Posted on 04/14/2003 7:45:39 PM PDT by Uncle Bill
Edited on 04/17/2003 6:40:21 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
As I Predicted, George W. Bush
Is Backing Bill Clinton's Gun Ban
TooGood Reports
By Chuck Baldwin
Chuck Baldwin Website
April 15, 2003
In this column dated December 17, 2002, I predicted that President G.W. Bush would support the so-called assault weapons ban first promoted by former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Diane Feinstein back in 1994. Interestingly enough, the gun ban became law on the strength of a tie-breaking vote by then Vice President Al Gore. The ban is scheduled to sunset next year, but Bush is joining Clinton and Gore in supporting an extension.
Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said, "The president supports the current law (the Clinton gun ban), and he supports reauthorization of the current law."
This must come as quite a blow to people such as the leaders of the National Rifle Association who campaigned heavily for Bush touting him as a "pro-gun" candidate. Since his election, the NRA and others have repeatedly reaffirmed their support for Bush, because he is "pro-gun." Well, now the mask is off!
I have tried to warn my readers that Bush is not a true conservative. He is not pro-life; he is not pro-family; he is not pro-Constitution. And now we know he is not pro-gun.
Instead of reversing the miserable policies of Clinton/Gore, Bush is helping to harden the cement around those policies. The gun issue is no exception.
The so-called assault weapons ban was the benchmark piece of legislation reflecting the anti-gun policies of people such as Clinton, Gore, Feinstein, and New York Senator Charles Schumer. It was also the number one target of the NRA. In fact, the NRA all but promised their supporters that a Bush presidency would help reverse this Draconian gun ban. Instead, Bush is pushing Congress to extend the ban.
A bill to reauthorize the gun ban will be introduced by Senator Feinstein in the coming weeks. It must pass both chambers of Congress to reach the President's desk. The best chance of stopping it will be in the House of Representatives. However, in order to defeat this bill, it must resist the power and influence of the White House. This will be no small task.
Not only is Bush betraying the pro-gun voters who helped elect him, he is breathing new life into a nearly dead anti-gun movement. Most political analysts credit Bush's pro-gun image as the chief reason he defeated Al Gore in the 2000 election. They also credit the pro-gun image of the Republican Party for helping them to achieve impressive wins in the 2002 congressional elections.
Now, Bush is giving new credibility to anti-gun zealots such as Schumer and Feinstein and is helping to reinvigorate the anti-gun momentum that had all but been put on ice.
However, the real question will be, "Will pro-gun conservatives continue to support Bush?" Bush is every bit the "Teflon President" that Clinton was. Conservatives seem willing to overlook anything he does, no matter how liberal or unconstitutional it may be. Will they overlook this, also?
If you truly believe in the Second Amendment and are willing to do something about it, I suggest you go to the Gun Owners of America website. They have a quick link set up which allows people an opportunity to conveniently send email to the White House about this issue. Go to the gun ban "alert" button. From there you can voice your disapproval with the President's decision to betray his constituents by supporting this new round of gun control.
Once again, the ball of freedom and constitutional government is in the court of the American people. Will they keep the ball and do something with it, or will they hand it off to the neo-conservatives at the White House? We'll see.
PLEASE Don't Sit out 2004, EVEN IF Bush signs the AW ban extention
Bush Supports New Extension Of Assault-Weapons Ban
Bush Backs Renewing Assault Weapons Ban
"Thats why Im for instant background checks at gun shows. Im for trigger locks."
George W. Bush - Source: St. Louis debate Oct 17,2000.
MORE INJUSTICE ON THE WAY - Bush GUN CONTROL
"Gene Healy, a Cato Institute scholar, recently provided a thorough exploration of the unintended consequences of one law, the new Bush-Ashcroft plan to federalize gun crimes, known as the Project Safe Neighborhoods program. The unintended consequences of this law are frightening."
NOTE: Same Article in Washington Times.
"W. Wimps Out on Guns"
The Bush package includes several pet causes of the gun-control lobby, including $75 million for gun locks; $15.3 million for 113 new federal attorneys to serve as full-time gun prosecutors; and $19.1 million to expand a program by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms aimed at preventing youths from obtaining guns. Although Bush stressed that he simply wants to "enforce existing laws," the fine print of Project Safe echoes the gun-grabbing Left's call to ban the importation of high-capacity ammunition clips."
Project Safe Neighborhoods, A Closer Look
LAURA BUSH:
"During her San Diego speech, for instance, she said nothing about the school shooting that occurred 20 miles away in El Cajon the day before, although in a television interview she condemned it, adding that she thinks more gun control laws are needed.
"I think that's very important," she said when asked by CNN whether stronger gun laws are needed."
Source.
EMERSON & THE SECOND AMENDMENT
A Gutless Supreme Court Decision - Gun Control
Republican Leadership Help Push Gun Control
Bush's Assault On Second Amendment
NEA Resource Text Guide In Regards To The Extreme Right - Where Do Your Kids Go To School?
"The radical right says it is pro-life but it bitterly opposes gun control legislation"
or
Thanks for that Patriot Act George
I do know what you mean there, but I do believe even when Bush gets another term, Hillary will be a strong contender and maybe even be PResident - just a feeling.
I may not be around when it happens - but I believe it will be her 'turn'.
As for what to do, I don't know either - but I am getting a little tired of being threatened by Hillary. It is a sad thing when a party decides it must put up with a President and politicians that go against the people who voted for them in so many ways. Then admonished that our only two options are Hillary or shut up and take it from one of our own (supposedly). It speaks volumes.
And when may that be?
Oh, I can answer that...A cadillac on the crowded streets of Vegas, a hammer, a gallon of gasoline in the right spot. These are just a few examples of assault weapons. Why would anyone need any of these things? Well, I just don't know.
I realize I'm in the minority, but I agree with that statement. You won't be able to keep someone from owning a firearm anyway.
Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer
Q Back on the sniper situation, a top-ranking NRA has been noted as saying before that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Where does that statement fall in the midst of this sniper attack that is now classified as a form of terror? And also, if the President is not for the McCarthy proposal, what about another proposal to stiffen gun -- background checks for gun control?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the President does believe that there can be changes in the law that are effective in combating crime, and that's why the President has supported an expansion of the instant background check system. That's why he has supported an increase in the minimum age at which somebody can own a handgun from 18 to 21. That's why he supports a semi-automatic assault weapons ban for juveniles. He supports volunteer child safety locks on handguns, as well as he has supported a ban on importation of high-capacity ammunition clips. Not all of these are positions popular with the NRA. The President took those positions because he thinks they're the right thing to do.
Notice that the White House(i.e. Bush) has "bolded" the words "why the President has supported" in the press briefing above.
Bush Supports New Extension of Assault-Weapons Ban
Er, no, I've read a lot of the folk history of Appalachia, which abounds in its description of places, names and dates, and is probably even more reliable than the stats of that era.
If we keep voting "R" even if they lie to us, they will just keep lying.
How does that make them different than the dems?
Australia's Anti-Gun Lobby Turns its Sights on Sports Shooters - April 10, 2003
"Not satisfied with their government's proposals to ban ownership of semi-automatic handguns among the wider public, Australian anti-gun campaigners are now calling for sports shooters to give up their semi-automatics, too."
Bush Resigns NRA Membership in Protest
Lobbyists: Ex-President says he is 'outraged' by group's fund-raising letter labeling federal agents as 'jackbooted thugs.'
Los Angeles Times By ROBERT SHOGAN TIMES POLITICAL WRlTER May 11, 1995 Page A8
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON--Former President George Bush has quit the National Rifle Assn. to protest a fund-raising letter sent out by the organization that labeled federal agents as "jackbooted thugs" and could roil the waters of the Republican presidential race. Bush described himself as "outraged" by the organization's failure to repudiate the letter, which points up the NRA's vulnerability in the wake of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. In a letter to NRA President Thomas Washington dated May 3 and made available by his office in Houston, the former GOP chief executive added: "To attack Secret Service agents or ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] people or any government law enforcement people as 'wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms' wanting to 'attack law- abiding citizens' is a vicious slander on good people."
Bush was particularly irate because Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief lobbyist, defended the attack contained in the letter even after the Oklahoma City bombing. Asked if his language was excessive in view of the tragedy, LaPierre said "That's like saying the weather report in Florida on the hurricane caused the damage rather than the hurricane." In response to Bush's protest, the NRA released a letter from its president, Washington, to Bush, urging the former President to reconsider his resignation.
The letter claimed that the gist of the NRA's attacks would be supported by further inquiry and complained that Bush had not sought a private explanation before making his resignation letter public. "Such a course of action, I believe, would have better served the country than what now will become a public disagreement that can only lead to more polarization in these troubled times," the NRA said.
"The FBI spent $3 million of your tax money to blow up the World Trade Center." - Joseph Farah
The "average guy" loves slavery and government control
A drop in the bucket compared to the crime coming across our borders.
Please explain why the president should shoot himself in the foot by passing a ban on semi-autos, a ban that could only possibly affect law abiding citizens, but ignore the crime wave on our southern borders?
You dont actually know what an illegal "assault weapon" is do you? Dont worry you're not the first grabber that didnt know what it was talking about.
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