Bravo to Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss for declining to play the children’s game of Simon Says with their political party. Such blatant display of individualism and individual thought on Capitol Hill could be contagious and suggests there may be hope for this nation yet.
The two senators from Georgia, a state that has long encouraged and produced individual thinkers and leaders, opted not to join other members of their party who wanted to filibuster any debate on gun control the other side might want to launch. They refused to run with the pack and prevent debate in the Senate on one of the most burning issues of the day from coast to coast. That includes small communities like Brunswick, where a baby boy was shot point-blank in the face and murdered in his stroller in broad daylight on a city street.
Apparently, without saying how they personally stand on this issue, Sens. Isakson and Chambliss felt it was time for the nation to openly discuss even something as simple as closer background checks of anyone wanting to buy a gun.
Considering the number of felons police catch in this community alone with guns, people who are not entitled to carry weapons after committing a crime serious enough to forfeit their civil rights, what could be wrong with that?
After a mental case shot and killed his mother and 26 people, mostly children, at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in December, what possibly could be wrong with that? What’s wrong with at least discussing if any penalty should be levied against “straw buyers,” people who acquire guns for others who are legally not supposed to have them?
Yes, everyone is familiar with the arguments. If someone wants a gun bad enough, regardless of their criminal past or mental state, they will find some place to get one. When money is involved, everything and anything is possible. Besides, by the same token, why post speed limits? Motorists are just going to break them.
What bad or deranged people might or might not do shouldn’t stop this nation from at least debating the issue or muzzling those who do.
The Second Amendment, like all amendments to the U.S. Constitution, should be defended vigorously. Today. Tomorrow. Always.
It’s debatable, however, whether making it a little harder for felons or certifiably deranged Americans to walk into a gunshop and buy an assault weapon is an attack on the Constitution. And that’s apparently what Sens. Isakson and Chambliss want: a clean debate.
Senators right to not filibuster gun vote
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