Where were they then?

By B. William Cody
Guns & Ammo Editor

With the blood of the 17 most recent victims of America's insane gun lust calling out, like Abel, from the ground, the usual gang of Republican apostates and former Bush Administration coatholders has been, quite properly, criticizing their beloved party for its craven refusal to stand up to gun-totin' white nationalist groups, including the NRA, particularly with respect to its refusal to amend a law that allows any 18 year old with a debit card to buy a high-powered military assault weapon capable of firing deadly rounds as fast as the sociopath can pull the trigger.

Amazingly enough, there was a time in this country when the sale of such weapons, usable only for slaughtering innocents and not hunting varmints, was banned.  However, thanks to NRA finagling, that ban automatically expired in 2004 and was not extended.  Then-President George W. Bash, employing his usual lovable combination of disingenuousness and dickishness, claimed to support an extension, but refused to lift a finger, a phone, or anything else to get it renewed.  Whereupon the extension bill, like the children of Sandy Hook and Parkland, died.

According to The New York Times,

Mr. Bush said during the 2000 campaign that he supported the ban on 19 types of semiautomatic weapons passed in 1994, and he has repeatedly pledged to sign an extension if it reaches his desk. But the National Rifle Association -- which backs his re-election -- was eager to let the ban lapse, and Mr. Bush did nothing to push Republican leaders in Congress on the issue.

Where were, we wondered, all those Republicans in 2004, when they might have done some good?  We rounded up some of the loudest voices in 2018 in favor of banning assault weapons.  Some had better excuses than others.

Jennifer Rubin was still a hard-charging
entertainment lawyer in 2004 . . .

For example, Jennifer Rubin was still enmeshed in her prior career as an entertainment lawyer in LA., before her hopeless crush on Bibi Netanyahu led to drop lawyering for her current career of bloviating.   The 2004 whereabouts of totes adorbs Ana Navarro were, like D-Day's, unknown.  Maybe she was still in the jungles of Nicaragua with her beloved Contras.   

David Frum was a little closer to the action at a Washington think tank, but he seemed to be too busy with his mission with the Hot Air Force promoting the endless disaster of the Iraq War to notice the real danger to Americans on the shelves of Wal-Mart.

We heard Steve Schmidt on the cable raging about the failure to control assault weapons, so naturally we inquired as to his whereabouts in 2004.  It turns out he was a high-level flack and henchman in the Bush re-election campaign, in the course of which he lauded W. as a “steady and principled leader.”  We guess it's a case of those who can, do, and those who can't, flack.  We would have said teach, but the teachers are dead.

Speaking of overexposed on cable, what about long-time gasbag Joe Scarborough?  Incredibly enough, he was already blathering on cable news in 2004.  One month before the assault weapons ban lapsed he was observed “standing and applauding numerous times during the president's speech.”  That's President George W. Bush.

 . . . while Nicolle Wallace was spinning for George W.

Due to pressures of time and increasing nausea, we can only cover one more stalwart post-massacres opponent of assault weapons.  Come on down, former Florida recount rioter Nicolle Wallace!  By incredible coincidence, she was the Communications Director for the often tongue-tied Texan under her former name, Nicolle Devenish.  In 2004, in that senior policy-level position, she communicated her deep concern for human life by slamming John Kerry for refusing to support a bill making harming a pregnant woman a crime against the fetus.

Of course, that legislation, unlike renewal of the federal assault weapons ban, wouldn't have protected the massacred children of Sandy Hook, because in 2004, they hadn't even been conceived, much less born.

On the plus side, though, she has her own daily cable news show.