-mingle funds with the ILA.

The gun manufacturers lobbying organization is the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) Then there's the SAF (Second Amendment Foundation) that's the one that brings so many cases to court and wins, not the NRA. A lot of gun control people are pretty ignorant about who does what and keep referencing the NRA when it's not involved in most of the court cases.

Then there are more than 50 state level organizations, not directly affiliated with any national organization, Texas State Rifle Assn., Illinois State Rifle Assn. etc.. And that doesn't even count the many national and state level hunting and conservation related organizations like Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited et. al.

Soooo ... there's a pretty big, grass roots pro second amendment infrastructure already in place. And they all vote in every election along with the families and shooting/hunting buddies. That's where the political power comes from, not so much their checkbooks.

So what's the control side infrastructure look like: Bloomberg and his checkbook - Everybody else living off his money. No grass roots, no infrastructure.