I am, at heart, a proceduralist. The populist fervor to destroy all institutions bothers me on a fundamental level. It wasn’t until I came across the principle of Chesterson’s Fence that my intuition was turned into words.
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.
Essentially, don’t destroy something you think is an impediment without first understanding why it was put there in the first place.
So, we come to the Senate Parliamentarian. In the “Big Beautiful Bill” was inclusion of taking silencers, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns off the NFA so we can buy them like normal firearms. Is this something I would love to see pass? Oh, hell yeah. Yet, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that part of the BBB didn’t meet the rule to override the filibuster.
That sucks. Especially since getting those bills passed on their own have been non-starters since the first time Trump was in office. The backlash? I’m getting flooded with emails about contacting Vance and Thune and other senate folks to override or fire the parliamentarian.
Wait folks. There’s a reason that rule was put into place. The big reason is because Congress is a collection feckless pundit-wanabees who are more than happy to hand their job over to the executive branch and judicial branch as long as they get to keep their donors without doing any actual work. That rule made sure they could at least pass some kind of spending bill without their normal shenanigans completely derailing the process.
Also, the one lesson that neither side seems to fucking learn – whatever you do to further your side today will be used by your opponents tomorrow.
Do I want silencers, SBRs and SBSs off the NFA? Yes. Do I think the parliamentarian made the correct decision? Also yes, but I could have seen it going the other way. Yet, I remain unconvinced that the next step is to get damage the position or incentives around the Byrd Rule.