On my morning talk radio show, I am regularlybedeviled by a black conservative who detests President Barack Obama andparrots extreme arguments he’s heard on right-wing radio.
The caller identifies himself as H.S., which tells youeverything you need to know. He says it stands for House Slave.
Recently, H.S. was insisting Milwaukee Mayor TomBarrett would have to scale back his opposition to concealed carry and supportof gun control to stand a chance in the statewide governor’s race againstconservative Republican Scott Walker.
One of the ironies, of course, was that H.S. assumedhe knew where Walkerstood on concealed carry. No one can be sure this week.
When he was in the Legislature, Walker co-sponsored a concealed carry bill.However, when he decided to run for MilwaukeeCounty executive, in order to attracturban voters who believe we already have quite enough guns on our streets,thank you, Walkerreversed himself politically and opposed concealed carry.
Now that he’s in a statewide race, will Walker flip-flop againand once more proclaim support for concealed carry to try to pander togun-totin’ rural voters? If he did, why in the world would anyone believe him?
Taking a Stand
Barrett has joined with New York City Mayor MichaelBloomberg and more than 500 other mayors across the country to stronglyadvocate for common-sense restrictions on the guns flooding city streets.
Barrett will get far more credit for taking a strongpolitical stand on an important issue cowardly politicians prefer to duck thanhe would by changing positions and looking like just another politician whowill say anything to get elected.
Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold has demonstrated thepolitical strength of being a politician who is not afraid to take an unpopularstand. After 9/11, when a fearful public was ready to abandon many of ourconstitutional freedoms and go to war against anyone with imaginary weapons ofmass destruction, Feingold was one of the few senators with the courage to voteagainst the Patriot Act and the War in Iraq.
Politicians with real convictions are so rare thesedays that Feingold’s maverick reputation is a political asset. Feingold’svoters may not agree with him on every issue, but they admire him for standingup. Besides, he keeps turning out to be right.
Contrary to what other politicians cowering undertheir desks think, Barrett’s national leadership on guns could turn out to havefar more support among gun owners in Wisconsinthan the National Rifle Association (NRA) wants us to believe.
E.J. Dionne Jr., the columnist for The Washington Post, quoted Barrettrecently in a column reporting the surprising results of a national poll of gunowners and NRA members. The poll was commissioned by Mayors Against IllegalGuns and actually conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, a supporter ofthe NRA. Luntz surveyed 832 gun owners nationwide, including 401 members of theNRA.
And guess what? Extremist leaders of the NRA whooppose any government regulation of gun ownership as the first step onto the“slippery slope” of confiscation of guns from citizens do not speak for mostgun owners or NRA members.
In fact, 69% of all the gun owners surveyed favoredclosing the gun show loophole by “requiring all gun sellers at gun shows toconduct criminal background checks of the people buying guns.”
Another proposal advocated by the mayors, “requiringgun owners to alert police if their guns are lost or stolen,” was supported by78% of gun owners.
Both of those proposals are aimed directly at gunsused in crimes. When police trace guns used in crimes back to a purchaser, thepurchaser often claims the gun was either lost or stolen. If gun owners wererequired by law to report the loss of a gun to police, those who provide gunsused in crimes would no longer be able to masquerade as legitimate gun ownerswho just happened to misplace their deadly weapons.
Legitimate gun owners have no interest in protectingcriminals. Murderers give gun owners a bad name.
Perhaps that’s why an overwhelming 86% of gun ownersand NRA members surveyed supported the statement: “We can do more to stopcriminals from getting guns while also protecting the rights of citizens tofreely own them.”
One pretty obvious way would be to require privatesales of deadly weapons between individuals to be reported to the state exactlythe same way the private sales of automobiles are now reported.
State Sen. Spencer Coggs from Milwaukeefor years has advocated such a law in Madison.Fearful of the NRA, legislators have never had the courage to pass such a law.
Sorry, H.S. But Barrett doesn’t see anything wrongwith keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. Neither do the majority oflegitimate gun owners and members of the NRA.