THE EDITOR'S COLUMN: 'There's battle lines being drawn ...'

Morning Journal ^ | 2/17/2013 | Tom Skoch

[EBH]

Here’s a riddle, but it’s not funny, and I’m almost afraid to contemplate the answer:

What do you get when you cross aggressive government attempts to strip citizens of their Second Amendment rights with at least 65 million American gun owners, who have just bought roughly 65 million more guns in only the last four years? Let’s just say, “trouble” could be a euphemism for an answer.

Those aggressive moves include Democratic politicians in Missouri and Minnesota introducing legislation to confiscate “assault weapons” from law-abiding citizens, who would become criminals if they refused to give up their lawfully purchased property.

In New York state, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo rammed through an expanded ban on so-called assault weapons, requirements for background checks just to buy ammunition, or to do private sales of personally owned firearms.

Hundreds of angry New York gun owners are protesting bitterly.

Those outrages come along with Sen. Diane Feinstein’s attempt at a more-restrictive new national assault weapons ban. That effort seems to be morphing into a debate over “universal background checks.” Such checks sound reasonable until you understand that it sets the stage for gun registration, which is a prelude to confiscation.

Even the term “assault weapon” is fiction, a political creation. In fact the notion of an assault weapons ban doing any good is put to the lie by the U.S. Department of Justice’s own National Institute of Justice which noted this year, “Assault weapons are not a major contributor to gun crime.” The same report also reveals the ineffectiveness of so-called large capacity magazine bans short of draconian measures. It flat-out says universal background checks won’t work without gun registration.

Oddly, the renewed efforts by liberal politicians to clamp down on private gun owners comes as the Department of Homeland Security is moving to buy...

[RS_Rider]

The states hold the answers.