Rep. Chris Jacobs is on his way out of office. The New York Republican was more than willing to support gun control, and that led to him facing a massive backlash over it. It was bad enough he decided not to run for re-election.

Which is the smartest move he made.

Now, though, he’s blasting the GOP arguments on gun control.

Representative Chris Jacobs, a New York Republican who was recently ostracized by his party for supporting an assault weapons ban, said Sunday that other GOP arguments about gun rights feel too “hollow.”

The congressman said on CNN‘s State of the Union how he is one of very few sitting Republican lawmakers in favor of more stringent gun control measures. Earlier this month, Jacobs announced that he would not run for reelection after facing heavy backlash from fellow party members over his stance.

“Our parties are very polarized right now,” he told the network. “And I don’t think that’s good for the parties. I don’t think that’s good for democracy, and I think that’s one reason why Washington is not working.”

…

“I hope I’ve been compassionate when I’ve seen other places go through this, but it certainly hits you a bit harder when you know people that perished in the event,” Jacobs said. “As I talked to Second Amendment advocates on this issue, and the absolutism that they have—that nothing should change—no additional controls. Their arguments just felt hollow to me.”

Except, I doubt many actually felt there should be no changes at all. The problem is that gun control simply doesn’t work.

In New York state, there are red flag laws and an assault weapon ban, yet the Buffalo shooting still happened. Earlier this year, a shooting in Sacramento took place where we later learned that one of the shooters had an illegal full-auto switch in his firearm.

Over and over again, we see gun control failing.

But there are changes many of us might support, just not with regard to gun control.

Jacobs said those arguments felt hollow to him, but the only thing hollow was his support for our basic civil liberties.

Why should we feel there should be more controls when the controls don’t work? Why should we pay the price because the laws once again failed?

Jacobs is heading out of office, and that’s probably for the best. When he was elected, he swore to support and defend the Constitution. Over the last few weeks, he’s made it very clear that he doesn’t actually know what that means or how infringing on a right the Constitution explicitly says shall not be infringed is anything but supporting and defending it.

Now he can “retire,” as I’ve seen some in the media spin the fact that he’s basically stepping out before he loses his re-election bid, and pretend that he’s morally superior for not actually giving a damn about rights nor looking for solutions that might actually work for a change.

Good riddance is about all I can say.