The Democratic Party likes to tout its support for the right of a woman to control her body after she becomes pregnant, and this is a position with which I agree prior to substantial fetal development. It is clear, however, that Colorado's Democrats do not recognize a woman's right to decide whether she wants to become pregnant in the first place, or even have sexual intercourse. Their position, and they have made it clear through both their legislation and their public statements, is that they expect rape victims to comply passively with their attackers. Let's start with State Representative Joe Salazar (D-CO), who said women lack the basic mental capacity to handle firearms responsibly.

There are some gender inequities on college campuses, this is true, and universities have been faced with that situation for a long time. It's why we have call boxes, it's why we have safe zones, it's why we have the whistles. Because you just don't know who you're going to be shooting at. And you don't know if you feel like you're going to be raped, or if you feel like someone's been following you around or if you feel like you're in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop, pop a round at somebody.

Salazar's apology for this premeditated misogynist diatribe -- and it was premeditated, because he had plenty of time to think while he was speaking -- is meaningless because he nonetheless voted to ban gun permit holders from carrying concealed weapons on campus. He is sorry only that he got caught, while acting as a representative of his party, expressing contempt for a substantial part of the Democratic Party's base. His apology is therefore no more sincere than that of an abusive husband who has just battered his wife for the dozenth time.

Colorado Democrat Insults Rape Victim

State Senator Evie Hudak went even further by belittling a rape victim who testified in favor of gun rights during a public hearing.

"I just want to say that, actually, statistics are not on your side even if you had a gun. And chances are that if you would have had a gun, then he would have been able to get that from you and possibly use it against you."

The rape victim, Amanda Collins, testified that a gun would not only have saved her from sexual assault, it would have saved the life of another woman who was subsequently attacked and killed by the same criminal. Another woman displayed the whistle that, contrary to Joe Salazar's assurances, did not allow her to control her own body when a rapist decided he wanted to use it.

Hudak also apologized, again because she is sorry only that she allowed words to come out of her mouth that can and will be used against the entire left wing of the Democratic Party, and not just in Colorado, in 2014.

Colorado State Senator Jesse Ulibarri meanwhile advised people to bring ballpoint pens to gunfights. He added that waiting for somebody like Jared Lee Loughner to shoot more than a dozen innocent people so the survivors can jump him while he is reloading (which is suicidal if the gunman knows what he is doing) is better than a "crossfire" in which concealed carry permit holders shoot back. While his statements were grossly incompetent rather than misogynistic, they also can and should be used against the entire left wing of his party in 2014.
If anti-gun legislation results in the rape of a woman like Amanda Collins, or innocent people are killed because they follow Mr. Ulibarri's incompetent advice, there is no legal accountability whatsoever. The phrase "authority without responsibility" becomes very important in the gun control debate, and we must apply it wherever possible.

Too Late, Chum

Salazar and Hudak seek to rely on the social convention that an apology clears the air, and a lady or gentleman does not condemn or criticize somebody who has apologized. An apology must, however, consist of more than mouth motions and noises. Salazar's and Hudak's continued support for restrictive gun laws proves their apologies no more sincere than those of the Japanese concentration camp guards who said "So sorry," every time they abused or killed a prisoner. The same went for German machine gunners who tried to surrender only when they were actually being overrun by British or ANZAC soldiers. The standard response by the Tommy or ANZAC was "Too late, chum," followed by a bayonet through the German's neck. The rules of chess, meanwhile, do not allow a player to take back a losing move, and Colorado's Democrats have made at least three gruesome ones.

Salazar, Hudak, Ulibarri, and their fellow travelers must therefore learn the hard way that words have consequences, as the Dauphin of France discovered when he offered tennis balls to Henry V in exchange for England's Continental possessions.

And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
...So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.

This will not, by the way, be the first time the left wing of the Democratic Party learns this lesson the hard way. Dianne Feinstein's assault weapon ban cost her party dozens of House and Senate seats in 1994, and Harry Reid remembered this when he decided to not bring her new legislation up for a vote. In 2000, Al Gore's support for the Million Mom March, along with cap and trade, cost him at least three states including his home state of Tennessee. The Million Mom March's scandalous misuse of tax-exempt money for electioneering, meanwhile, may well have crippled this organization to the extent that it could not turn out the few hundred votes Gore needed to win Florida.

Yes, We Are at War

What Barack Obama calls a "national conversation" about guns is an all-out war on the Second Amendment as declared openly by Dianne Feinstein and, more recently, Jan Schakowsky. (Schakowsky's husband, Robert Creamer, cannot own firearms because he is a convicted felon.) New York's dishonest governor, Andrew Cuomo, turned Obama's "conversation" into a German-style blitzkrieg by railroading draconian gun laws through his legislature while ignoring his state's public comment period.

This is therefore the moral equivalent of a war in which the enemy is to be disabled (discredited, voted out of office, marginalized, or, like the Million Mom March, destroyed as an organization) by all expedient, legal, nonviolent, and socially acceptable methods. This includes, obviously, propagating Joe Salazar's and Evie Hudak's insults to rape victims as widely as possible. We must also remind the public that former DNC Chair Ed Rendell said openly that he was glad the Sandy Hook shooting was as bad as it was, because this would get the public to support gun control This callous and monstrous exploitation of a crime for political gain should cost his party dozens of House seats in 2014, but only if our side keeps it in the public eye.

William A. Levinson, P.E. is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.