Please keep an open mind long enough to finish this VA Democrat's blog post about gun control
As a fellow Democrat, I'm begging you.
Dear Gun Control Democrats: 6 Ways to Make a Better Argument
1. Stop Sending Mixed Messages
Allow me this humble suggestion: The best way to convince the American public that you’re not interested in taking guns away is to stop talking about taking guns away.
Firstly, when your politicians are asked, “Do you support state legislation to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?” as Obama was in his 1996 Senate campaign, you should never answer “Yes,” as Obama did. Publicly advocating a ban on all handguns is not the way to convince people that you’re not interested in banning guns. Furthermore, when you are campaigning for president, never say the phrase “I continue to support a (federal) ban on concealed carry,” as Obama did in 2004. This gives people the impression that your intention is to prevent the states from setting reasonable guidlelines on who can defend themselves outside of their home.
...
It has become almost cliché for smirking Democrats to attempt to ridicule people like myself by crooning, “Obama wants to take our guns!” in a stereotyped hillbilly drawl – something particularly offensive to some folks here in the south – when in fact, Obama has said exactly that.
Some of you will argue that regardless of the President’s conflicted/dishonest assertions, the legislation that died in Senate earlier this week had nothing to do with taking anything. But let us not forget the “assault weapons” ban, which enacted slow confiscation over a generation. I wouldn’t have to immediately surrender any firearms, but because of the angle of the grip on the shotgun I own, it would be a felony offense to pass it on to a family member (or anyone else) upon my death. It would instead be confiscated by the government and presumably destroyed.
If you can't get over your absolute metaphysical certainty that "we" are wrong and you are right, the party is going to keep using you for donations and votes and then not delivering anything. That's how culture war issues work. It's why the GOP has been able to whip up sentiment on abortion for 40 years now without actually doing anything about it, because they have a base that demands nothing less than the impossible, so there's never any accountability for the pols to deliver anything.
I don't want to go over the four paragraph limit, but most of the rest of this post is very good (I think he makes his point about the NRA badly). I'll summarize what I think are his two most important points:
1.
Stop gaslighting gun owners about what politicians have said and do actually say: there is a fairly robust interest group in our party that would like civilians not to own guns, and it includes some of the leadership in Congress. Stop lying about that, we all know that's true anyways.
Come to think of it, you may honestly think that people aren't talking about taking guns away because (just bluntly) you really don't understand what the laws you're so sure are great ideas actually say, which leads me to:
2.
For God's sake, if you care enough about a law to support it and to judge people who oppose it to be crazy, learn what the hell it actually does. Don't accuse people of "derailing" when they are simply telling you what the law you advocate does. Stop accusing us of "being obsessed with grip shapes" when you're the one who wants to ban guns based solely on the angle of the grip.
Don't be Bloomberg, who on TV mixes up the difference between semi-automatic and automatic when that distinction is absolutely crucial to the law you're advocating. Don't be Carolyn McCarthy and spend 15 minutes talking about how crucially important it is to ban barrel shrouds and then be absolutely unprepared to say what a barrel shroud is. Seriously, did she not see that coming?
We have a lot of historical screw-ups like that to overcome, and step one is going to be owning up to them.
Also, prizes will be awarded to the first poster who pretends the blog author in question or I are actually Republicans or are "spouting NRA talking points", which I predict will happen by comment #5.
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OK, I think the blogger is too one sided, even if it is the side I favor. We see what happens when there is no real discussion- nothing. In fact there was even a step in the other direction, at the state level, which shocked me.
As much as those who hate hearing it and talk about how nit-pick terminology should not matter, legislator need to educate themselves a little bit so they stop looking like fools. If someone was proposing a law on cars and mistook the gasoline for the gas tank or said a cruise control was the same as an autopilot they would be laughed out of the room. I don't care if they know the difference between a piston or direct impingement gas system, but the should know where to find a stock, grip or barrel.
First, Obama never sent "mixed messages" nor ever said he wanted to ban all handguns. Even Politifact rated that long-discredited NRA talking point as "Mostly False." http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/feb/13/wayne-lapierre/nra-leader-says-barack-obama-endorsed-total-ban-ha/ This slimy blog tries to revive this lie by citing, again, to that old questionnaire from his Senate campaign that was not filled out by him and which he disavowed when it was brought to his attention that a "yes" was typed there. There is not a "a fairly robust interest group in our party that would like civilians not to own guns, and it includes some of the leadership in Congress." No leadership in Congress thinks that. We don't "all know that's true anyways" because it is NOT TRUE. Gun Control proponents are not "lying" about that. You are.
Second, for God's sake, not everyone is a gun fetishist and uses gun terminology. The sure giveaway that this post is NRA/gun nut propaganda is that it raises the 2007 gaff of poor Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband, Dennis, was killed and her son, Kevin, severely injured on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train when Colin Ferguson opened fire on passengers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_McCarthy The tragedy motivated her to run for public office to prevent such things from happening again. She is just a regular person, not a gun aficionado. Gunners love bringing up that 6-year-old gaff over and over and over again. Apparently they love to think they are super smart and all those "gun grabbers" are really stupid. Just because someone may or may not know what a barrel shroud is does not mean assault weapons should not be banned.
It seems the main point you agree with in this "blog author" on is his plea that us Dems should just admit we want to ban all guns. But the vast majority of Dems do not want to ban all guns. Hell, it is not the position of the vast majority of the folks on DU--a left of center progressive board. Those on this site who do have that position are rare, but you would like to say it is everyone who supports gun control so it fits into your "gun grabber" meme that what we really want is to ban all guns. And the reason you want to push that meme is that you want to use it to explain your ridiculous refusal to support even the most basic and reasonable gun control measures--because they are just the beginning of the "slippery slope" toward the "gun grabbers" ultimate goal of banning all guns. It's bullshit. What the vast majority of Dems (including me) want, indeed most Americans want, is what Australia and Canada already have: reasonable gun control.
You did not submit this blog for our consideration in a good faith effort to help "Gun Control Democrats" make "better" gun control arguments. You posted it in an attempt to further your anti-gun-control meme. Take your propaganda elsewhere. And please, please don't tell me you actually believe the NRA propaganda you're peddling.
This is what he's saying. Stop pretending she doesn't want that. She has said so. He posted a video of her saying so.
(Yes, that video is her talking about semi-automatics; so excuse me only 90% of guns. I can't understand why people are paranoid 
)
Seriously! Do you not get why your attitude is infuriating to gun owners? She's saying right there in that video that if she had the votes to confiscate 90% of firearms she would do it and you have the gall to sit here and tell me she doesn't actually want to do that?
Where have you been? The conservatives have destroyed the environment with their bullshit 'the science isn't settled yet'. They didn't give a shit about trivial minutia THEN now did they? But, holy hell, do they care now when it concerns the gunz.
And the Dems DID let them get away with it. Time and time again. 
and I admit that I didn't go to the link and read everything, so I don't blame you (or anyone) if you prefer not to reply since the answer may be at the link. (I've been up for a long time and I'm tired...that's why I'm not reading further, not lack of interest.)
I also admit that I'm not the most savvy person when discussing this subject, especially legislation, so I tend not to. 
But the obvious question that jumped out at me is this:
Isn't banning the manufacture of certain guns and taking guns away (confiscation) two different things?
They seem to get conflated and that's what confuses me.
Even if a ban of very specific guns was passed (which it likely won't be in my lifetime), that simply means they can't be manufactured henceforth, not that existing guns are confiscated, right?
