Assault Weapons Ban on Front Burner for Obama

As we run up to the 2009 Session of the General Assembly, I have been posting a lot about what is going on in the shooting industry. That will likely change once the General Assembly convenes but for now, most of the news is at the national level and it has centered around talk of what may or may not happen when the new administration comes in on January 20th. Some believe firearm related legislation will be on the back burner and others (me included) believe the new team will strike sooner rather than later.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to the podcast of Sunday's Gun Talk Radio - Tom Gresham's radio program. I have to say, some of the best intel I have heard so far on the topic came from the guests Tom had on the program. These folks included The Shooting Wire's Jim Shepherd (by far the best segment of the program), and The War on Guns' David Codrea. Shepherd is a longtime veteran of the media and he has well placed sources who tell him that the new administration will move on the so-called assault weapons ban sooner rather than later. Shepherd was on the program for the entire second hour with the most important parts of his analysis coming in the last ten minutes. I recommend you listen to his comments yourself because I simply can't do them justice in this space.

I will comment one comment made by Shepherd. He makes a good point when he says in response to a question from a self described liberal caller who asked "what does gun control have to do with getting the economy moving again?" Shepherd said it is exactly about the economy. Attacking a billion dollar industry that supports conservation efforts through excise taxes makes no economic sense. Attacking the industry with gun bans will result in the loss of jobs through the closing of plants in states like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, states that already have depressed economy. Putting hundreds of people out of work makes no economic sense.

Codrea's comments were made during the first hour of the program. Today he also linked to a post by Michael Bane that talks about how the administration will definitely move in the early days of the administration.

Basically, Bane says his insider source explains it this way. Due to the fact Obama has taken such a beating from the "moonbats" on the left over the Rick Warren inaugural invocation and the fact Obama is installing a third Clinton administration, he has to "rebuild his left-wing creds." Taking on the assault weapons ban so soon will burn a huge amount of political capital, but it will "drive a stake in the ground" to prove Obama means what he says about "change" regardless of the consequences. Plus, the Republicans are so disorganized and the Blue Dogs in his own party are less likely to band together early in his administration that striking early makes sense. The source also posed that the "gun lobby" is as weak now as it is ever going to be.

After the reaction to his economic stimulus plan by members of his party in the Senate I don't know if I completely agree with the Blue Dogs not rebelling this soon but the reasons for a quick strike given by Bane's source (there were a total of six) make sense to me.

Needless to say there are storm clouds on the horizon for gun owners and they are getting darker as January 20th approaches.