Burnt Orange Report

You get the feeling that he's making it up because he is. 77% of the U.S. population want the Assault Weapons Ban to stay in place. I have problems with the cosemtic nature of the law, but I like the precedent that it sets that allows Congress to regulate firearms. Despite the wishes of the NRA, the 2nd Amendment is not absolute. No one in their right might would argue that any of the amendments are absolute and subject to no limitations, all they say is that there needs to be a compelling state interest at stake for those rights to be limited, and there needs to be no less burdensome way of accomplishing that regulation. No one has applied this to the 2nd Amendment yet, but they ought to. We need a strong statement that guns can be regulated, so long as they are not done so in an overly burdensome way. Until the Supremes suck it up and actually say something about this, Congress needs to keep ramming legislation through to force the issue.

Thank you for another insensitive headline. Please, do us all a favor and take a class at UT in diversity awareness.

Guys, gun control is not a winning issue. We Dems should not ride this bandwagon. It defeated alot of Congessmen in 1994 (like Jack Brooks who had served ca. 40 years) and certainly was a factor in the election in 2000 (especially in WV).

Besides, for all the hyperbole, gun violence with Assault Weapons has actually been pretty historically low. I guarantee far more people are killed with cheap "Saturday Night Special" handguns than assault weapons.

OK, but is "brother, can you spare a dime?" insensitive by the same token?

It's used in the same sense.

I wish more rural Democrats would talk about gun control. I know they want to, but most have wised up and buried that issue and now just tow the NRA line. It's amazing what happens when they actually vote how the district feels. They get re-elected

"Brother, can you spare a dime?" does not sound racially insensitive to me. It is a phrase that I imagine predates your offending phrase by decades at least. Without doing an internet search, it sounds like a widely used depression- era phrase. I think the word "brother" is used in a different sense than in the other phrase.

"Can you hook a brother up with an AK-47" certainly does sound as if you are playing on racial stereotypes.

Personally, i think that Kerry could stump speech that Bush supports drug dealers, murderers and ( eek) terrorists by not supporting a renewal of the weapons ban. What I just don't get about Americans is how they will defend to the bone the second amendment and not allow any regulation of weaponry, but roll over and accept Patriot Act investigations and searches without regard to the 4th amendment, which regulates illegal search and seizure.