Believe it or not, when George W. Bush ran for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2000, he was able to at least tacitly support reauthorizing the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which was set to expire in 2004.

Yep, you read that right. As radical as they might have seemed to you back then, as of 2000 most of the Republican Party was still quite sane, and intent on being a governing party. Their insanity didn’t really start until the mid-2000s, after Karl Rove demonstrated the power of base politics and everything went to s**t.

Imagine that, party nominees with an incentive to cater somewhat to members of the opposition party to win national elections. Those were the days!

If you are a subscriber to The Cycle (I love you all, but I most especially love those subsidizing my efforts to save democracy via a paid subscription) you likely have decent working knowledge of the politics of gun control, the GOP’s nearly 20 year obstruction of literally ANY reform, and the radicalization of the NRA under Wayne Lapierre.

In Gun Politics: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized the Rest of America, gun industry insider-turned-whistleblower Ryan Busse gives us what old school radio icon Paul Harvey called, “the rest of the story.”

And what a story it is!

If you want to hear it, you’ll need to tune in! Also, don’t forget to buy Ryan’s book at any fine independent book store (or Amazon if you’re lazy like me).

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