And In A Case Of Being In Washington For Too Damn Long...

Six-term U. S. Senator Richard Lugar (RINO-Indiana) called for a reinstatement of the expired (and failed) Assault Weapons Ban this weekend. In doing so, Lugar becomes the first Republican senate member to call for more gun control after the Tucson shootings.

Lugar, who faces re-election in 2012 and is known for sometimes crossing party lines to vote with Democrats, said Congress should reinstate a ban on assault weapons following the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people and critically wounded Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords. He acknowledged such action was unlikely in the current political environment.

“I recognize the fact that the politics domestically in our country with regard to this are on a different track altogether,” he said. He noted that sales of ammunition soared following the attack, possibly on fears that Congress might react by restricting its availability.

Appropriately enough, he made this call for more gun control in an interview with Al Hunt on Bloomberg Television. His comments come near the 5 minute mark in the video below.



While Richard Lugar may have been Richard Nixon's "favorite mayor" when he was mayor of Indianapolis, let us not forget that it was under Nixon's watch that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was spawned. Nixon was no friend of gun owners and neither is Lugar. It is time to retire this out of touch dinosaur.

UPDATE: HotAir's Allahpundit has some thoughts on why Lugar threw this tidbit out to Al Hunt. Hopefully the first one, that he plans to retire, is the correct one.