Obama, Guns and Definitions
BY Herschel Smith12 years ago
David Codrea observes that Obama’s views on guns are becoming more transparent as time waxes on.
A “tweet” sent out today by Gun Talk Radio host Tom Gresham reminded gun rights activists that, despite partisan rhetoric to the contrary, draconian gun control remains a stated goal of the Obama administration.
“Finally! The smoking gun!” Gresham posted. “Campaign confirms Obama wants to BAN GUNS, kill gun shows. Scroll down to ‘Crime.’”
The website he linked to was Obama’s Change.Gov site, created when he was President-Elect, and the page in question defined his “Urban Policy.”
In the administration’s own words under the section titled “Address Gun Violence in Cities” we see:
Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.
In short, the president wants to enact a measure opposed by the Fraternal Order of Police because it could compromise ongoing criminal investigations, he wants to end private sales, he wants to mandate nonexistent technology (“Only Ones” exempted, of course, even though the genesis of “smart gun” research and development was to mitigate police “takeaway” incidents), and he wants the federal government to withhold 19th Century firearm technology from “We the People.”
This column noted those goals back in January, 2009, when Obama first took office, noting that some key language had been deleted, with the reasonable assumption that it was done to mask intent and diminish alarm, specifically by someone at the administration’s direction deliberately editing out the words “such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets” from the last sentence.
Yes, there is that so-called “assault weapons” ban being advocated. I’ve already weighed in on this saying that it is not only unconstitutional, but immoral because it forces families to consider potentially inferior weaponry (i.e., magazine capacity limitations) for their own home defense.
But there is that other phrase – gun show loophole – that’s bothersome. It’s bothersome because it’s a phantom. It isn’t real. It doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as a gun show loophole. That’s a ghost phrase invented by the gun control lobby intended to embed itself into the consciousness of the American public.
Guns sold by firearms dealers at gun shows go through the same process as if they were at their own store. Form 4473’s are filled out and background checks are performed. But the gun control lobby will say that individuals can still sell to individuals, and that’s right, just as they can outside of gun shows.
The real intent is to enact legislation to prohibit individual sales, forcing paperwork for every firearms sale, and thus creating the beginnings of a national gun registry. A national gun registry is an evil thing because it is the first step to confiscation.
There are other definition problems in current news. Wal-mart in South Bend, Indiana, is having some problems. “A Wal-Mart in South Bend has pulled weapons marketed as tactical shotguns after the Common Council said it believed the sale of such weapons violated an agreement between the store and the city. In a conference call between the council and Wal-Mart, the two entities also agreed to reduce the hours in which the store sells firearms in response to complaints from the public.”
There’s that dreaded word – tactical – sound and fury signifying nothing. More shells in the tube magazine, apply a scary word to it, and the city council goes bananas. But what’s the real problem here? It gets interesting.
Reverend Greg Brown, a local minister on the city’s West side, became concerned about Wal-Mart’s gun sales after two of the kids in his youth group said they were offered $50 to steal ammunition from the store.
“A gentleman came to them with a gym bag and asked them to load it up with ammunition and come out where they get tires,” Brown.
ABC 57 went to the Wal-Mart off Ireland Road in South Bend. That is when we found a 12 gauge tactical shotgun in the display case, next to .223 high-powered ammunition.
So Reverend Brown’s youth group’s problems becomes Wal-Mart’s problems via a scary story in the news, a word grouping (“tactical” shotguns), and a progressive city council. Good misdirect on Reverend Brown’s part.
Those same stories discuss the freedom Wal-Mart has to sell hunting rifles. But take note. If someone had purchased a really nice bolt action .308 with expensive glass, what would the press have done if this had gotten into criminal hands? Perhaps call it a “sniper rifle?”
In the hands of the gun control lobby, hunting rifles become “sniper rifles,” home defense shotguns with shorter barrels for moving around corners become “tactical shotguns,” and rifles with a magazine capacity of greater than ten rounds become the extremely scary “assault weapon.”
So far, we have let the horrible and dishonest gun control lobby dominate the dialogue, and they have used their control to invent scary slogans like “gun show loophole,” and words for weapons designed to scare any good mother. We need to punch back twice as hard, lampooning and ridiculing each and every instance of such dishonest word gaming, from the media to the politicians and whomever else uses those stupid phrases. It’s one way to bring some manly righteousness to the conversation.
UPDATE #1: Thanks to David for the attention.
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