U.S.A. — “The House approved a resolution related to pistol braces Tuesday, legislation that was at the center of the floor revolt conservatives staged last week that paused business in the chamber for days,” The Hill reports. “Two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Kean Jr. (N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) — broke from the party and voted against the legislation…”
Fitzpatrick once more betraying gun owners will come as no surprise to AmmoLand regulars. In February, this column related how the Republican, endorsed by the Giffords gun prohibition group, had teamed with Democrat Debbie Dingell on the “Strengthening Protections for Domestic Violence and Stalking Survivors Act” to “close the boyfriend loophole” and add another group of Americans subject to having their guns confiscated before even being charged with a crime, let alone convicted.
On top of that, he’s big on ending private sales with the “Enhanced Background Checks Act,” tried to “close the bump stock loophole,” wants to disarm his countrymen old enough to serve in the military, marry and vote, and, of course, he wants the government to forbid you to own semiautos.
The guy’s a horror show on guns, which makes NRA A+ -rated House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly helping raise funds for him all the more cognitively dissonant (except as political payback). That McCarthy also reportedly had to be squeezed by a “conservative revolt” into holding the pistol brace vote in the first place is another puzzler.
As for Kean, he’s another one of those politicians who apparently started out big on the Second Amendment until it came time to show his true colors. Per Insider NJ:
“With respect to Kean’s positions regarding reasonable gun control restraints, including limitations on magazine, gun purchases, and restrictions on the right to carry concealed weapons, the following tells the reader the entire story. The National Rifle Association (NRA) Victory Fund gave Tom Kean, Jr. these ratings for the following election cycles: an A+ rating (100 percent) for 2017 and a B rating (67 percent) for 2020.”
Disregarding for a moment that academic grading in this country pegs that low number squarely as a “D,” the analysis gives us a feel for why Kean reneged on the promises he must have made to win that earlier endorsement.
“Having a record that intentionally or unintentionally promotes the NRA agenda on guns is a major negative for Kean’s electability,” the assessment explains. “The New Jersey electorate is very pro-gun control in Democratic-leaning districts like the 7th.”
It also points to an inconvenient truth that ultimately comes back to NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and what many disgruntled members and gun observers are feeling themselves:
“Throughout America, the NRA reputation is one of political toxicity, due to personal scandals in their leadership, and polls reflect this decline in the ethical reputation of the NRA.”
True, a lot of that comes from lying prohibitionists and avowed political and ideological enemies, but it all comes back to who gave them the ammunition to use against NRA in the first place.
The bottom line on the pistol brace resolution is this was a testing of the House GOP, but still essentially a show. That it won’t make it through the Senate and that Joe Biden would veto it if it did are a given, kind of like Joni Ernst’s new move to defund guns and ammo for the IRS. It takes gun owners’ minds off the fact that she was one of the Republican senators who voted for the Democrats’ “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” but otherwise won’t go anywhere.
It’s a typical Republican tactic: Make all kinds of noise about what great pals they are when there’s no chance a bill will pass, but when they actually have an opportunity to make big changes beg off by claiming the timing isn’t right.
With this being SOP for the GOP, it’s no wonder lesser luminaries like Fitzpatrick and Kean feel like they can do anything they want, and “lesser of two evils” gun voters won’t have a choice but to keep rewarding them with power. And until such time as gun owners unify and make a public example out of one of the Quislings to scare the others into falling in line, expect it to keep happening.
As things stand, fresh betrayals may come sooner rather than later. As this column recently reported, Democrats have prepared three discharge petitions to force a House vote and only need five Republican turncoats to make that happen.
Any bets on how Fitzpatrick and Kean will vote?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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