From: bdolan@well.sf.ca.us (Brad Dolan)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Clinton admits gun bans cost him the House
Date: 22 Jan 1995 17:00:32 GMT
Message-ID: <3fu2vg$kp1@nkosi.well.com>
Summary: 1/21/95 DNC speech, Clinton admits gun bans cost him the House

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Bill Clinton speaking before the Democratic National Committee, 1/21/95:

  I don't think we should repeal the Brady bill and I don't think we
  should repeal (pause) and I know it may have cost us the House of
  Representatives, and most people who've studied it closely believe
  it did, but I don't believe we should repeal the assault weapons.
  You don't need 'em (applause).  I'm not for sure about this, you
  may need assault weapons to hunt giraffes, but you can go with
  ducks just with an ordinary shotgun (audience laughs).  (Pause)
  This is a serious thing, police lay down their lives every day 
  in this country because of the upsurge in assault weapons.  Talk
  to people who run the emergency rooms of our hospitals about the
  increasing mortality rate of people with gunshot wounds and you
  know what they'll tell you?  It's happening because there's more
  bullets in people's bodies who are shot with guns on average
  than there used to be.  (Pause, voice gets husky with emotion)
  A lot of good Democrats laid down their careers to give our 
  children a chance to stay alive on the street, to give our police
  officers a chance to stay alive while they do their duty.
  (Spitting out words one by one) We...must...not...go...back...
  on...that!  (standing ovation).

Skipping lightly over the factual inaccuracy of this statement (very
few policemen have been killed by "assault weapons") and skipping
over the gross deliberate misunderstanding of why people care about
their right to keep and bear arms, let's just consider the political
significance of this statement:

Clinton acknowleged that many "good Democrats laid down their 
careers," i.e. they voted against the wishes of their constituents and 
were thrown out of office.  He acknowledged that this cost him control 
of the House.  Yet, he insists that the gun bans, so unpopular with the
American people, should not be repealed.  

Is this representative democracy?



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