Sen. Paul, Lee, and Cruz
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Republican Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening a pitched battle against new gun control legislation in the Senate when it is brought up for debate, and they said so in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
This is the latest development in an ongoing battle to push some form of new gun control at the national level. Currently, the emphasis appears to be on a measure pushing for so-called “universal background checks” supported by anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He has launched a $12 million advertising effort in a dozen states where he is trying to pressure key members of the Senate to support his measures.
TGM obtained a copy of the letter to Reid, which states, “We intend to oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance.”
“The Second Amendment to the Constitution protects citizens’ right to self-defense,” the letter continued. “It speaks to history’s lesson that government cannot be in all places at all times, and history’s warning about the oppression of a government that tries.
“We will oppose the motion to proceed on any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions,” they concluded.
Disclosure of the letter will likely add new fire to gun rights activists who have been stating demonstrations around the nation at state capitols. It came as CBS News released a new poll that shows waning support for new gun control laws.
According to the polling results, support for stricter gun control measures dropped ten percent since December when the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack occurred, and declined six percent since February. Eleven percent of the respondents believe gun laws should be less strict and 39 percent think the laws should remain as they are.
The poll also shows that Democrats by a 66 percent margin still favor more gun restrictions while 52 percent of Republicans think laws should be kept as they are, and 16 percent want fewer gun laws. Among independents, 39 percent believe no changes should be made, and 15 percent think gun laws should be less strict, while 43 percent think stronger gun laws are in order.
This new data reinforces the position staked out by Cruz, Paul and Lee.
According to the Huffington Post, if Reid cannot secure bipartisan support in a move to debate the legislation, he would then need unanimous consent. Paul and Cruz have threatened to withhold consent.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s effort to push a ban on so-called “assault weapons” has hit a wall, although Reid reportedly has promised she can bring it up as a proposed amendment to the federal bill, which will also focus on expanded background checks. In addition, she will have a chance to also propose an amendment that would ban magazines with a cartridge capacity of more than ten rounds.
Feinstein, who had been planning since mid-summer of last year to revive the semi-auto and magazine ban, also capitalized on public outrage following the shooting, which claimed 20 children and six school employees. The gunman, Adam Lanza, probably would not have been prevented from carrying out his attack by any of the proposals because he murdered his mother and took her guns to the elementary school. There was no background check involved.
The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation has already launched a counter-attack to that proposal with a series of advertisements first appearing in the print version of TGM that ask whether ten rounds is enough if someone is attacked by multiple home invaders, or is left to fend for themselves in a natural disaster.
Immediately following the Sandy Hook tragedy in December, gun prohibitionists began exploiting the attack to revive and push their long-standing political agenda.
