Right-Wing Freaking Out About Feinstein’s Gun Control Suggestions

Right-Wing bloggers are apoplectic about proposals by California Senator Dianne Feinstein to control the use of deadly weapons. RedState uses her sensible ideas to claim “proof we are in a post constitutional republic.” Alex Jones screeches that “the gun-grabbers are going for broke.”  WorldNetDaily warns that you better sign a petition to “keep your gun rights.” Another headline shouts, “Feinstein lunges for our guns.”

In fact, to get any news at all about what the senator is proposing, I’m practically confined to the spin on conservative websites. Google “Dianne Feinstein” guns and, with few exceptions, you get a compendium of anti-government paranoia.  I wanted to see what they had to say at shotgunworld, another Google result, but stopped short when I saw, “This site may harm your computer.” You may think guns protect you, but malware?

Feinstein’s sensible proposal, par in almost every other civilized nation, calls for banning the sale, transfer, importation or manufacturing of military-style weapons and doing the same for magazines than can accept more than 10 rounds. And the 1994 assault weapon ban gets more teeth.  But the Feinstein bill doesn’t just go after gun owners; it also protects them by grandfathering weapons legally owned at the time her proposed law would be enacted. Grandfathered weapons would be subject to registration and background checks on the owners and any transferees.

Each night I get calls on my radio show from citizens concerned about overly intrusive government, and they point to gun registration as an example of an outrageous privacy breach.  But, BREAKING NEWS for government-averse gun owners: It’s too late to complain if you’ve ever registered a car, or have a Social Security number, or send the government your tax returns every year.  Guess what? They already have much more on you than they’ll ever get from the registration of your gun.

Laws in other civilized nations where gun violence is low are similar to what Dianne Feinstein is proposing. Conservatives who claim to care about the safety and well-being of children, even those already-born, would be wise to show they mean it by agreeing to public policy steps that would protect all of us.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.