Reply #44: Small in number, yes, but they have the ear of the corporate media... [View All]

[benEzra]

which gives them an inordinate amount of leverage. Heck, the media was still running footage of automatic weapons while discussing the AWB as late as 2004, and the New York Times is STILL stumping for it. The rise of new media and the subsequent weakening of the traditional corporate gatekeepers have weakened the gun control lobby/corporate media lockstep, but the pro-new-bans viewpoint is still quite strong.

The party platform still calls for a new ban on "assault weapons" and most double-column magazines, a call repeated incessantly by the corporate media, and the California "assault weapon" fraud is still on the books. The prohibitionists are still backing near-absolute bans in Chicago and D.C. (Heller be damned); those who would profit from ammunition microstamping are still lobbying hard for it; and IANSA is still working hard to curtail the legitimate international firearms trade, something they have a pretty good shot at. The VPC/Brady Campaign are also trying to get new restrictions passed via executive rulemaking, such as a ban on 5.7x28mm pistols and nontraditional looking imported rifles, and they may well succeed.

The only reason that the Feinstein law was allowed to expire in '04, and no new bans have replaced it, is the grassroots activism of gun owners from across the political spectrum. If gun owners sit down and revert to our pre-1994 quiescence, the 1990s BS will most certainly happen again.