Behold the carefully calibrated hypocrisy of the liberal New England congressman with a large gun manufacturer, in this case Smith & Wesson, in his district, Rep. Richard P. Neal.
“My own position has always been: Be helpful in that every police officer or patrolman in America ought to use a Smith & Wesson, and I think the American military ought to use a Smith & Wesson,” Neal said in an interview. “At the same time, there will be disagreements as it relates to guns.”
In other words, average citizens shouldn't have guns, but every government agent should have Smith & Wesson weapons. Incidentally, Neal was one of the overgrown hippies doing the sit-in against guns on the House floor last month, ginning up the youth vote by emulating the rash of college sit-ins protesting micro-aggressions.
Neal said he supports background mental health checks, closing gun show loopholes, and keeping those on the government’s no-fly list from being able to purchase firearms.
“I think those are reasonable positions by any standard,” he said.
Except it is quite reasonable to disagree. For one thing, gun show purchases aren't "loopholes". A loophole is an unintentional gap left in a law, a way of getting around a previous restriction. In fact, person-to-person sales have never been the object of such legislation and is only a loophole to those who think that gun purchases should be rare, difficult, and practically non-existent.
Likewise, the no-fly list ban sounds good until you realize that many, many people end up on the list in cases of mistaken identity, bureaucratic error, or opaque government fiat. In fact, just a few years ago the liberal bastion of the American Civil Liberties Union was decrying the no-fly list as unjust and problematic. Yet now, we're supposed to trust the list to identify the correct people who should be denied their civil liberties.
The reality is that Neal's liberal positions are apparently those which check off the right boxes for the type of voter he's trying to appeal to, even if it gives him a split political personality. This is not especially new and it's not confined to liberals. But it's worth remembering and pointing out when it comes up.
