Whatever room is left on the floor of the House by representatives of big business is occupied by the extraordinarily -- not to say insanely -- omnipresent gun lobby.
If we have anything more dangerous and certifiably crazy in our midst than Jared Loughner, it's the gun lobby and the members of Congress who represent its interests. Republican representative Pete King of New York has raised the possibility of at least limiting the carrying of weapons near members of Congress. John Boehner has ...well ... shot it down.
The immediate rejection of King’s legislation by Boehner illustrates the difficulty gun-control advocates will face in moving forward with any legislation.
Even Capitol Hill’s most ardent gun reformers don’t anticipate any changes to the nation’s gun laws will be forthcoming in the 112th Congress. They say the combination of a GOP-led House and the powerful gun lobby is simply too formidable to take on over an issue that’s become a proverbial third rail of Washington politics.
“Anything you can get through the gun lobby is going to have little consequence,” Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a longtime supporter of tightening Second Amendment restrictions, said in a phone interview. “I don’t see the likelihood of much progress — I don’t see much hope.” ...The Hill
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James Fallows points out that it would be virtually impossible to eliminate the gun culture in America. I'd have to question that only because I think we may grow up someday, but not anytime soon. At least we could outlaw extended clips in the meantime, couldn't we?
Perhaps not, says Fallows. Not even sensible, partial remedies for increasing and senseless violence are politically viable. We're stuck with America's own cosa nostra, the National Rifle Association.
The NRA naturally couches the argument in all-or-nothing terms: a restriction on any weapon is a threat to the right to be armed at all. They have been strong enough to extend that unreasonable absolutism to most politicians as well. (Ie, unless a politician is willing to accept the all-fronts open-ended career-long hostility of the NRA, it's not worth the politician's while to suggest common-sense restrictions on gun-sales laws, ammunition supplies, types of weapons that are available, etc.) The absolutist outlook is almost always a problem for a democracy. ... The Atlantic
