Posted on 04/19/2008 8:08:01 AM PDT by epow
Friday, April 18, 2008
As this unusual campaign season has unfolded, we’ve seen the candidates ratcheting up their politically expedient rhetoric in an attempt to distinguish themselves as the “candidate of choice” for every constituency, while testing the far reaches of credibility in the process. We’ve heard blatantly anti-gun politicians claim to be supportive of the Second Amendment. We’ve seen hypocrisy, and we’ve heard double-speak and insults to our intelligence.
When it comes to campaign rhetoric on the Second Amendment, we’ve seen a change in the way many anti-gun politicians campaign. Rather than talk openly about their desire to ban guns, register gun owners, and regulate firearms sales, anti-gun politicians talk about their “support” for sportsmen. Rather than admit they oppose the individual right protected by the Second Amendment, they claim they “support firearm ownership for hunting.”
This is all an effort to mislead and divide the gun owning community and to dilute gun owners’ political impact. To achieve their goals new organizations have been formed, with names designed to confuse gun owners and hide their real agenda. The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) is one of those groups.
As we’ve reported in the past, AHSA was created to provide political cover for anti-gun politicians by allowing them to claim support from a “sportsmen’s” group. In truth, the anti-gun credentials of AHSA’s leadership is well documented. For instance, AHSA president Ray Schoenke has a long history of giving political donations to some of the nations most anti-gun politicians, including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and Ted Kennedy. In 2000, Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign) and the Ray and Holly Schoenke Foundation also made donations to the Brady Campaign. AHSA Board member John Rosenthal remains the leader of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts anti-gun group. And one of the leading organizers of AHSA is Bob Ricker, who has served as a paid expert witness against gun manufacturers in a number of reckless lawsuits. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In keeping with their “pro-gun” stance, this week, AHSA did the last thing one would expect of a pro-gun group—they endorsed Democratic hopeful Barack Obama for President!
In a statement on the AHSA website titled “Obama: He ‘gets it,’” Schoenke announced the endorsement, saying that Senator Obama’s voting record has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the Second Amendment! Are you kidding? Obama’s hostility toward the Second Amendment is so well known and well documented that in the 2004 elections, NRA’s Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) issued Obama a well-deserved “F” grade. Obama is anti-gun. Period. And no amount of sugar coating or spin by AHSA will change that fact.
The AHSA statement closes with the line, “Senator Obama will be a strong and authentic voice for America’s hunters and shooters and it is with great pleasure that we endorse his candidacy.” While typical of the rhetoric coming out of AHSA, that line is nothing less than ridiculous. AHSA would be more correctly called the “American Association for the Protection of Anti-Gun Politicians.” No gun owner or sportsman should take the group seriously or fall prey to its carefully crafted lies and deceptions, as clearly demonstrated by their endorsement of Barack Obama.
Socialist front group. Kind of like “Liberal Republican Bed-Wetters for Nobama.”
The left always has to lie or distort to sell their message and yes, there will be lots of gun owners buying this crap.
My democrat bro’n’law for example, has a real problem. He is pro gun and pro-life, but alas, he is also a loyal an obedient union member.
Go figure.
The 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, it has to do with an armed citizenry as a safeguard against a tyrannical government. Both Obama and Hillary would outright ban ALL private ownership and possession of ALL guns if they could get away with it.
McCain spoke out in support for background checks at gun shows after the Columbine shooting, but other than that AFAIK he has been a fairly reliable supporter of 2nd Amendment rights in the Senate. He's not as strong on that issue as I would like a candidate to be, but he's light years better than the other two.
This group sounds as if it speaks for gun owners about as much as Catholics for a Free Choice speaks for Catholics.
I knew guys like that before I retired from a mid-level management job. They were more loyal to the Teamsters union than they were to their own families. I could never understand why they would try to get a union voted into the plant whose primary objective seemed to be putting their employer out of business.
Here’s a link to AHSA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hunters_and_Shooters_Association
They are a front group for the bradys and every other anti gun group.
There are rumors about the doings of the leadership...but I can attest to their actions in WA State.
They are rabidly anti gun and lobby and spend money that way.
Gonna have to join the sportsman's militia.
I’ve been reading the biography of John Adams and when they covered the alien and sedition act, I started thinking about the second amendment. The purpose of the alien and sedition act was to stop the newspapers from printing lies that were aimed at destroying the federalist administration and very likely the federal government.
The newspapers were liberal, much as today, but they called themselves Republican. They were worried that the Federalists were going to take the new country to war with France over French attacks on American ships and restrictions placed on US trade. They put no faith in Adams and couldn’t see beyond party politics. Silencing them seemed like a good idea to the Federalists and Adams went along with it, foolishly, because he really was opposed to going to war with France, every bit as determinedly as the Republicans.
But, taking away the guns, now, seems tantamount to trying silence the newspapers in Adam’s day. A government of the people should not have to fear dissent.
I have a bad feeling that a few too many will swallow it hook, line and sinker.
It’s an interesting tactic.....perhaps we should study it and adapt it for our cause. It’s really time to start getting proactive.
Always a reveal of a grabber
Nope, I don't believe he does. I don't believe that he is going to get mine either.
“support firearm ownership for hunting.”
“Gun safety” (gun safety programs for adults and children, support for mandatory hunter safety training; bans on “cop-killer” bullets, and assault weapons; safe firearm storage, such as gun locks, manufacturing standards for firearms, public service announcements)
The leaders of the AHSA are:
* Ray Schoenke, founding president: A former football player for the Washington Redskins, Schoenke ran for Governor of Maryland as a Democrat and has given "millions" to Democratic politicians and causes according to a January 19, 1998 Washington Post article. Among the groups that Schoenke has donated to are two that actively lobby to ban firearms: Handgun Control, Inc. and America Coming Together. Schoenke was on the Governor's Commission on Gun Violence in 1996.
* Bob Ricker, executive director
* Joseph J. Vince, Jr., a member of the Board of Directors is the former chief of the BATF's crime guns analysis branch. Currently, he is a principal of Crime Gun Solutions. HCI has hired Crime Gun Solutions in order to support numerous gun control laws, to support HCI's lawsuits against firearm dealers and he was a signer on a letter submitted to Congress opposing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act
This is a fools errand. They won’t sway a single vote. Anyone who cares about gun rights will KNOW that the rat can’t be trusted to protect the second amendment. Gun owners tend to be more intelligent than the average rat following lemming.
Socialist front group. Kind of like “Liberal Republican Bed-Wetters for Nobama.”
And just like these pro fair tax (there is nos such thing as a Fair tax) advocates. What they don’t tell you is a new Chev or Ford will cost over $10,000.00 more in sales tax. If you don’t believe me do the math yourself.
A new Chevy can cost upwards to $40,000.00, times a least 30% sales tax. 12,000.00 plus the $40,000.000 makes a new Chev cost 52,000.00. Hold your hat for the Fair Tax lie.
Plus double taxation for the retired.
In their ongoing effort to disarm the American public, the anti-Second Amendment, one-world, Marxist collectivists have evolved a propaganda arm worthy of Josef Stalin.
IMO, any group that claims to support gun rights, and limits the scope to hunters and shooters, is phony. it’s not that they don’t get it; it’s that they are intentionally bait and switch.
Outwardly, they can claim to support the 2nd. But the ultimate agenda is to so narrowly restrict the definition and number of “hunters and shooters,” and to impose such prohibitive “fees” and insurance requirements that nobody could really qualify.
But the important thing to remember is that they know exactly what they’re doing, so they get no credit for being well-intentioned but naive. They’re the face of evil every bit as much as the brady mafia.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.