Columnist Accidently Reminds Us How Important Filibuster Is To Gun Rights

AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane

The filibuster is a vital part of American politics.

See, our system isn’t created in such a way where it’s easy to pass laws. It’s not meant to be easy to pass laws. Our Founding Fathers understood that laws can be either good or evil, so they wanted to make it somewhat difficult to pass tyrannical laws in the first place. It’s why there’s a system of checks and balances in the first place.

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One of the things we have in place that helps provide an internal check within Congress is the filibuster. It’s a way to protect the rights of smaller groups of individuals.

That includes gun rights.

Recently, a columnist upset about the lack of gun control following mass shootings illustrated just how important the filibuster is.

We have said it for years, but I will say it again: Enough is enough. With talk of removing the filibuster still kicking around, Democrats must force Republicans to vote against common-sense gun reform, which around 80% of Americans support in one form or another.

Following the Parkland, Fla., shooting, I saw this cycle take place in my own backyard. Politicians from both sides swore such a shooting would never happen again, but as we all know, that was not the case. President Joe Biden has fought for years to implement gun control measures, but one of the only substantive things he has done was include $5 billion in his infrastructure plan for community violence prevention programs. It is a start, but it is in no way enough.

What we need is a comprehensive — and popular — gun control bill that would leave the more ardent Republicans with no choice but to cast a nay vote and face their constituents who would be in favor of implementing such legislation. Moreover, if Democrats remove the filibuster, they would be less able to use gun control just as a voting issue and doing next to nothing once they are in power.

In other words, the author acknowledges that Democrats can’t run rampant over the Second Amendment because the filibuster is in place. The truth is that the filibuster protects all kinds of things and not just gun rights. It’s a way to make it less likely for the majority to run roughshod over the rights of the minority.

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No, it isn’t perfect, but it works.

However, the author forgot one important thing, and that’s how the only way the filibuster is going to be revoked is with a lot more support than such an effort currently has in the Senate. It’s not about to be repealed.

And, honestly, the author should be thankful for that. It’s a way to make sure the next GOP-controlled Congress can’t just do whatever they want next time around.

Then again, progressives like this never seem to think that they’ll ever be out of power. They’re convinced that every election they win will lead to a 1,000-year Democratic reich. Well, that’s not how it’s going to work and we all know it.

Yet I have to thank the author for illustrating just how important the filibuster is. They didn’t mean to, but nonetheless, they did.

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