Raising taxes cost the democrats the 1994 election, not the Assault Weapons Ban. Whether it was good or bad legislation, it was, as you said, pretty much agreed upon by both parties, and by the public.
The real problem is that rural areas (republican) like their weapons, often with good reason. They were raised using them, and don't feel uncomfortable with them. On the other hand, suburbanites and city dwellers (mostly democrats) associate guns with violence, gangs, and sorrow. They think of guns as 'toys', which they mostly are, of course, and don't understand why rational people would prefer owning them over the safety of their children.
Since more people move to urban and suburban areas every year, the gun guys (and republicans) are going to lose. It is just a matter of time. Regardless of how many video games (the playing of which doesn't correlate at all with gun ownership) are played.
They do the grunt work so we don't have to think about it. I think that makes sense. They get hot interns and corporate bribes, and we get some laws made and enforced.
For many of the companies I've worked for, any stolen secrets could be considered 'disinformation', and would probably cost them more to unwind than it would pay them to analyze.
I suspect that most people are like this, unless they work for the state department.
Also, my last job in the Bay Area had enough Chinese and Indian nationals working there to ensure that anything of note that happened would be transmitted back to the appropriate uncle Chang/Samudragupta well before some hapless engineer got it lifted off their laptop.
Slashdot Mirror
Raising taxes cost the democrats the 1994 election, not the Assault Weapons Ban. Whether it was good or bad legislation, it was, as you said, pretty much agreed upon by both parties, and by the public.
The real problem is that rural areas (republican) like their weapons, often with good reason. They were raised using them, and don't feel uncomfortable with them. On the other hand, suburbanites and city dwellers (mostly democrats) associate guns with violence, gangs, and sorrow. They think of guns as 'toys', which they mostly are, of course, and don't understand why rational people would prefer owning them over the safety of their children.
Since more people move to urban and suburban areas every year, the gun guys (and republicans) are going to lose. It is just a matter of time. Regardless of how many video games (the playing of which doesn't correlate at all with gun ownership) are played.
Too many issues, too little time...
They do the grunt work so we don't have to think about it. I think that makes sense. They get hot interns and corporate bribes, and we get some laws made and enforced.
http://congress.indiana.edu/the-job-congressman
For many of the companies I've worked for, any stolen secrets could be considered 'disinformation', and would probably cost them more to unwind than it would pay them to analyze.
I suspect that most people are like this, unless they work for the state department.
Also, my last job in the Bay Area had enough Chinese and Indian nationals working there to ensure that anything of note that happened would be transmitted back to the appropriate uncle Chang/Samudragupta well before some hapless engineer got it lifted off their laptop.