What Bill Schneider has learned from Gun Nuts

Bill Schneider claims to have "learned" something from "gun nuts." Schneider has been no friend to the those of us who are utterly unwilling to give an inch in defending our Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental, absolute human right of the individual to keep and bear arms, once referring to those whose outrage led to the demise of Jim Zumbo's career as the "black rifle Gestapo."

Still, learning is a good thing, and if he has learned that uncompromising defense of gun rights is in no way akin to Nazism, I suppose I would have to consider that progress. Let's see what he has learned.

I consider my right to bear arms one of my basic freedoms, but not the only one, so buckle up, gun nuts.

Apparently one thing he has not yet learned is that we agree on the "not the only" basic freedom thing.

Shoot, I wonder if the gun nuts have asked themselves this question. Would the Second Amendment even pass today?

At this point, I'm not sure any of the Bill of Rights would pass today. How does that relate to my rights?

They’re terrified about our new president sending out a flock of black helicopters to confiscate their guns--or at least make it harder to buy them.

The black helicopters and confiscations thing does seem rather far-fetched, which might explain why few of us seriously argue that's in the works. As to "harder to buy them"--well the HopeandChange™ "Urban Policy" agenda is back up, and still says (excerpt):

They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

If banning private sales, requiring guns to be sold with technology that doesn't even exist, and banning the most effective militia-capable firearms doesn't qualify as "mak[ing] it harder to buy them," I'm not sure what would qualify.

But perhaps Schneider is counting on Obama not having the votes for gun bans. With the large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, perhaps a look at the Democratic Party's 2008 platform would be instructive.

We can work together to enact and enforce common-sense laws and improvements, like closing the gun show loophole, improving our background check system and reinstating the assault weapons ban, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals.

Seems as if the President-elect and much of the Congress we'll have for at least the next two years are in agreement about the need to "make it harder to buy them."

I could go on, but the point is. Losing some of my gun rights doesn’t make my top twenty concerns.

It seems another thing Schneider hasn't learned--perhaps a trip to Canada, Great Britain, or Australia would help--is that the "slippery slope" is real, and The Enemy works tirelessly to add more grease and increase the incline.

They’ve closed their minds to compromise.

He says that as if compromising one's rights (one, specifically, that shall not be infringed) is a good thing.

To them, there’s no such thing as a common sense gun law.

Good for you, Bill--I guess you really did learn something.

He goes on some more, but this post is already getting pretty long. The gist of it seems to be that hard, grassroots work and a refusal to compromise are effective, but somehow morally dubious.

Somehow, my conscience is clear.