Wilder is being shortsighted about guns
Doug Wilder’s fit of pique helps illustrate why Democrats can’t consolidate power, even when conditions favor them. They don’t understand the concept of unity (something the Republicans understand, even to their detriment).
Even though Democrat Creigh Deeds has campaigned for months for an endorsement from the former Virginia governor — and even though President Obama personally intervened and asked Wilder to endorse Deeds — Wilder refuses, saying he won’t endorse anyone. Why? He thinks Deeds is too far to the right on guns. Deeds has endorsed repeal of a Virginia law restricting gun purchases to one per month.
“The present law [in Virginia] permits anyone of sufficient age, who is not a felon, to be able to buy one gun a month; twelve a year, twenty four a year for couples, etc. Mr. Deeds thinks that’s not enough and signed a pledge to repeal that law. This action would allow the truck loads of guns to come back in exchange for drugs from those Northeastern states where gun laws are more stringent.”
Like Wilker, I find the one-gun-a-month restriction perfectly reasonable, and it’s one that ought to stay in place. But what does Wilder think will happen on guns if the ultra-conservative Republican Bob McConnell, who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, wins?
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25 comments Add your comment
Stan
September 24th, 2009
5:19 pm
express your feelings at freedomtrends.com
Joy Ford
September 24th, 2009
5:24 pm
Another reason why I am an Independent voter, I can pick and choose who to vote for. Yes to President Obama but no to politicians like the “Blue Dog Democrats” who lack both character and conviction and who had better watch their backs next election because we are not amused.
Jerry Nazard
September 24th, 2009
5:28 pm
Enter your comments here Who is Bob McConnell??
donald
September 24th, 2009
5:38 pm
You are very wrong about the gun control issue. Given an inch, the gun control crowd will take even more. That is why 2nd amendment proponents will not give an inch. You leftist socialist liberal extremists want to take away our rights and we will not allow it!
donald
September 24th, 2009
5:40 pm
Joy Ford, who are you kidding pretending to be an independent? Your words betray you as a liberal socialist extremist!
donald
September 24th, 2009
5:42 pm
Cynthia Tucker is a liberal soicialist extremist! Her views are so far left she walks in circles!
mike
September 24th, 2009
6:04 pm
Joy Ford –
As you are such an Independent, have you ever voted for a Republican?
Kamchak
September 24th, 2009
6:15 pm
mike
For your mid-town home.
I hope it matches your Bette Davis eyes.
Kamchak
September 24th, 2009
6:28 pm
Sorry about the messed up link
jconservative
September 24th, 2009
6:57 pm
Mr. Wilder is kidding himself on this issue.
There are cases in the pipeline heading for the Supreme Court. Those cases involve State restrictions on gun ownership. In last fall’s Heller decision Justice Scalia applied the 2nd Amendment to federal statutes, in this case the DC gun law. But he noted that the 2nd Amendment had not been applied to State statutes.
The cases in the pipeline apply to State laws. You can expect the Court to say that the 2nd Amendment applies to State laws. This will
put all state restrictions on gun ownership in question, including Virginia’s.
To those of you who do not like that and to those of you who love that, I offer the following quote from Justice Scalia’s Heller decision:
“Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose:…”
We will end up in the middle on State gun control, some restrictions are OK some are not.
someguy
September 24th, 2009
7:33 pm
It is quite apparent Cynthia has “checked out” and is doing the Washington, D.C. thing……….which is sorta a good thing. But why does Cox Communications keep her around. She was useless before and is even more useless now.
Hey Cynthia, Take care of your knees while kneeling in the Temple of Obama and you can drink my Kool Aid since I am never going to drink it.
Tom in VA
September 24th, 2009
9:27 pm
I too agree with “one gun a month”… funny thing is that Bob McDonnell (I don’t know a Bob McConnell running for Governor), when a delegate, working with Doug Wilder, actually sponsored the legislation that made it law in Virginia. Perhaps if Ms. Tucker did some research instead of “shooting from the hip” (pun intended) she and her readers would know that too.
Josey and the Kittycats
September 24th, 2009
9:30 pm
The one gun a month is not really that big of a deal. Considering a good majority of gun owners only have a few anyway.
navydan
September 24th, 2009
10:46 pm
While Josey is right about most gun owners only having a few guns anyway (and unless I don’t want to do anything else for the month, I wouldn’t afford more than one) and the law being irrelevant to many, it’s not about that. Since when have we been content to let the government decide whether we NEED something or not? If a background check-passing, law-abiding, gun enthusiast or collector WANTS to buy two guns at once, he or she should be able to. It isn’t the law-abiding that purchase their firearms from stores that contribute to crime.
Zibby
September 25th, 2009
12:24 am
Cynthia, Cynthia, Cynthia, you do become more irrelevant and out of touch by the day…
PBO is doing an outstanding impersonation of Huey Long or Willie Stark (same difference) every day… meddling in Taxachusetts to get a Dem in the Senate right now and leaning on Wilder to get him to endorse the Dem running for governor in VA…
Who is becoming more irrelevant?
You or PBO?
Your collective idea of “change” is simply a code word for loss of personal freedoms and everlasting slavery to the government.
Bruce Jackson
September 25th, 2009
5:18 am
Both candidates have expressed a willingness to repeal one-gun-a-month. If you really are on the side of the 2A people you need to join the Virginia Citizens Defense League (google VCDL) as they are the greatest grass roots organization in the nation!
StevenCee
September 25th, 2009
6:26 am
I’m actually quite surprised that Cynthia would ask someone to back off of principle, simply to provide a little more political oomph to someone’s candidacy. If the people don’t want to repeal the law, then it won’t matter where the new governor stands, & since both candidates support repeal, it’s moot anyway.
As for the law, or any law regulating the number of guns bought in a month, the facts do show that many of the guns used in crimes are in fact, often purchased legally (like here in Georgia), then sold to residents of states where it’s difficult to do so. But maybe one a month is a bit too stringent, if it were raised to 2,3, or even 4, it would still put a damper on large numbers of guns bought at one time….
Michael H. Smith
September 25th, 2009
8:25 am
Since when have we been content to let the government decide whether we NEED something or not?
Now that is a loaded question but I’m willing to take a shot at it. (pun unintended)
Truth is we have been allowing government to make too many of our decisions contently for far too long.
Every time there is a difficulty in life that pains us the answer has been to reach for the big government solution: Ah, just spray a little “Nanny State” on it, that’ll fix it.
Word has it, Comrades Cynthia and Jay swear by it.
jconservative
September 25th, 2009
9:35 am
Michael H. Smith “Truth is we have been allowing government to make too many of our decisions contently for far too long.”
I completely agree with this statement. This is where we have brought ourselves in the last several decades. Now people look around at the American political scene & come up with dozens of “problems” that they want the government to “fix”.
And the big government solution is just is not from Cynthia & Jay.
Have any of really looked at the list of “evils” Rush, Sean & Glenn?
Their solution is for the government to do the fixing.
Bottom line, if you look around the great American political arena & see you problems, whether real problems or imaginary problems, and you want the government to “fix” those problems, then you are a liberal.
And most voters have a list of problems they want the government to fix. That’s why we have a liberal country.
Louie Fahooty
September 25th, 2009
7:43 pm
Stick to your principles Doug. The founding fathers wanted us to bear arms with muskets – not assault weapons.
Jim in Houston
September 25th, 2009
8:53 pm
“The founding fathers wanted us to bear arms with muskets – not assault weapons.”
No, Louis, they wanted us to have personal arms consistent with military service…that means what you imagine to be “assault weapons”.
You do know that many of our Founding Fathers owned artillery, don’t you? You do know that multi-round weapons were familiar to the Founding Fathers, don’t you?
StevenCee
September 27th, 2009
3:08 pm
Has it ever occurred to those who speak of the “nanny government”, that while it is true many of our problems today are the result of the government’s passage of some pretty horrible legislation, it will take that same government to “fix” those same problems?
When we foolishly created Prohibition, it was only the government that could correct & reverse it’s wrongheaded move, and the same is true today. We’ve allowed corporations & big $$ special interest groups to make Congress their pawns, doing their bidding, and now it’s time to make Congress do OUR wishes! But government-caused ills often require government solutions, even it’s just to rescind some of it’s many disastrous decisions…
John Kelley
September 28th, 2009
7:55 pm
As a Virginian, I would like to enter my personal feelings. One gun per month is too much. One gun per lifetime may be too much. I’m tired of reading where a crime has taken place in other parts of the country and the gun came from Virginia.
Robert Sandown
September 29th, 2009
9:03 pm
Like most mindless liberal closet tyrants, you’re more interested in what YOU WANT over what THE CONSTITUTION SAYS about guaranteeing Americans personal rights and freedoms – from mindless liberal closet tyrants, like you! Maybe we should ration YOUR First Amendment rights to just ONE WORD a month. That would slow the outflow of your poorly thought out reasonings.
skippydog
September 29th, 2009
9:37 pm
FYI….. VA concealed carry permit holders are exempt from the one-gun-a-month rule, and it only applies to handguns not rifles.