Brady Campaign says: We’re losing

Bad week for Paul & Co, first they get pummelled by the ATF for lying about trace data, and then Paul Helmke is quoted on ABC News saying that they’re losing the fight:

“We’ve lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means,” campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. “Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it’s an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore?

No, you’re not dreaming.  Paul Helmke just agreed in principle that the 2nd Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms.  When I first saw this story yesterday, I seriously had no idea how to react – I sat slack-jawed at my computer staring at the monitor thinking “Holy crap”.  Thankfully, the Brady Bunch returned to their normal form so I wasn’t too worried:

“Universal background checks don’t affect the right of self-defense in the home. Banning a super dangerous class of weapons, like assault weapons, also would not adversely affect the right of self-defense in the home,” said Henigan. “

Whew, for a minute there I thought I was in the twilight zone, and that Rod Serling was about to show up.

In all seriousness though, this is actually a huge strategic win for the pro-gun movement, because we’ve fundamentally changed the tenor of the debate; when the spokesperson for the Brady Campaign is talking about how their infrigements don’t impede self-defense, and the word “hunting” is never mentioned we’ve taken a big step in the right direction.

I’m not saying slack off because we’re winning – if anything we need to push harder.  If anyone has ever played a tackle sport like rugby or football, they’ve encountered that moment where you’re trying to break a tackle and you can feel your opponent’s grip slacken just a bit, and at that moment you push harder to finish him off.  While a crude analogy, it’s also fitting – the weaker and more irrelevant the  Brady Campaign becomes, the harder we have to push.  It starts with an individual rights ruling from the Supreme Court, and from there it continues to making sure that the ruling isn’t twisted into justification for more gun laws.

One last excerpt from the article:

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence fully expects to lose.

Hell yeah.