(GunReports.com) — On Election Day last November, several Democrat Senators were campaigning for reelection in pro-gun states. And in order to get their constituents’ votes, they promised fealty to the Second Amendment.
On November 6, Democrat Senators Joe Manchin (WV), Bob Casey (PA) and Jon Tester (MT) all won their respective elections. These seats, among others, were crucial to helping Harry Reid return to the top post in the Senate.
But only a month after the election returns were tallied, the Senate — under Majority Leader Harry Reid’s control — is now crusading to implement:
* Gun bans on semiautomatic firearms and magazines;
* An effective ban on gun shows;
* A ban on private gun sales, without going through a gun dealer; and,
* Changes in the Senate rules which would allow them to ban guns with a mere 50 Senate votes.
This last proposal is particularly insidious, according to the Gun Owners of America (GOA). “Gun grabbers are not going to be able to get 60 votes to break a Senate filibuster of gun control. But, with the help of fake ‘pro-gun’ Senate Democrats, they may be able to get 50,” a GOA release said this week.
So the question of whether Senate Democrats will need 50 votes or 60 votes will determine whether gun control -– and much of Obama’s agenda -– will be slammed through and passed into law using the “nuclear option.”
This is a trick which anti-gun Democrats intend to use the first day of the Senate session in order to obliterate the Senate rules and clear the way for 50-vote passage of gun control.
Your senator’s vote on the “nuclear option” may be the most important gun-related vote he casts during the 113th Congress. It may be the difference between whether Obama can secure Senate passage of gun bans, magazine bans, gun show bans, and bans on private gun sales, GOA says.
Anti-gun Democrats will try to tell you that the Senate is just following its precedents.
That’s a lie. Senate Rule 5, Paragraph 2, provides that the Senate rules continue from one Congress to the next, unless changed by 67 votes (needed to break a filibuster of rules changes). If the Senate can use brute force to obliterate Rule 5 by 50 votes, it can use brute force to obliterate any rule at any time by 50 votes.
This is a major vote that will have huge ramifications for our republic. Our gun rights are just one of the many freedoms that are on the chopping block right now. And if Harry Reid can squelch his opposition by nuking the filibuster, it will be the first step towards completely obliterating access to guns.
