Stuff the Beast and Disarm the Victims

Is President Obama preparing a second-term stealth campaign against guns? Wayne LaPierre thinks so:

Barack Obama spent his entire political career proudly and publicly pushing for the most radical anti-gun positions you can imagine. He endorsed a total ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns. He opposed right-to-carry laws. He voted to ban nearly all commonly used hunting-rifle ammunition.

During the presidential primary debates, Obama even vowed to re-impose the discredited Clinton gun ban, which banned many commonly owned firearms used for hunting and self-defense.

Obama hasn’t had a sudden change of heart; rather, he’s making a purely political calculation by staying quiet on the gun issue until the time is right. In the meantime, he’s gearing up for his second-term assault on the Second Amendment in a number of ways.

Obama always plays the long the game. He did it against Hillary Clinton in the primaries, carefully picking up caucuses while she focused primarily on the big states. He did it with bin Laden. It worked both times. And don’t forget that Fast & Furious was all about killing Mexicans in order to stir up support for more gun control.

And don’t forget this Krauthammer gem from mid-2010:

The critics don’t understand the big picture. Obama’s transformational agenda is a play in two acts.

Act One is over. The stimulus, Obamacare, and financial reform have exhausted his first-term mandate. It will bear no more heavy lifting. And the Democrats will pay the price for ideological overreaching by losing one or both houses, whether de facto or de jure. The rest of the first term will be spent consolidating these gains (writing the regulations, for example) and preparing for Act Two.

The next burst of ideological energy — massive regulation of the energy economy, federalizing higher education, and “comprehensive” immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) — will require a second mandate, meaning reelection in 2012…

So 2012 is the real prize. Obama sees far, farther than even his own partisans. Republicans underestimate him at their peril.

There is no doubt this is the most important election since 1980. Much of what Reagan accomplished in his two terms and already been undone — and just look at the results.

Another four years like these and it will be too late to undo.