Posted on 05/20/2003 11:38:12 AM PDT by 45Auto
Well, here we go again. Power-hungry cowards in Congress are once again seeking to ram gun control down our throats, and this time, our president – the man who was painted as a friend to the some 80 million-gun owners in this country by the National Republican Apologists (NRA) – says he will sign it if it reaches his desk.
But my goal today is not to take aim at the NRA for its obsequious and quite obvious silence on the G.W. Bush promise to sign the odious legislation to expand and make permanent the Clinton “Assault” weapons ban of 1994 into law – although God and Goddess know the NRA’s hypocrisy and ass kissing of the seat of power are glaring, to say the least. No, today I’m taking on the President himself…
· For playing political games with our freedoms;
· For maneuvering and dodging instead of taking a courageous stand;
· And for trying to appease the anti-freedom maggots in congress and at Handgun Control, Inc. (And no, I won’t call it the “Brady Center.” They are what they are, regardless of the name change.)
Consider this: George W. Bush is a man who ran on the premise that he was a friend of the Second Amendment. In the 2000 elections, the NRA drooled at the prospect of having Bush in office. An excerpt from a story on Boston.com tells the story quite well: “On the NRA tape, [Kayne] Robinson calls Gore an ‘antigun fanatic’ and said electing him would be a ‘horror story.’ But with Bush, the likely Republican nominee, they will have ‘unbelievably friendly relations.’”
In October, 2000, then-NRA President Charlton Heston stomped around the country urging gun owners to vote for George W. Bush, describing the presidential campaign as "a holy war" for the constitutional rights of gun owners.
And now, the President to whom a large number of gun owners gave their vote – a sacred trust to protect their rights and the US Constitution – is underhandedly voicing his tacit support for the permanent ban of certain types of firearms. No, he’s not proud of his support. He’s keeping a low profile, letting his lackeys do the talking, while keeping conspicuously silent himself. If the ban never sees his desk, his spin-doctors can twist the sad facts into a positive development for the Bush Presidency: An odious Clintonesque gun control bill was killed during our brave leader’s reign!
If Congress passes H.R. 2038, and Bush signs it into law, you can expect a very large number of gun owners and patriots to turn away from Bush and from the Republican party. There’s no excuse for this heinous, unconstitutional legislation to see the light of day – not when we have a Republican majority in Congress and a Republican White House. Republicans are supposed to be gun owners’ friends, right?
Apparently, they aren’t. Apparently Republicans are just as willing to play politics with our rights as the Democrats. According to Newsday.com, “[House] Speaker Dennis Hastert opened the door Thursday to a vote on extending an assault weapons ban that expires next year, and the leader of House Democrats prodded President Bush to urge the Republican leadership to bring the bill to the floor.” It sure doesn’t sound like the Republicans are any better friends to gun owners than the Democrats. They’ll violate your rights just to appear “moderate” just as quickly as the Democrats, hoping their tepid reluctance will earn them brownie points.
Well, time has come to say it: Mr. President, you and your Republican cohorts are cowards and hypocrites, and gun owners know it!
Yes, I’m saying it loud and clear, so that you and your lackeys can read and revel in this fact. You have no courage. You have no integrity. You bend to the political convenience of the moment, because it’s the quickest road to re-election, and you think that little red, white and blue elephant on your lapel, your patriotic pictures on the USS Abraham Lincoln and your war on terrorism will erase or obscure this fact and that your membership in the Republican party will shield you from the wrath of those you have betrayed.
You feel complacent because you feel gun owners will support you regardless, because you happen to be the lesser of the two evils. You feel secure, shrouded in the Republican banner, because gun owners have consistently and loyally voted Republican. Well, I suggest you stop feeling secure, sir. Because gun owners don’t appreciate cowards and hypocrites. We don’t appreciate compromising twits, who will do anything to appear “moderate” while trading away our rights for a few votes. We appreciate truth, integrity and courage.
If you had any gonads at all, you would stand up and say, “I want to ban all the so-called ‘assault’ weapons and I will support any legislation which accomplishes this goal,” and then allow law-abiding and freedom-loving citizens of this country to turn away from you, as you know they will.
But no, you won’t do that, Mr. Bush, because politics are apparently much more important to you than principles. You want reelection so bad, you can taste it, and it appears you’ll do anything – even sell law-abiding gun owners to the socialist wolves – to get it.
The legislation you are too afraid to state your support for is a pernicious piece of garbage that will do nothing more than place further limits on our freedoms.
H.R. 2038 – the “Assault” weapons ban will do nothing to stop crime. Prior to the Clinton ban, a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey reported that in 1991, about 8 percent of state inmates had possessed a so-called “assault” weapon. Care to guess how many carried said weapon in the commission of a crime? LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.
A Virginia inmate survey conducted prior to the 1994 ban showed that while about 10 percent of incarcerated criminals ever owned an “assault” weapon, none had carried it at the scene of a crime.
Meanwhile, in 1997 – four years after the Clinton ban was passed – 1.5 percent of state inmates and 1.7 percent of federal inmates admitted to having used a weapon made illegal by the Clinton ban.
Both numbers are insignificant, but some are more insignificant than others. More criminals used the banned “assault” weapons during the commission of their crimes after the ban than before. Even now, the number of criminals who use “assault” weapons is pathetically small.
So what is the purpose of this ban?
Is it to reduce crime? Apparently not, since said weapons are rarely used to commit offenses.
It bans, among other things, pistol grips, folding telescopic stocks, threaded barrels, forward grips and barrel shrouds – none of which make a gun any more or less “dangerous” and none of which pose any threat to law enforcement. And yet, the legislation carries the deceptive name, Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003, even though it has no hope of “protecting” the already protected elite – the police, who are, of course, exempt from the bill’s provisions.
What you are tacitly supporting, Mr. Bush is nothing less than an attempt to ram yet more gun control down the throats of the American public. It’s not about crime, it’s not about protection, it’s about control, and if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem –
- a problem we, gun owners, plan to battle and win.
If you are not to be a part of it, so be it. But at least have the courage to stand up and admit it, instead of hiding from the truth.
Admit that you would support an ineffective and unconstitutional ban on firearms for a political purpose.
Admit that you are too cowardly to stand up to Schumer, McCarthy, Feinstein and their weak-minded socialist brethren, because you’re afraid you’ll lose votes.
Don’t sit in the White House and have your lackeys proclaim what a great, courageous independent minded leader you are, because you’re willing to part with the NRA on this issue. What you’re doing is not courageous; it’s stupid, ineffectual and manipulative.
Our rights are not yours to maneuver for your political gain.
Our Constitution is not up for debate.
Our freedoms are not your bargaining chips, Mr. President.
Stand up, be a man and admit your support for this unconstitutional monster that aims to take firearms out of the hands of the law-abiding. Or if you don’t support this bill, have the courage to say so and face the mealy-mouthed, hand wringing wrath of Brady, Nosanchuk, Diaz and their socialist ilk.
You won’t get a pass on this, Mr. President. Your political games with our freedoms paint you as a coward, a manipulator and a traitor. It’s time for you to do the right thing. State your position, and face the consequences like a man.
He doesn't think this will ever get to his desk, and he can pick up a few votes from the liberals for his position.
I personally don't care if he plays politics as long as this thing is killed.
If he's wrong and this thing becomes law, he has lost more votes than just mine.
If you don't care then why are you a member of a website that is dedicated to DEFENDING OUR CONSTITUION. I don't see anywhere on this site where it says to DEFEND OUR PRESIDENT. He may be president, but that sure as hell doesn't mean he's always right.
Yeah right, whatever you want to think(if a person can call instinctive chest thumping, "thinking").
Anyway, IMO, this will be killed in the House. Gun control has been a loser in local congressional elections and it barely passed 10 years ago in a demo house.
I gave my opinion, you all can now go on with your chest thumping.
Sorry to interrupt.
No gun owner is going to countenance being betrayed by the Bush family twice.
To the RNC ... keep this in mind.
If you were going to lose your right to FREE SPEECH would you still call it "chest thumping"? When the gov decides to gore YOUR bull remember that you sold out the rest of us on the Second Amendment.
You are willing to give away MY and MY children's right to own a weapon. Thank you so very much. I hope that the BGs come to your house first and when you call for help the JBTs jail you for complaining. After the BG's are done with you and yours.
Yeah right, whatever you want to think(if a person can call instinctive chest thumping, "thinking").
YOU are the one that is "feeling" not "thinking".
You ain't no patriot; and you ain't no friend of mine.
El Roy, he picks up zero votes from the left and he potentially loses 80 million gun owner votes. Plug those figures into the last Presidential election tally and what do you have? He needs to speak up. One either is in favor of kicking puppies or against it. Taint no middle ground.
GW has disappointed me in several areas:
I don't like 15 billion dollars going to AIDs treatment in Africa while we have vets lying in hospitals all over this damn country without soap to bathe or razors to shave.
I don't like the hundreds of thousands of wetback illegals flooding into this country while he winks and looks the other way.
BUT....the MAIN thing I don't like is his non-support of gun owners and the Second Amendment to our Constitution, which IS the backbone of our whole republic.
If he plays politics with this and loses, he'll be a one-term president, no matter what the polls say.
You're right. There is no middle ground.
Explain a little bit how that helps to promote the cause of gun owners. Who do you recommend that we vote for?
Change the words and see if it still works for you.
He said that he would steal your wallet IF you came to his home.
Since you didn't go to his home because of his threat does this make him an honorable man? Or does it make him a thief without an opportunity?
Believe it or not, most voters that are affected by this Bush BS are not on FR and will make up their mind to vote against him without hearing this enlightened discussion. W is indeed betraying us by forgetting which side of the line in the sand got him elected.
In an ideal world I agree completely, the problem is that lawmakers just can't help themselves from always making the law more and more complex, this keeps their lawyer buddies in business. As the worst example of this I refer you to the TAX CODE, so complex no-one can figure it out. Do they simplify it NOOOOO, they make it worse every year, I don't know what will ever change this?
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