Herodotus: You think the re-authorization of the "assault weapons" bill is going to be brought up as a separate bill, debated, and then subjected to an open up/down vote? You really think they're THAT honest? HA!
They're going to do it exactly the same way they did the Lautenberg and Kohl amendments; They'll wait until Congress is waiting to ajourn, and some omnibus bill finishing up appropriations is the only thing keeping them in Washington. Then, with the agreement of the "leadership", an amendment making the ban permanent, and maybe even extending it, will be inserted into the bill in conference committee, with everyone present sworn to secrecy. Then the whole of Congress will pass the bill, most of them having no idea that amendment is in there, because they won't have been given copies of the bill to read before the vote. If there are any rumors about what's in there, the leaders will lie to their own caucuses, denying it. And they'll do all this not because they think the ban is a great idea, though some of them probably do. They'll do it because our rights are less important to them than a couple of days vacation, and they don't think we'll hold them accountable.
And when will they do it? After the election, certainly, because the last thing they'll want to do is enrage us right before we go to vote. Probably during the lame duck session; When the congressional leadership sets out to do something which will make people mad, they always do it right AFTER an election, to give voters the maximum time posible to cool down before they vote again.
How can we stop this? In the long run, we need to elect new leadership to Congress, who think our rights are worth defending. In the short run, we need to keep an eagle eye on every piece of legislation coming down the pike, AND we need to make the Republicans understand that we will accept no excuses on this one; Let that ban be re-enacted, and we will DESTROY them, if it's the last thing we do.
In other words, we're not going to stop it. At least not through the NRA; LaPierre and his hand-puppet Heston aren't going to go balistic over making this ban permanent, and everyone who would go balistic over it has just been purged from the board of directors, which is now just a rubber stamp.
Myself, I'm mailing off a letter to my misrepresentatives, informing them that if this goes down, they won't get my vote if the anti-christ runs against them, no excuses accepted. I don't even care if they honestly didn't know the amendment was in the bill, because they tolerate a system under which this sort of nonsense is possible!
------------------
Sic semper tyrannis!
