One Born Every Minute
Circus master P.T. Barnum once supposedly said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But I’m going to tell you what he probably wouldn’t…you don’t have to be one of them.
I’ll issue apologies in advance in the event that this hurts your feelings, but many of you are in fact being suckered. You are being fooled by DC politicians who keep your attention (and support, and maybe your donations) by telling you what you want to hear.
My case in point is yesterday’s announcement by Senator Mike Lee that he has…TA-DA!…introduced a national constitutional carry bill into the Senate. I’ve already seen plenty of pro-2A accounts gushing over Lee’s bill…with little objective discussion over how exactly it might get passed into law. Anyone who pays any attention at all to Congress and its activities ought to recognize immediately that this bill is dead on arrival. It simply will not pass.
Think about it. The Hearing Protection Act, H.R. 95, was one of the most benign pieces of pro-gun legislation we’ve had in years…it didn’t even involve guns…and Congress couldn’t muster up the huevos to pass it clean. Instead, they had to roll it into a must-pass omnibus bill in order to squeak a neutered version through. Do you seriously think this Congress is anywhere near strong enough to pass national permitless carry legislation?
And if we can see this, why can’t Mike Lee? The truth is that he almost certainly does see it. So why then, would he introduce something if he knows it will never get any traction? The reason is that it is actually a zero-risk endeavor for him. If social media is any indication, he’ll get all kinds of props from pro-2A folks, simply for introducing the bill. When it inevitably fails? None of those people will blame him. Instead they’ll point fingers at Democrats and “RINOs” for not supporting it.
He gets all of the credit for trying, and none of the blame.
That is, unless our side starts getting a little smarter. We need to stop fawning over these bills that have no chance, and insist that our so-called pro-2A legislators put their effort into things that are achievable…not just what sounds good. Stop being a sucker for this kind of nonsense and demand better from our lawmakers.
