Ah, April 22nd. Birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the October Revolution and savior of the Proletariat. Let us all take a moment to…

What? Oh. Oh…that April 22nd. Earth Day. Right. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Earth Day wasn't founded by Lenin. It was founded by Ira Einhorn, who, unlike Lenin, only murdered one person.

Accounts vary, and many contest the allegation that he founded it, though he claims to have done so. What is uncontested is that he was pivotal in organizing it, and he served as …

In the wake of last week's violence in New York and Pittsburg, it's not unwise to expect calls for new gun restrictions. Couple that with this administration's published stance regarding gun rights, and we all have reason to be worried.

However, it looks like the current administration is learning from history, and they're not salivating over gun control as rabidly as they were fifteen years ago.

In an interview with Katie Couric, Eric Holder quickly backpedaled on his prior support for a new Assault Weapons Ban, stating,

I don’t think it has and in fact, I look forward to working with the NRA to come up with ways in which we can use common-sense approaches to reduce the level of violence that we see in our streets and make the American people as safe as they can possibly be.

When prodded further, all the elaboration he'd give about his support for gun control was,

These are issues that we’ll have to discuss. The president will be the one who will ultimately set policy — things that are politically saleable and things that will ultimately be effective.

The Left is realizing that gun control isn't as "politically saleable" as they thought going into this election. Holder's muzzling was echoed by the ever-articulate Robert Gibbs in Thursday's press briefing.

It's looking like moderate is the new progressive, and the Left is having their biggest existential crisis since Sarah Palin.

We can criticize Blue Dog behavior all we want, but as long as we keep funneling their members millions of dollars every two years in small, online donations, then we will actually be ratifying, not criticizing their behavior. We will be supporting their efforts to push the party to the right, not working to push the party to the left.

If they are coasting that they can block or clear whatever legislation they want, the Blue Dogs consider themselves to be in charge of D.C., not Speaker Pelosi or President Obama. (…) The Blue Dogs are an overt obstacle to progressive governance. (…) They are overtly anti-progressive and anti-left wing.

The following letter was sent to Attorney General Holder in response to his comments about a renewed Assault Weapons Ban. It was not sent by a gun-rights group. It was not sent by the NRA.

Nope; it was sent by 65 Democratic Congressmen. Read on.

So, here we go. Yet again. The whole thing is getting tiresome, and I've got a sneaking suspicion I haven't heard the last of it.

It works like this:

Someone in the current administration says, "hey, wouldn't it be great to bring the Assault Weapons Ban back?"
People on the internet (or Bob over in accounting, who "knows guns"), who have no clue how politics works, go into apoplexy. They start screaming that the Last Days have come, and discuss how they're going to cope. Usually this involves the phrase, "from my cold dead hands."
I am regaled, via internet and in person, by these people. I get hoarse and very sick of explaining political reality to them.
It turns out that the comments made by said official turn out to have no real gravity or effect.
Internet people come down off the roof, grumbling that we "dodged a bullet…this time."

Eric Holder made the remarks as a follow-up to a letter sent last week, which urged President Obama to pass a new ban. It was written and signed by 53 Democrats, all of whom seem to have only recently realized that we share a border with a corrupt third-world country.

So, the new President has transplanted his proposed policies from his own site directly to the official White House site. Under the "Urban Policies" header, we have a blueprint for his ideas on gun control.

Spin: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade.

Fact: This is a defacto gun registry. The Federal government will have access to all information a buyer includes on Form 4473, without having to obtain a warrant or prove cause. Remember, Obama voted for the Patriot Act, which included the ability of the government to engage in wiretaps on citizens without warrants.

Spin: Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals.

Fact: For Obama, “common sense” measures have included total registration, blanket bans on handguns and “assault” rifles, and a nationwide ban on concealed carry.

Spin: They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof.

Fact: Only 2% of guns used in crimes come from gun shows.

“Childproofing” was part of Washington DC’s onerous regulations, which were ruled unconstitutional in last year’s Supreme Court decision, DC vs. Heller.

Spin: They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

Fact: Of course they do; Biden authored the original AWB, which did nothing to reduce firearms-related crime. Violent crime in the United States had been steadily declining since 1992, and continued to decline after the sunset of the original ban.

None of this is anything new. This stuff is all taken directly from the Brady Campaign's playbook. The real question is, can they achieve any of it?

It seems highly unlikely that they'll try.