If you want an example of why so many people hold the federal government in such low regard, look no further than the current contest to succeed Mitch McConnell as GOP leader in the Senate. Reportedly the leader to get McConnell’s job is Texas Senator John Cornyn (the other candidates are John Thune of South Dakota and Rick Scott of Florda). You can imagine our disappointment.
This is the same John Cornyn who, following the Uvalde shooting, decided that caving to anti-gunners’ shrieking and collaborating with Democrats to pass a gun control bill was the way to go. He then crossed the aisle to work with Connecticut’s rabidly anti-gun ideologue, Chris Murphy, to make the disastrous Bipartisan Safer Communities Act a reality.
The GOP ringleader behind the largest turncoat gun control bill in recent history being elevated to a position of power would be disastrous for the Second Amendment. https://t.co/Tt7t9AyYJu pic.twitter.com/nopeJ9EZ60
— National Association for Gun Rights (@NatlGunRights) September 9, 2024
The fact is, Cornyn got rolled by Senate Democrats and actually handed Biden a significant anti-gun victory in the run-up to the election, one that the administration then interpreted in the broadest possible terms in order to stick it to gun sellers and restrict gun rights.
Once signed into law, the Bidenbots instituted a de facto 10-day waiting period on all gun purchases by adults under 210 years of age. They moved to pull funding from schools with hunting safety and archery programs — actual gun safety initiatives — until the bipartisan outcry was loud enough that they were forced to back down. They illegally funded states with “red flag” laws that don’t qualify under the BSCA guidelines. And they used ATF to try to broaden the definition of people considered “in the business” of selling guns to hurt gun show sales by mandating that more sellers get FFLs.
In short, Cornyn is directly to blame for giving anti-gun Democrats more ways to squeeze retailers and gun owners.
In working to pass the BSCA, Cornyn made it clear that he’s either so soft-headed that he didn’t understand what Democrats were trying to do, or so spineless that that he didn’t care enough about the Second Amendment to outweigh his desire to look “reasonable” after Uvalde.
Those of us who have been paying attention have long since reconciled ourselves to the fact that no one will ever confuse the Republican Party for a gun rights organization. The party has no more than a handful of what could be called Second Amendment true believers. The rest can and sometimes have been mau-maued into compromising on what Democrats and the media loudly portray as “common-sense gun safety reforms.” They’re somehow delusional enough to think that giving in (yet again) will buy them an indulgence or two from the New York Times editorial board. Somehow, though, it never does.
So in election after election, we’re left with lesser-of-two-evils choice. As Reason’s Jacob Sullum wrote back in early July . . .
In 2016, Democrats erased the Second Amendment from their platform, reverting to the approach they took in 2000 and earlier. The 2016 platform mentioned “the rights of responsible gun owners” but said nothing about the extent of those rights or the legal basis for them. The 2020 platform likewise did not mention the Second Amendment; it did not even mention “the rights of responsible gun owners.” But it did include two paragraphs of gun control proposals aimed at “Ending the Epidemic of Gun Violence.”
Like abortion opponents, Second Amendment advocates probably will feel they have no option but to support a Republican candidate who seems wishy-washy on their issue but is better than the alternative. “The Republican Party platform’s downplaying of Second Amendment issues comes as the gun-rights movement finds itself in a precarious position politically,” [The Reload’s Jake] Fogleman writes. “As guns have become increasingly polarized along party lines, gun-rights supporters have found themselves reliant on Republicans for political support. President Joe Biden has made gun control a fixture of his tenure in office and is already campaigning on even more sweeping proposals, including a ban on sales of the popular AR-15, in a potential second term. At the same time, while the GOP’s current standard-bearer has continued to seek the support of the National Rifle Association and make promises in speeches to the group, he has been fickle on gun policy at times.”
In terms of the top of the ticket, it may not be a great choice, but it’s a clear one. Voters, however, have no say in who will come out on top in the Senate.
John Cornyn still professes pride in his BSCA handiwork, despite subsequently writing angry letters to the President and regulators each time they’ve abused the language of the law. He probably thinks he actually accomplished something meaningful, even beyond a few fleetingly and rare positive headlines in the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle.
All he really did was to show that he’s exactly the kind of patsy Democrats can steamroll…exactly the kind of person they’d love to see across the negotiating table. He’s exactly the kind of antediluvian country club establishment Republican the voting public has increasingly rejected and his capitulation on the BSCA should be a clear, automatic disqualifier for any position of leadership.
“Should”
None of these people who show their true colors should ever be taken seriously. They should never be invited to speak or participate in political events. Republicans are really bad about that. Paul Ryan should have been canceled.