Yes we have never been stronger since the GCA debacle in the 60's and I attribute that to the concealed carry fight. Concealed carry was an offensive struggle. The Uncle Fudds were pissing down both legs wanting to stay below the radar thinking bringing up guns was going to cause us to lose them all...or at least a large portion. Well, we got concealed carry by demanding it without conciliation and we won and here we are. Uncle Fudd was wrong and you are right...we've never been stronger at least in my lifetime (past two years up for debate). And we lose with the "prevent defense" which Uncle Fudd had been employing until we took the NRA back in the Cincinnati Revolution and pushed concealed carry.
We won the political battle on concealed carry not only through hard work - but because many people own don't own a gun and will likely never apply for a permit support the right to carry. This is especially true when talking about background checked and trained permit holders. These folks think that, should they ever "need" a permit, they should be able to get one. Many of these same people also believe that background checks should be expanded to most private transfers.
Now I agree we write bills but we give them nothing. If they want us to have, for instance, personal NICS checks to close the patently false and misleading "gun show loophole" we make it illegal to transfer, aw heck, let's just say a car without one...cars not being a Constitutional right and we close that damned car loophole and keep crazies from being behind the wheel. We give them nothing but hell and leave them as the poster child and that is all I'm willing to be conciliatory over.
We will NEVER convince the care of the anti-gun movement to give up their dream of UK style (or worse) gun control. I have no illusions about this - but I submit to you that, by themselves, they pose little danger because they are so small. Remember when Brady held a press conference and two reporters and one camera showed up? One of the reporters and the camera were from NRA News!
The anti-gun movement is like a balloon. It is nothing until it is inflated. It gets inflated when people - many of whom can be reasoned with - rush in to inflate it. Two things fill the balloon with air: Mass shootings and the issue of background checks. That's why the antis have to disguise their registration bills as "background check" bills - registration is a loosing issue at a national level. Background checks are a winning issue for them.
What Gura and I are suggesting is that we co-opt the only remaining issue that they can get significant support for. This will prevent them from using it to get registration and other horrible provisions passed. Witness what happened in Colorado. I'm also suggesting that, in the same bill, we repeal a ton of bad gun laws passed in the last 80 years. Put that bill on Obama's desk and we win either way. If he vetoes a background check bill, even one with lots of pro-gun rights provisions, then it's going to be hard for him to raise the issue. If he signs it, we get rid of a ton of very bad laws in exchange for giving up very little - since background checks would be available through FFLs, but would be completely optional. On the other hand they would provide legal protection when selling to people we don't know.
And more to the point...my rights are not what a court says they are per se' depending on what the topic is. They can say, for instance, you have no right to breathe air and need to pay a tax for air....would you follow that? It's like people saying they will "die" for someone's right to ______ (insert right in blank) and it's all really just hand waving to impress people with their caring which really does not exist.
While I understand where you are coming from - especially when it comes to unenforceable laws - in practical terms, SCOTUS decides what our constitutional protections are. So far, no one here has been able to provide evidence that the current court is going to rule that NICS checks are an infringement under the 2nd Amendment. Thank God we can use the 2nd Amendment as a firewall against really, really bad laws. Ditto that we can use it to expand concealed carry. But background checks - and by this I mean instant NICS checks - are a 100% political battle. As I said earlier - I really hope that Gura and I are wrong and that we are able to stop Bloomberg when he swoops in with his pre-written law after the next high profile mass shooting.
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