[darkvibe]

Covers her abandonment of 2nd Amendment rights.

Kirsten Gillibrand ramps up abandonment of gun owners

There's been a bipartisan victory of sorts for gun owners. From NRA-ILA:

An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have signed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief supporting the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amicus brief, bearing the signatures of 251 Members of Congress and 58 Senators, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court today in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago.

Here's the brief.

I noticed one conspicuous absence in particular among the signatories: formerly "pro gun" Kirsten Gillibrand, who abandoned her supportive gun-owning constituents to embrace the political opportunities of citizen disarmament on the national stage.

We've discussed the junior senator from New York on many occasions--see the "Related Articles" links to this column for details. The bottom line is, she no longer needs thefolks down home, and is working on a higher (or lower, if you look at things like I do) plane to secure her place at the table.
From Elizabeth Benjamin at the New York Daily News:

The upstate moderate has won the endorsement of Rep. Jerry Nadler, a former House colleague whose uber-liberal status could help her shore up support among still-skeptical fellow Democrats.

And in a follow-up report, Benjamin shows us to what extent:

...Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is scheduled to appear tomorrow with another former House colleague and onetime political opponent, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy.
Gillibrand is to join the Long Island congresswoman, Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, the Brady Campaign and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence at John Jay College for a so-called "major announcement" (according to a press release) of a "new federal measure to combat gun violence."

The Carolyn McCarthy Show Thanksgiving Special? Gee, with an all-star lineup. And what will be on today's program?

From NewsDay.com:

McCarthy, Gillibrand team up to stop gun trafficking...

Unfortunately, you need a subscription to read the article, so I'll have more on this after the photo op. But I have seen this much: Public genuflection displays notwithstanding, Gillibrand still has not secured McCarthy's commitment for support.

And as far as gun owners are concerned, what the Republicans are thinking about offering actually has a much worse record.

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Another conspicuous absence

There is one other legislator who's lack of support for the McDonald lawsuit is notable: Rep. Ron Paul, who, according to Gun Owners of America, is practically without peer when it comes to the Second Amendment.

I called his office in Washington DC this morning and left a message with his press secretary, telling her who I was and why I was calling. I'll keep trying until I get an answer.

[Thanks to The Packetman for pointing this out to me.]

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Kirsten and the vanishing virtual 2nd Amendment

As a curious aside to all this, I noted some months ago that the "Preserving 2nd Amendment rights" page on Kirsten's website was still a work in progress, with the promise of "Coming soon" to keep us on our seats to see how much she's backtracked.

If we can take these results as an indicator, the answer would appear to be "Completely."

The link no longer works. Neither does a search on her site for either "2nd Amendment" or "Second Amendment" produce relevant results. And sorry, "sportsmen," there are no results "hunting," either, although "shooting" produces some interesting negative results, and wait 'til you get a load of what "gun" yields.