The Bullet Ballot

Everyone seems to be wringing their hands over the economics of a new administration. Here’s the deal, people… spending will happen. I don’t care who it is or how they spin it, your pocket will be picked in the name of the state. Period. During the last administration it was corporate breaks, subsidies and war.. During the next it will be either more of the same or a swan dive into social programs. No way out of it, in either case. So let’s just come to an understanding and get over that part.

Now let’s switch gears to what’s near and dear to my heart, when picking a representative for myself. The Second Amendment (which backs up all the others).
Let’s just take a peek at who thinks what and who stands where.

We’ll start with Mr. HopeChange himself, Obama.

During the primaries, he tried to hide behind vague statements of support for “sportsmen” or unfounded claims of general support for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
But his real record, based on votes taken, political associations, and long standing positions, shows that he is a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties.
Here’s a little snippet from his political career:

He voted to allow reckless lawsuits designed to bankrupt the firearms industry. Isn’t that like suing Betty Crocker if you get fat?

He wants to re-impose the failed and discredited Clinton Gun Ban. I guess he hasn’t figured out why it failed and what exactly “discredited” means.

He voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting. That really just translates into “most commonly used calibers”, which affects me. Obviously this bites.

He has endorsed a complete ban on handgun ownership. Way into my 3 foot space with this one.

He supports local gun bans in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities to lower gun crime rates. I guess he never heard of Kennesaw, Georgia.

He voted to uphold local gun bans and the criminal prosecution of people who use firearms in self-defense. So basically, if a bad guy breaks into MY home and I stop them … he’d rather I go to jail for protecting my life and my family.

He supports requiring law-abiding gun owners to register their firearms. This is just so wrong on so many levels. There’s no reason to do this other than the government wants to know the whereabouts of every single gun. If that had happened early on, this country wouldn’t be what it is today.

He wants to eliminate your Right to Carry. And mine.

He supported a proposal to ban gun stores within 5 miles of a school or park. Try this; grab a map of your area and pin point every place that sells guns (this includes pawn shops, sporting goods stores, the Wal-Marts that still have them, etc.). Draw a circle with a five mile radius around each one. Not a whole lot of space left is there? Is there even a spot that could qualify as a place to put a store at that rate? One that’s not in the middle of the desert or sticks?

He supports mandatory micro-stamping. A quick Google search will show you exactly what a fiasco this would create.

He supports mandatory waiting periods. I don’t recall where time limits were imposed in any part of the Second Amendment.

He supports “one-gun-a-month” sales restrictions. This is just ridiculous.

He supports a ban on inexpensive handguns. Because, lord knows if a reason crops up that you need to protect yourself and you may not be rolling in the dough…you should be made to just hand your life over to your stalker, your abusive ex, your violent neighbor, whomever. If you can’t afford that shiny Kimber, you best just fold.

He supports a ban on the resale of police issued firearms. I can’t even wrap my mind around why this is an issue.

He supports mandatory firearm training requirements for all gun owners and a ban on gun ownership for persons under the age of 21. Laughable. I suppose it would make it quite difficult for our young service men and women volunteering for the military…and not being old enough to be issued a firearm.

OK, then. Moving on to Ms.MommyOfTheGlobe, H.Clinton. Although it’s improbable that she’ll be revisiting the White House as a squatter for the next four years, I do think she’ll be an active part in whatever is going down. So it bears flushing out her stance as well.

Here are a few gems from her camp:

She’d like to give local police access to federal gun tracking info.

Gotta give her this one, though…
She claimed to want to let states & cities determine local gun laws. I can live with that in theory. Otherwise, there'd have been no forward thinking in such a case like Kennesaw (mentioned earlier).

But…she’s a flip flopper. At first, she was all for a national licensing registration plan on guns, but then she backed off. But now she’s on it again.

Although she wants to get assault weapons & guns off the street, I have yet to read a defining statement as to what exactly an “assault weapon” is. Doesn’t really matter much, though…since I plan on owning one any way.

She stated in 2000 that she’d like to “Keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them”. Frankly, that’s a little too vague for my taste. If she means two- year olds on the merry go ‘round at the park, then I can go with that. If she means me…screw her.

She also wants to limit access to weapons by way of a waiting period between gun purchases.

She wants gun control that “protects our children” by way of endorsing questionnaires from physician visits about guns in the home. Invasion of privacy anyone?

She also voted “no” on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers for gun violence.

She’s endorsing that “smart gun” technology that supposedly prevents unauthorized firearm use. Mkay…a veritable resale nightmare.

OK, I need a shower after all that…but unfortunately, we aren’t done yet.
We have to take a look at John Mc-Chain-Me-to-Iraq.

I must admit that when a friend and I were discussing McCain, I didn’t think he was too far behind the other two. I’ve read in different places that he’s not a friend of gun owners and that coupled with his views about human civil rights, I cringe.
Civil liberties aside, jumping into his voting record surprised me. At first. But then the all too familiar slide on the slippery slope happened. You'll see...

Let’s jump right in with a quote from an interview asking him about personal ownership of firearms: “I know how to use guns. I just don't own one now.”

Here we go:
He voted to protect gun manufacturers from such inappropriate liability aimed at bankrupting the entire gun industry. McCain says, "Neither justice nor domestic peace are served by holding the innocent responsible for the acts of the criminal."

He voted against an amendment that would have banned many of the most commonly used hunting cartridges on the spurious grounds that they were "armor-piercing."

He consistently votes against restrictions on so-called "assault rifles". He opposes bans on the importation of certain types of ammunition magazines and has voted against such limitations. This is looking “up”, no?

But now we take a dark turn…
He has a proposal to close the gun show loophole and everybody who’s anybody knows that there really is no such “loophole”. That’s a whole ‘nother blog…

He also favors outlawing cheaply made handguns called Saturday night specials, and favors mandating safety locks on certain guns. He said he is intrigued by new technology that electronically identifies a person handling a gun, allowing only the owner to fire it. *sigh*…so much for the roll he was on.

He said he was open to voting for an assault weapon ban, depending on the details. Totally lost bonus points there, John.

Here’s a little flip flop of his own. First he votes “yes” to background checks at gun shows, then he votes “no”. I guess he figures that means he’s neutral now.

He voted to kill an amendment to make it unlawful for gun dealers to sell handguns without providing trigger locks. OK, so we get that he’s got opinions on both sides of the fence. This doesn’t really help all that much. Not as much as I thought it might.

Unfortunately, even though he’s all over the map where it concerns the Second Amendment, he still seems to be the lesser of evils on Election Day. That being said, lesser evil is still evil. Bah.