Modern American liberalism is predicated on the notion that you, the people, aren’t to be trusted.

On much of anything,really; there’s experts for pretty much everything; they all know more than you, and you, peasant, should defer to them.  Because that’s what peasants do.

Educating your kids?  There’s experts. They know more than you.  Just shut up and do what they say.

Your health?  Oh, for the love of pete – experts!  They’ll tell you how to live – and for how long.

And protecting your life and property, and your family’s safety?  Well, that’s the big kahuna.  That’s the one that liberals see as the real finger in the eye.  It’s the ultimate rejection of the idea,that the state – with its cops and social workers and theorists – is the ultimate arbiter of life, death and freedom.

The left has been quiet on gun control for years now.  But that doesn’t mean there’s not a strong undercurrent of gun-grabbing sentiment.

Moe Lane at Redstate reports:

In the course of reading this subtly bitter (and thus subtly entertaining) story (via Instapundit) about the effective collapse of the anti-gun movement on the grassroots level, I came across this passage: “In November the Republican House approved a measure that would require states to respect concealed carry permits issued by other, less restrictive states; it now awaits action in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where its fate is uncertain.”

For all the Dems’ talk of moderating on the issue, you see their true colors here; where they have any power, they will eat your freedom.

And it is peoples’ freedoms we’re talking about here:

As people reading this probably know, reciprocal respect of other states’ right-to-carry laws is a hot topic: it recently came to the forefront when a Tennessee woman got arrested for trying to check in her firearm at the 9/11 Ground Zero site. I should also note in passing that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (INDEPENDENT) attempt to smear said woman by claiming she was also in possession of cocaine backfired: the woman didn’t have any. But she’s still facing several years of jail time – no, really – for a ‘crime’ that more enlightened portions of the United States of America decriminalized some time ago*.

So who are the Senators who voted to make civil rights contingent on geography?

Lane notes the Senators from (mostly) shall-issue states who voted against civil rights:

• Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) is from Minnesota, which is a Shall-Issue state. Is Senator Klobuchar really comfortable with putting nursing students in jail for owning guns and taking them to NYC? Does that mean that she will continue to let gun-grabbers keep this bill in the Judiciary Committee?
• Senator Herb Kohl (D) is from Wisconsin, which has just become a Shall-Issue state; and, judging from the number of applications for CCW, it was a popular decision. Is Senator Kohl really comfortable with repressing civil liberties by not voting to move the Senate bill out of committee? And does he really want to make this an election year issue for the Democratic candidate that will be running for his seat?
• Senator Jim Webb (D) …
• Senator Bill Nelson (D)…
• Senator Debbie Stabenow (D) …
• Senator Claire McCaskill (D) …
• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) may be from New York, which is obviously not a Shall-Issue state – but she’s from the upstate portion of it, which has a somewhat different take on the subject than does NYC. Is she putting pressure on fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer to get this bill out of Judiciary and on the floor? If not, can we safely assume that New York City has two Senators and New York State has none?
• Senator Sherrod Brown (D) …
• Senator Bob Casey (D) …
• Senator Maria Cantwell (D) …
• Senator Joe Manchin (D) ..

Now, remember – on the issue of gay marriage, liberals are fond of saying “we don’t put civil rights up to a vote”.  And the right to defend one’s life with a firearm is, unlike gay marriage, specifically enshrined in the Constitution.  There is no rational debate on the subject, certainly not since the McDonald decision.

I bring this up because if Minnesotans across the political divide showed us one thing in the past ten years, it’s that outside the thin film of Metrocrat DFL nannystaters, Minnesotans across the political spectrum – Republican, Democrat, Independent, Apathetic – support the right to keep and bear arms.  In the 2000 and 2002 elections, even before the Legislature passed the Minnesota Personal Protection Act, legislators who opposed the right of the people to defend their lives and property – especially outstate DFLers – were roundly shredded at the polls.  And Republican and DFL voters supported candidates who supported that civil right.

The right to keep and bear arms, and be able to use them when needed, may be the single most bipartisan issue in Minnesota.

But for all her moderate rhetoric at home, once Amy Klobuchar goes to DC and sits down in her inside-the-beltway office, she dons a leash; that leash gets yanked by the ultra-liberal anti-gun lobby.

Does this represent Minnesota?