Reply #78: I don't think they/we do. [View All]

I think there are a few Dems who push gun control, like Teddy Kennedy, but a good chunk of the party, particularly the red staters and the candidates competing for national office, haven't wanted to touch it with a ten foot pole. Every Presidential nominee with a (D) after his name for the past couple decades has made a point of being seen hunting during the campaign.

Now, for purposes of the argument, it might be worthwhile to define what you mean by "gun control". If you expect politicians, particularly Barbara Boxer, to come out full tilt for the proposition that US Citizens should be allowed to keep fully automatic weapons in their homes as a defense against a fascist takeover-- which, as I understand it, is the core of your argument in this thread- without even debating the validity of that proposition it's not a terribly realistic position to expect any Senator, much less a Democrart from California, to adopt. Most Republicans wouldn't get behind that one, either.

Beyond that, part of my problem with the idea is that I think the very people who would be the first to stock up on the automatic weapons would be the folks who would comprise the foot soliders in the worst kind of totalitarian America I could envision; white, Christian right-wing brownshirts. (Again, if you popped by a site like werenotsorry.com after the election, it was truly frightening to see such small heads paired with such large weapons)

I do think there are legitimate civil liberties arguments that can be made pertaining to gun ownership per se, but I think it's a stretch to take it to fully automatic weapons.

Lastly, I agree with you that it's not an issue that is winning our party any votes on a national basis, but I think what you've been witnessing is a gradual de-emphasis of it for years anyway. Think of it this way; If the party is talking about abandoning reproductive choice on a national level (at which point I register as a Green, of course), they're sure as hell not going to be pushing gun control any time soon!