As the leader of his Republican Party now waffles over even the most rudimentary fix to broken federal gun laws, Long Island's own Rep. Pete King takes a lonely stand for sanity, as the sole Republican member of the House to sign onto legislation banning assault weapons. Attaboy.
"They are weapons of mass slaughter," King said clearly and correctly Monday. "I don't see any need for them in everyday society," a position he's consistently held, back to the original 1994 assault weapons ban.
Count King among the reasonable on background checks, too, joining the vast majority of Americans, Republicans included, who are at odds with most Washington GOP lawmakers. The disconnect exists in part because the National Rifle Association has its serrated hooks in incumbents in both houses that gather under the Capitol dome.
The rest of the Republican Party now has a choice: Listen to growing numbers of voters who want to take military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines designed to kill in bunches out of civilian circulation, or cower behind a president who postures as an independent thinker while toeing the NRA line.
