by For those who were fans of the old TV show Welcome Back, Kotter, you will remember the character Arnold Horshack. Whenever he’d raise his hand to answer a question, he’d yell, “Oooh, oooh, ooh”.
So it is with a story from Legal Insurrection regarding the 2018 House races. It featured three races with Republican incumbents that are expected to be very close. The Republicans mentioned in the story are Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), and Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL).
While I can’t speak to Mia Love’s race for re-election, I do have an answer – or at least a partial answer – as to why Roskam and Curbelo might be on the bubble. They both voted against concealed carry reciprocity. Moreover, Curbelo is the sponsor of HR 3999 which would make it illegal “to manufacture, possess, or transfer any part or combination of parts that is designed and functions to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle but does not convert the semiautomatic rifle into a machinegun.” The way the bill reads this would mean not just bumpstocks and binary triggers but stuff like Geissele or Timney triggers.
Perhaps Roskam and Curbelo think playing to the gun control crowd will win them a few more Democrat or moderate Republican votes. I’d say it will also cause them to lose a lot more gun owners who might have provided them with the margin of victory.
I know my friend and Polite Society Podcast co-host Gary Daugherty who lives in Roskam’s district is quite angry over Roskam’s vote against HR 38. Given Gary helps organize town halls for ISRA in his area of Illinois, this does not bode well for Roskam.