Is it the NRA, or Obama and the Anti-Gun Left?
So, we here in the good old US of A, we have this silly little document called The Constitution of The United States, which contains yet another pesky thing called the Bill of Rights, followed be a list of Amendments that have been put in place over the years. Those troublesome, old, dated documents provide the basis on which our entire country was founded, and provide guidelines for what is legal and more importantly, what is not legal for the government to do. It was written by some very smart men a long time ago, and it has served this country well from our founding. But more on that later…
There are many people on the political left who like to try and vilify the NRA. There are many who refer to the NRA as a “terrorist group” and there are prominent media publications calling for the State Department to actually declare them as such. There are several prominent Democrat politicians, two of them who are currently running for the office of President of the United States, who publicly proclaimed the NRA as the enemy they are most proud to have made.
So, what exactly is “the NRA” and what is it that they have done to earn such vilification? Well, the NRA is an organization comprised of 5 million American citizens, just like you and I, who donate money to the organization. Not surprisingly, at least to those of us in the profession, the NRA has a very large number law enforcement officers and military folks in that membership. The NRA, in addition to providing firearms safety training and certification of firearms instructors, also defends all American’s right to keep and bear arms, as guaranteed them by that silly old Bill of Rights.
Has the NRA ever sponsored any sort or armed attack? Have they provided money, weapons or means to either an organization or individual who has committed any atrocities? Have they ever, as the leftist anti-gunners often claim, “gone around putting the guns in the hands of criminals?” I’ll give you a little hint; the answer to all of those is the same, and that answer is “no.” In fact, the NRA actually has pushed for stricter enforcement of currently existing gun laws, for harsher prosecution for violators of those laws, and they are one of the largest providers of gun safety training in the entire country. But to hear the liberal politicians and anti-gun organizations talk, you would never know that.
On the other hand, just last week, Obama and his administration were again calling for more “common sense gun control” laws, despite the fact that not a single proposed piece of legislation would have made one single ounce of difference in the high notoriety crime they point to in which a deranged individual (notably NONE were committed by an NRA member). The White House actually suggested that Americans should spend their Thanksgiving talking about the need for gun control, you know, because that is the best way to give thanks and enjoy a holiday with your family…
Then the Obama Administration took it one step beyond that. After making a suggestion sure to ruin everyone’s Thanksgiving, they repeated their demand that Congress pass new gun control legislation in time for Christmas! Because rushing legislation through during the holiday season has a great track record of leading to well thought out, thoroughly debated laws, you know…
What the White House and all but one of the Democrat presidential candidates (notably, Jim Webb is the only exception) are specifically calling for is a law that would prevent people unlucky enough to unknowingly be put on the “terror watch list” from buying guns.
Given a cursory glance, that idea sounds like it makes sense, but once you stop to think about it, not only does it not make much sense when you consider the numerous cases of people on that list who should never have been on that list, but it is also completely unlawful according to that pesky old Constitution. You see, that dumb old 14th Amendment prohibits state and local government officials from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. There is absolutely no due process involved in being placed on the terror watch list, and in fact, persons on that watch list are not even notified that they are on it so they have no way to even appeal it. Add to that, there are according to recent reports, more than 1 million Americans currently on the “terror watch list” and last year, the notably ultra-liberal, anti-gun Huffington post published an article listing seven (7) ways you, yes you, could end up on the terror watch list.
So, what Obama and his administration, all but one of the Democrats running for president, and the plethora of anti-gun organizations and their folks are suggesting is denying American citizens their constitutionally guaranteed rights based on something as little as a Facebook post, with no way to appeal that decision.
Yet many liberal (and consistently anti-gun) media publications are suggesting that to deny citizens on the terror watch list their rights is nothing but “common sense” and by pointing out the flaws in that logic, the NRA is somehow evil. The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, Salon and others are blaming the NRA for the “2000 suspected terrorists” who legally purchased guns from 2004-2014. How many of those persons committed a crime, let alone a terrorist act, with those guns they do not say, likely because it was ZERO, but you should still be scared because they say so. They also are completely dishonest in their word usage, because a “suspected terrorist” is a far cry from “someone whose name appears on the terror watch list,” but since when do pesky facts matter?
If you ask me, the much more dangerous enemy to this country is not the organization made up of American citizens devoted to defending the Constitution of the United States, but rather the big brother, control freak leftists and the anti-gun organizations who are both proudly and publicly wiping their ass with it.
-Matt