OPINION:
Ahh, the beauty of a democratic-republic where laws outlast whim and the three separate branches of government serve as checks and balances upon each other.
It’s because of this Founding Father genius that gun control measures aimed at stopping law-abiding Americans from exercising their Second Amendment rights aren’t going anywhere in Congress right now.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan, for example, wants his House colleagues to talk about the mistakes made by law enforcement in Parkland, Florida — beginning with the one where police hid outside the school while the shooter shot and killed kids inside — before considering gun control bills. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to shift around the schedule to accommodate gun control legislation.
Others in Congress have suggested it’s time to move on, as well.
For instance, on a proposal from Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey to background checks for would-be gun buyers at shows and online, Sen. John Thune said this, The Hill noted: “We have voted that down before so I don’t know why we would need to have that vote again unless something’s changed.”
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Bill Nelson are trying to ramrod through a so-called “assault weapons” ban that names more than 200 different firearms. But it’s not going to go anywhere. Then again, it’s really not meant to go anywhere. Feinstein and Nelson are playing the political game, bringing up a bill they know dang well doesn’t have a chance at moving forward — but now they can tell their highly leftist constituencies they gave it the old college try. Feinstein’s base is loony Californians; Nelson’s, Florida, where 17 students and staffers just died in the Margory Stoneman Douglas shootings.
Nelson’s been making the rounds of Florida voters these past few days, telling an audience in Tampa he wants more bans and background checks, another audience from his Senate floor the school “tragedy should never happen again” and that Republicans need to enact “common sense gun legislation.”
But cooler heads are prevailing.
Again, from The Hill: “Even a narrower bipartisan proposal backed by Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy to incentivize local and federal officials to report more information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is drawing strong Republican opposition.”
Why?
Consider this: Once a name’s entered onto the list, how does one go about getting it removed? Or, what exactly is the criteria for adding a name to the list — and more to point, who determines?
Lists that become the government’s backdoor means of exerting gun control on citizens who’ve not been stripped of their Second Amendment rights by a court are decidedly anti-American, unconstitutional and immoral. Can you say airport no-fly lists? Sen. Ted Kennedy, now deceased, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004 that he had been stopped several times at various airports and subjected to questioning because his name had become a popular pseudonym for terror suspects.
Just saying’ — if the government’s in charge of the list-making, the people have a right to be wary.
Likely, Congress is going to face concerted pressure from the left, the press and more specifically, from the post-Parkland youth who’ve been given training and support from the likes of Planned Parenthood and George Clooney in the intricacies of media messaging. But thankfully, America’s founders worked it so that our nation’s laws, the ones enshrined in the Constitution, anyway, can’t simply be crumbled and replaced with a swift snap of voter fingers.
The safety mechanism of our government is that emotionally charged debates can’t cause overnight constitutional crises — and for that, all Americans should be grateful.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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