The Brady Bunch has announced their new leader since Michael Barnes is leaving after 6 years of failure. It's former Fort Wayne Indiana mayor Paul Helmke, a Republican. I didn't know the Brady budget until now:
The Brady organizations, with a combined budget of $10 million, have 42 staff members, primarily in Washington and with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago.I love how they try to sell their mission. They say they want to "ban large-volume gun sales that supply traffickers." Somehow, I doubt they told the reporter that their definition of "large-volume" is two. Or that their effort to "require background checks of all gun buyers" really means the end of private transfers. If Bitchy Mom wanted to give me a gun, we couldn't do it without going through a dealer and paying at least $25 for it. I'm sure the price for transfers would go up if it was required. I also doubt they let the reporter know that their goal to "stop the flow of guns from licensed gun dealers into the hands of criminals" already has a federal law on the books - they can't sell to felons.
I would love to see NRA and other gun groups use this appointment and Bloomberg's "gun summit" to hit the Republican party and steer them in the right direction. We're not getting anything from them now, so we don't have much to lose. They aren't going to start banning guns because they can't win without the few extra votes we turn out. The only option the party would have would be to "prove" they support gun owners with some action. There's several options, including multiple pro-gun bills in Congress (repeal of DC gun ban, tightening the control on ATF, etc.) and the chance for Bush to extend his "cleaning" of the White House to the ATF.
Posted by Bitter at May 4, 2006 04:48 AM | TrackBack