A U.S. Senator from Wisconsin was one of 13 Republican senators to sign a letter Monday announcing he would oppose any gun restriction legislation.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., endorsed a letter that said the right to bear arms aims to constitutionally protect citizens’ right to self-defense. He said in the letter he would oppose the motion to proceed with any laws restricting additional barriers to the Second Amendment, hinting that he may engage in a filibuster.
Filibustering is a political technique of keeping the Senate from voting on a bill by extended debate. Legislators can override filibusters with a 60 percent majority vote.
Such a measure to override a potential filibuster is not off the table, according to University of Wisconsin political science professor David Canon. Canon said U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he would not support the filibuster and urged Republicans not to sign the agreement to filibuster.
One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said it is hypocritical that Johnson opposes stricter gun laws, yet wants the government to add restrictions to prevent citizens from voting.
“We’ve seen, here at the state level, the most massive and systematic efforts to deny people access to the ballot box, because of less than two dozen improper votes cast as of 2004 – out of 14 million,” Ross said. “We have 34 people taken down in mass gun shootings in that same amount of time. So that shows you the priorities of those who are in charge of our state currently.”
Johnson has also already gained 50,000 views on YouTube for a video he created in late March to kick off his “Victims of Government” web series blog.
The senator said in a statement March 26 he will be releasing a series of online videos encouraging people who are burdened by excessive government regulation to submit their stories on his Senate website.
“The series will perform oversight of the cost and impact of unnecessary, ineffective and excessive federal regulations,” Johnson said.
The first video released told the story of Steven Lathrop, who converted a local dump into a lake, which saved his city from a flood, according to the video.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told Steve he was in violation of a law about land use and had to convert the lake back into a dump or face jail time, according to the video.
When he submitted a $200,000 application to create a wetland, the Environmental Protection Agency ignored him for 14 years and counting. According to the video, Steve is now on the verge of bankruptcy.
Critics of the video series, such as Ross, are calling it a “waste of taxpayer money.”
“[The series served only to] promote the idea that giant corporations are infallible,” Ross said. “Sen. Johnson’s intent with this waste of taxpayer dollars is simply to allow corporate special interests to have more rights than average, hard-working Wisconsinites.”
Ross stressed that the video is an “expensive taxpayer publicity stunt” and that it is “criminal” that Johnson will not release the amount of money spent on producing the series.
However, Johnson said in his statement the web series was intended to demonstrate the degree of over-regulation and wasteful spending in the government.
“The root cause of our economic and fiscal problems is the size, the scope and the cost of government – all the rules, all the regulations and all the government intrusion into our lives,” Johnson said in the statement. “The Victims of Government series is designed to demonstrate that – in a very personal and powerful way.”
