WASHINGTON – It hardly matters, but I seriously doubt Bill Clinton knows squat about guns. I understand the culture he’s talking about, because I live amidst it too, especially considering to whom I’m married (a firearms expert, though not by profession). It also doesn’t matter that Mr. Clinton likely doesn’t own a gun or know how to shoot one either. What does matter, however, is his clear opportunism in using this moment to provide right wingers with a perfect sound bite that begins “Even Bill Clinton says…” Clinton’s main goal is to provide cover for conservative Democrats in NRA areas. Just maybe he’s also thinking about Hillary in 2016.
“Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton said. “A lot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things,” Clinton said. “I know because I come from this world.” – Bill Clinton to Democrats: Don’t trivialize gun culture
The rifle shown here that Virginia Democrat Delegate Joe Morissey is holding [h/t RedState], with his finger stupidly on the trigger, is a Brady Bill approved AK-47 in all respects, because it doesn’t have a pistol grip. To be blunt, a person could still shoot and kill as many people with a Brady Bill approved weapon.
Banning assault weapons is not what people think it is. First, you can’t ban assault weapons, because even the Brady Bill approved AK-47 style weapon above can be outfitted with a 30-round magazine even in the face of a ban. That’s because there are so many of the high-capacity magazines around that anyone is able to get them. The way the weapon looks is all you’re changing. Additionally, the importing of assault rifles from other countries is not banned.
The restrictions is on how the gun looks, the cosmetics, not the weapon itself and what it actually does.
The biggest reason why Clinton’s comments are not only patronizing, but condescending, is that they’re also a straw man argument, because no one on the Democratic side is “looking down their nose” at gun owners and I bet Bill Clinton knows this. His opportunistic scolding is for purely political gain, which takes the attention away from where it needs to be and where the majority of Americans want it.
As a gun owning family, I don’t need Mr. Clinton or any other Democrat, certainly not one brandishing an AK-47, using this moment to scold people like myself who are demanding universal background checks, as well as serious consideration on banning high-capacity clips, not to mention putting the spine back in the ATF and gun laws.
Former President Bill Clinton is insulting those of us who own guns and also know the flagrant manner in which the NRA is torturing gun laws and the Second Amendment. The former president is posturing in a manner meant to deliver a Sister Souljah moment to his own, which only comes off as tone deaf to people who know anything about the gun issue.
President Obama and his administration are doing exactly what is required, with V.P. Joe Biden’s leadership pitch perfect, with no Democrat making light of people who are part of the gun culture of this country, my family included. We wouldn’t support them if they were.
Taylor Marsh, is a veteran political analyst, a former Huffington Post contributor, Broadway babe and talk radio dabbler, and is the author of The Hillary Effect, available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media magazine www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women, foreign policy, and culture.
TM Note: This piece has been clarified to include that my husband is a firearms expert.