Paul Ryan On Gun Control And Why The GOP Establishment Is Confused

BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 5 months ago

I had pointed out almost three years ago that Paul Ryan was a gun controller.

“I think we should look into someone who is not legally allowed to buy a gun going to (a show), buying one, and let’s figure that out,” he said. “I think we need to find out how to close these loopholes and do it in such a way that we don’t infringe on Second Amendment rights.”

All controls of these kinds infringe on second amendment rights by their very nature.  Go ahead, I told Ryan.  Look into it.  He’s a collectivist and statist of the first order.  I was surprised that no one has brought any of this up when Ryan’s name was floated as the great savior of the House of Representatives.  But in fact they have brought it up.

Ryan’s 2014 gun control vote came amid the emotional outpouring that followed Elliot Rodger’s May 23, 2014, Santa Barbara attack. Although Rodger passed a background check, registered his guns with the state–as is required in California–and only used ammunition magazines of 10 round or less, Ryan voted for Representative Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA)’s (D-CA-5th) amendment providing $20 million to expand the amount of information states are putting in the National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) database. Thompson’s House webpage showed that the amendment was supported by Gabby Giffords’ gun control control PAC Americans for Responsible Solutions, as well as “Everytown for Gun Safety, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Sandy Hook Promise, Third Way, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence… [and] States United to Prevent Gun Violence,” among others.

In addition to this, there was an example of Ryan showing an openness to more gun control in the wake of the heinous attack on Sandy Hook Elementary. Just over a month after Adam Lanza stole guns then used them to attack innocents in the gun free zone at Sandy Hook, Ryan told Meet the Press’s David Gregory that Congress needed to look at background checks and “[make] sure there aren’t big loopholes where a person can illegally buy a firearm.”

His running partner, Mitt Romney, was also a complete sellout, but this has an extra twist in it.

Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh revealed on his Monday program he had “been sitting on a story for almost a week” to see if members of the media would cover it.

“I wanted to see if this got any play anywhere,” Limbaugh said on his program, according to a transcript posted to his official website.

The story was posted to a conservative news website last week and detailed an interview Mitt Romney recently did for David Axelrod’s podcast. In the interview, the former Massachusetts governor suggested some of today’s divide in politics was because of the rise of online conservative and liberal media outlets.

“It was out there for everybody to see,” Limbaugh said of the story. “It was out there for everybody to react to. And honestly, folks, I didn’t see anything on it ’til yesterday. I’ve been holding this story.”

He added, “Mitt Romney is on record in the David Axelrod podcast as lamenting and complaining about the fact that there is now a conservative media, both on talk radio, in print, in broadcast, and on the World Wide Web. Romney told Axelrod that the demise of legacy media had empowered conservative insurgents like this show and others, which has prevented collaboration in Washington.”

Prevented collaboration in Washington.  Except he has no idea how serious this is, and neither does the GOP establishment.

I have no feeling for the electorate anymore. It is not responding the way it used to. Their priorities are so different that if I tried to analyze it I’d be making it up – John Sununu.

Here’s the deal fellows.  Trump’s popularity will fade when voters realize his sensibilities are anti-conservative.  Carson’s support will fade if and when voters realize he is a pro-immigration freak.  The GOP is in shambles, but the voters will not put forth an establishment candidate, one wholly-owned by the chamber of commerce, who supports immigration – legal or illegal – so that crony corporatism can benefit from low wages that can be paid to Hispanic workers because America has SNAP, welfare and free medical care for the poor, all on the taxpayer dime as corporate welfare.  Middle America won’t fund expensive cars, houses on the lake and the college educations for the children of the members of the boards of directors and corporate executives any more.

Animal Farm is alive and well, and we don’t care if our hard work is helping the poor or the rich.  Boxer won’t work harder.  Boxer will only work for his family – his children, and his children’s children.  As for me, I don’t care if the GOP ever fields another candidate.  It can cease to exist as far as I’m concerned.  There comes a time when it all has to end, when the reaper comes calling, when we’ve sowed the seeds of our own demise and it’s grown into a great, invasive pestilence.

If the GOP puts up another milquetoast candidate who thinks conservative insurgent media is a problem, universal background checks are a good idea, and it’s all going to be okay if we just get the illegals to be legal so we “know who’s here,” I’ll walk my dog, grill out and ignore the election returns.  But I won’t vote any more.  Ever.  I have long harbored doubts that America can stay together as it is.  It’s too diverse, too different, too ideologically divided, and too geographically far-flung.  It seems to me more likely that it will split into three or four countries anyway, so let it be now.

Burn it all down, burn it to the ground.  Bring on dystopia.  Bring the revolution.  The long delay is beginning to bore me.

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Comments

  1. On October 28, 2015 at 11:38 am, M1 Jarhead said:

    Welcome to the party. I gave up on the GOP after Bush Sr. tripled the size of ATF, and haven’t voted since Reagan. I refuse to hold my nose and pull the lever, just to get a Republican in office, who is no different than a Democrat. It was either Rush or Beck yesterday who noted that 44 MILLION Christians stayed home in 2012, and we’ll do it again and again until we get a candidate we can get behind. I don’t think the ballot box or the soap box is going to fix this country any more. There is too much corruption entrenched in too many places. That leaves us only the cartridge box…. We are already putting up with way more than the founders did.

  2. On October 28, 2015 at 11:58 am, MarkT said:

    I feel your frustration. I think the only way to enact change is to elect true conservatives whenever possible and change the GOP from the inside. The TEA party is on the right track, we can’t give up now. I believe historians will look back at this time as the high watermark of liberalism before it collapsed. For the sake of my children and grandchildren to come I will not give up on my country.

  3. On October 28, 2015 at 2:38 pm, Jack Crabb said:

    Can’t argue with most of what you said, Herschel.

    I do think there is a very small chance that something can be done on a county-by-county basis. The county-level is historically the most local building block of government.

    I’m certainly not very optimistic that it will be done, but even assuming that it is possible, that is a very small (and closing) window.

    Then again, this once-great country of ours was founded on principles that largely do not exist today. Like John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

  4. On October 28, 2015 at 3:00 pm, Herschel Smith said:

    Right on every account. I’ve been in this space for a long time now, I just continue to hope and work towards a amicable resolution to our differences. Politics holds out little hope, but I see it as my moral duty to try. After about one year from now, that no longer holds true. Then prepare … prepare … prepare …

  5. On October 28, 2015 at 4:12 pm, Blake said:

    Herschel,

    If this story is accurate:

    http://www.patrickhenrysociety.com/a-few-thoughts-on-the-anthony-bosworth-guilty-verdict/

    Then I do not think it is possible to peacefully reconcile our differences. We want to live in peace and be left alone. However, people who would make up law so they can get the verdict they want cannot be reasoned with. These people will think they are justified in forcefully disarming citizens because government thinks disarming the public keeps the peace. Never mind armed citizens were living in peace before government decided to act.

    Government has created a vicious feedback loop and their psychotic leftist echo chamber feeds back into the loop, amplifying it. With government and debt spiraling out of control, I do not think things are resolved without significant bloodshed.

  6. On October 28, 2015 at 5:39 pm, Danny Ray said:

    God bless you for your last statement, it is past time to burn it down and rebuild it!

  7. On October 29, 2015 at 5:47 pm, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:

    Sounds like the blue-state fascists have you guys exactly where they want you — on the ropes and in despair.

    We need to reboot our wounded Republic, not destroy it and sure as hell not split it up. Those are non-starters. Calling for revolution is one thing. Sneering at a corrupt status quo and sitting on the sideline in a sullen funk is another.

  8. On October 30, 2015 at 12:32 pm, Jack Crabb said:

    I will not speak for anyone else, but I am not cheering on the Second American Revolution. However, what suggestions do you have at this point?

  9. On October 30, 2015 at 4:27 pm, Blake said:

    I do not think it will be a second revolution. Closer to Civil War 2.0.

    I too, would like to know Phil’s awesome plan to reign in government and pay back the 100 trillion worth of unfunded liabilities our government currently carries.

    Somehow, Jack, I believe we will be waiting a long time for answers.

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This article is filed under the category(s) Politics and was published October 27th, 2015 by Herschel Smith.

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