(May 20, 2002) Will firearm issues play a big role in fall campaigns? Apparently Democrat machine leadership wants to make it so. In announcing the candidacy of Jim Brochin, a Democrat and challenger in Baltimore County, Senate President Mike Miller slammed incumbent Senator Andy Harris as someone who "protects gun manufacturers."
Let's review for a moment. This is a surprising gambit since all political consultants say "gun control won't elect candidates, but it can reject them." Don't relax; there's no mystical force in the universe that makes this true by itself, but it can be true when angry gun owners make it so. (Ask Al Gore.) If Mike Miller wants to position his candidate as an easy anti-gun addition to his senatorial stable, then he tells us where gun issues can - and must - make a difference.
The fact is that Senator Andy Harris, the Republican incumbent, is one of our strongest supporters in the Senate. We worked hard for him in 98 as he took out the anti-gun Vernon Boozer. Yeah. We'll be there for Andy.
What makes Miller's statement disingenuous is that he protects gun manufacturers too … at least if they're in his district. How quickly he forgets that his own 'Beretta Bill' exempted the company from whole parts of Maryland's junk gun ban, largely in return for Beretta's silence on major gun control packages. Ahh, well. See our previous commentary about the intellectual consistency of liberals, and remember, the primary is set for September 10!