Eric Holder: Gun lobby 'simply won' by killing Sandy Hook reforms

[Baitball Blogger]

The inability to enact new gun safety laws after the Sandy Hook school shooting ranks as "the single failure" of his tenure, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said in a televised interview.

"The gun lobby simply won, you know?" Holder said in an interview with MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry which aired Sunday. In the interview, Holder reflected on his more than six years as the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Holder has called his visit to the site of the December 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators the worst day he had in office. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to lead a task force that would make recommendations for how to avoid such tragedies.

The shooting spurred an effort in the Senate to enact new, stricter gun laws, particularly a broader requirement for background checks for gun purchases proposed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a conservative with a strong gun-rights record, and Republican Sen. Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/la-pn-holder-guns-20150208-story.html

[jen1980]

1. One failure?

Uh huh.

[Duckhunter935]

2. and they could have very well got it done

if they had not started by attempting to load it up with feel good laws that do nothing but piss off the most motivated groups.

[VScott]

6. And in the end, not only did they fail with their agenda

it had the opposite effect and backfired resulting in many states passing even more pro 2nd amendment
legislation and protections.

Only in the more predictably, rabidly anti 2nd amendment/anti gun states were they successful... states that
would have passed legislation even without Sandy Hook.

[VScott]

3. It wasn't just the gun lobby that won

People give the NRA too much credit at times.

Gun owners, 2nd amendment advocates everywhere (without any prodding from the NRA), simply stood
their ground, 'said enough is enough', and overwhelmed their representatives with emails and phone calls.

There wasn't one firearms related web forum that I'm aware of, that wasn't lit up like a Christmas tree with
angry (rightfully so), gun owners organizing and providing input toothers that had large impact on blocking
the proposed legislation.

[pipoman]

9. The failure of UBCs had little to do with anything

But the unconstitutional aspect of UBCs...interstate commerce and all that. ..

[LiberalLovinLug]

50. "stood their ground"?

Nice.

90% of the American public wanted expanded background checks at minimum. Its obvious they listened more to the powerful gun lobby. The NRA, you well know, is not simply a firearms information organization, they are front for the massively huge gun manufacturers industry. That is who most legislators listened to at the expense of public safely, unfortunately.

[bobclark86]

4. Good to see that...

failing to close Gitmo and failing to stop massive data collections of the NSA don't count...

[Duckhunter935]

8. I guess those are minor

[bobclark86]

20. Nah, because he only had a "single failure." lol n/t

[pipoman]

5. Not continuing to imprison nonviolent offenders and busting pharmacies?

Not continuing to imprison humans without charges? Hmm Mr. Holder, somehow I think history will remember it differently. .. "the single failure" of his tenure"...yeah

Oh yeah....the NSA bullshit.... lol...

[seveneyes]

7. It's not that simple

As long as there are those pure in heart, with a desire to defend themselves against the unknown, reform is simply a word to be defined by the pure of heart.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. The trash prevailed

An old story in America.

[pipoman]

11. Actually, in this case,

The constitution prevailed. ...the federal government has no jurisdiction to regulate intrastate commerce of used legal to own goods....if it would have passed, it would have been struck down almost as quickly as it passed. ..

[onehandle]

12. This age of gun fascism will not last.

All of this gun nuttery will be buried with its racist roots.

Tick-tock...

[SunSeeker]

13. Can't happen soon enough. nt

[GGJohn]

16. Been hearing that for over 20 years,

so far, bupkus.

[onehandle]

18. Gosh. It's as if you have a predilection for gun fascism.

That can't be. This is a librul forum. Unpossible.

The age of gun fascism started on June 26th, 2008.

Arming the modern Klan for a war that only exists in their racist minds.

[pipoman]

21. Not a student of history I see....

"The age of gun fascism started on June 6th, 2008."

Well, aside from the veiled Hitler reference. ..apparently you have forgotten the first term of Bill Clinton. ...more modern firearms and ammunition sold to the public than any other time in history...

[Duckhunter935]

25. but "any day now"

[sweetapogee]

29. my partner and me

just happened to have Friday off so we went to Cabelas to look at fishing gear. The line at the gun counter was 3 people deep and the NICS terminals had long waiting lines. There wasn't any 22 ammo and no shotgun or pistol powder for reloaders. If anything, I believe a case could be made that guns are more popular now than ever. As mentioned, this was on a Friday.... before noon. From what I can tell, sales have been steady for years.

[pipoman]

31. They have been steady for years. ..

It didn't start when Obama became president as the poster was pretending....it started when the Clinton administration started pushing for a bunch of gun control measures.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

32. "gun fascism"?

Assuming you mean fascism in the context of a violent, aggressive ideology that is not deterred by social convention and assuming, for the moment, that your point is something more than you just stringing buzz-words together then what you're claiming is the remedy for fascism is --

-- disarmament.

[Lurks Often]

41. You've been losing steadily in the courts and legislatures for 20+ years now

It seems more likely that the age of gun control extremists is coming to an end.

[flamin lib]

14. I see the gun nuts are out in force with

their own special Constitutional interpretation. Intrastate commerce? Idiots.

[GGJohn]

17. And this is why you and your kind constantly lose the gun control debate,

you resort to insulting millions upon millions of gun owners, Dems and Repubs alike.

[onehandle]

19. 'your kind'

Careful... Careful.......

[Duckhunter935]

22. this from the one with the

childish penis reference in his signature

Yep, such nice polite dialog from you

[Duckhunter935]

26. why you do not want be lumped with controllers?

You seem fine with them lumping all firearms owners as killers, future murderers, gun humpers, delicate flowers, ammosexuals and of course as you even have in your signature the mandatory childish penis reference.

[GGJohn]

33. Your kind, as in, gun controllers,

but, you already knew that.

[Duckhunter935]

23. They do not care

but "any day now"

[Paladin]

35. Glad to see you and your cohorts expressing such poorly-disguised glee at the situation. (nt)

[GGJohn]

36. As usual, you misrepresent what our comments are about.

But, then again, you knew that.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

39. Kinda like how I feel about traditional marriage laws getting struck down and for the same reason.

[flamin lib]

38. Not millions and millions of gun owners,

Only the gun nuts. And idiots.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

40. Define "gun nuts" or is that one of those terms that is supposed to

remain undefined to the employers of the term can trot it out to save themselves from losing an open debate?

[frylock]

43. a gun nut imho is someone who rushes out to buy yet another semi-auto carbine..

immediately following one of these tragic incidents for fear that Clinton Obama is going to confiscate everyone's guns. a gun nut is someone who hordes ammo, and then complains of some vast govt conspiracy because it's fukcing near impossible to find a brick of .22 LR. a gun nut is somebody who whines and cries about their Constitutional rights being infringed upon because they can no longer tote their AR-15 at the Starbucks. as someone who owns several firearms, that's my definition of a "gun nut."

[Nevernose]

52. We didn't lose the "debate"

The gun lobby simply -- and legally -- bribed congress and used fear & propaganda to gin up support among the loudest, most ignorant swaths of America.

More guns sold than ever before, to a smaller number of people than ever...

[GGJohn]

53. IOW, you lost the debate.

How do you know that it's a smaller number of people than ever?
Because some poll says so?

[Duckhunter935]

24. so you ARE

calling other DU members that disagree with you position "gun nuts"

It must just piss you off you or EM can not censor us outside your little "safe haven"

[Nuclear Unicorn]

34. "Intrastate commerce? Idiots."

Perhaps you might pause from your erudition to exposit the as to reasons why the intrastate commerce is not applicable. I myself had never heard the argument offered until this thread. I'm interested in seeing the issue hashed-out.

Or you could just go on being a big ol' meanie-head.

[pocoloco]

48. The Constitution is plain enough for anyone with half a brain!

Unfortunately, some claim it's only a "God Dammed Piece of Paper".

[flamin lib]

49. Yeah, half a brain. Me, I've got a whole brain. And it isn't clear which is why decisions are

overturned and debated ad infinitum.

Take your half a brain and play with someone else with a half a brain.

[beevul]

27. I guess the "brainwashing" didn't take.

Or is C-span2 lying...


Holders position on guns in general, is completely relevant to the topic.

[NaturalHigh]

28. I guess most people don't want the U.S. to turn into "Little Chicago."

You remember Chicago - that gun-free, non-violent haven where there is absolutely no gun violence thanks to their handgun ban.

Oh wait - people were shot every day in Chicago when the ban was in place, and it's now been struck down.

[Darb]

46. High violent crime areas are more due to poverty than gun laws,

just sayin'. Now you know that any gun law in a city, say Chicago or DC, is only as effective as the laws surrounding it, eg Virginia and Wisconsin/Indiana. So you can go ahead and pretend that the crime rates are high because of strict gun control laws, or you can join the reality based community.

[riversedge]

30. Yes, there was a big window open for gun control because of the horrible

event of Sandy...and Holder is right--the gun lobby won. It takes an event--horrible gut retching event--to get changes...but the big change at the National level did not happen.

[hack89]

37. Gun control advocates in Congress made it that much easier for the gun lobby

by dragging out every gun control measure they had ever dreamed of, many of which would have not prevented Sandy Hook, instead of a measured approach that started with a realistic assessment of what they could pass and what was impossible.

[MannyGoldstein]

42. The bankers... they are saved...

Holder and Obama deserve a ticker-tape parade down Wall Street.

[xocet]

51. ...and the war criminals and torturers.... They are saved and are magnificently unrepentant! n/t

[freebrew]

44. So, the Bundy thing was a win?...nt

[Shamash]

45. "The gun lobby simply won, you know?"

NRA lobbying expenditures, 2012: $2,980,000
American Dental Association lobbying expenditures, 2012: $2,560,000

total lobbying expenditures, all sources, 2012: $3,310,000,000

So, the "gun lobby", at least in the corporate person of the NRA, spent only slightly more on lobbying than that other massively influential scourge on society, the fiendish fluoridators of the ADA, both of which are less than one-tenth of one percent of the money spent on lobbying each year. I'd hate to see how Holder stacked up against the big spenders. Oh, wait...

[Darb]

47. The gun lobby and the racists and the fraidy cats won,

he should have said. That better?