Kopel on the Vote Tally with Regard to Gun Rights

Frankly, I bloody sick of the election BS. It has been worse than usual, or I'm just noting that these people really are clueless and think that the population is as well. (Sadly they may be right with regards to far too many topics.) Kopel gives a break down of the election as he sees it.

In Congress, changes in party control would have a significant effect on gun rights. Senate-Majority-Leader-in-waiting Harry Reid has a good record on gun issues, and played a major role in the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act. Yet although a Democratic Senate would contain more pro-gun rights Democrats than the chamber has seen for over 15 years, Reid would still be beholden to a caucus in which anti-gun senators would be a very large majority, and in which all presidential contenders would have a poor (Feingold, Bayh) to terrible (Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama) record on gun issues.

Significantly, while a Democratic Senate might have a pro-gun floor majority, it would not invoke the nuclear option against a Supreme Court nomination filibuster. This wouldn’t matter much anyway if President Bush were to nominate Alberto Gonzales, whom Second Amendment activists would have little reason to support, but there is reason to hope that the president might choose a better nominee.

Although the floor of the U.S. House will still have a pro-gun majority, a Speaker Pelosi, with her perfect anti-gun voting record, would almost certainly bring forward anti-gun bills when she decided the time was ripe. John Conyers, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Louise Slaughter, as chair of the Rules Committee, would ensure that no pro-Second Amendment legislation was ever brought to the floor, except in the very unlikely event that a majority of the entire House signed a discharge petition.

President Bush has been good about signing pro-gun legislation which has been put on his desk, but this does not mean that he would exert meaningful pressure, pro or con, on gun legislation, or that he would veto any gun control measure which could pass both houses.

The changes worry me for the reason that the leadership in the house and senate are frankly not trustworthy. Reid is given an ok, but I really don't trust him not to blow in the wind for political convenience. It doesn't look like there would be much to worry about with regards to pro-gun-control take over, but then, the "assault rifle" ban came in under what appeared to me as a similarly weighted legislature. (At least for those claiming to support gun rights and not related to party affiliations.)

In NH, Bass has been far to complacent, and frankly, deserves to lose his seat. Politicos really shouldn't take their positions for granted, well, unless their mega-liberals from Massachusetts. Fortunately, Hodes claims to be pro-gun-rights. Though the topic has been fairly vaguely covered in the NH-MSM so I'm not particularly secure in his coming into representing me. And, he pretty much sucks on most every other topic that I've heard reported.