aut2no
Member
http://federalistpatriot.us/
THE FOUNDATION
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly
been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a
republic..." --Justice Joseph Story
______----********O********----______
THE PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE
Top of the fold --
On Feinstein-Schumer gun-control -- just say "Nay"!
On the eve of the upcoming presidential election, Constitutional
constructionists -- Patriot advocates of the liberty and freedom
ordained by our Creator as framed in our Constitution -- were
informed by the Bush administration that President George
Bush will sign renewal of the 1994 Clinton-Feinstein-Schumer
gun-control regulations scheduled to expire on 13 September,
2004 -- if Congress supports extending the measure.
It is understood that the administration's position on this
legislation -- which is indistinguishable from that of John
Kerry -- politically calculates that the measure will not get
through Congress. This would prevent the legislation from becoming
political fodder just prior to the presidential election.
However calculated, it is a stupefying example of bad judgment and
timing -- arrogance in fact -- that President Bush's pragmatic
handlers have taken a public stand on this legislation when
the administration could have remained silent and waited for
Congress to act one way or the other. In taking a position on the
legislation now, the administration offended both the overwhelming
majority of the President's constituency, and the constitutional
foundational of our Republic -- a colossal blunder!
The Constitution's Second Amendment prohibition against government
interference in the "right to keep and bear arms" is the one
assurance that ensures all other rights. As noted by Justice Joseph
Story, appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison: "The right
of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered
as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a
strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of
rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the
first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
Indeed, Madison himself wrote in Federalist No. 48, "The advantage
of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of
almost every other nation...forms a barrier against the enterprises
of ambition, more insurmountable than any...." That is no less
true today than it was in 1787.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Charles Schumer were the original
sponsors of this gun-control measure, which narrowly passed the
Democrat-controlled House and Senate in 1994 and was signed into
law by Bill Clinton. Though House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says
that the votes in the House are not there to renew the measure,
Feinstein and Schumer will press for a roll-call vote in order
to politicize this legislation prior to the election.
Feinstein and Schumer even applauded the Bush administration's
position on the measure, writing: "We welcome your support
and look forward to working with you to gain swift passage of
this legislation. With your assistance, we will be able to pass
legislation to continue the ban and help make America's streets
safer."
"Safer"? For whom?
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, firearms-related
crime has declined 54 percent in the last decade. The number
of violent crimes reported in 2002 was 980,000 fewer than in
2000. But a National Institute of Justice report (headed by
Christopher Koper at the University of Pennsylvania) concludes,
"We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's
recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no
discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun
violence." Feinstein's own California Assistant Attorney General
Patrick Kenady noted in an internal memo, "Information on [these
guns] would not be sought from forensics laboratories as it was
unlikely to support the theses on which the [Feinstein-Schumer
gun-control] legislation would be based."
Even The Washington Post painfully admits, "[The banned guns]
play a part in only a small percentage of crime."
Feinstein-Schumer, ostensibly, claims to protect law-abiding
citizens. Of course, only law-abiding citizens comply with such
restrictions -- and at their own peril. Criminals don't care
whether the weapon they're using comports with the 23,000 federal,
state and local gun restrictions already on the books. But they
do care whether their intended victim has a firearm: Extensive
interviews with violent felons make it clear that they prefer
to prey on the victims who are least likely to possess a gun
for self-defense.
In Commonplace Book, Thomas Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from
his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: "Laws that forbid the
carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for
the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather
to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may
be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Again,
no less true today than it has been throughout history.
For 30 years, the Left has used the "safety" claim as the
foundation for its strategy of "incremental encroachment"
on the Second Amendment to achieve its ultimate goal of gun
confiscation. The Feinstein-Schumer legislation, which prevents
law-abiding citizens from owning semi-automatic rifles (so-called
and decidedly misnamed "assault weapons") for lawful purposes,
is no exception. To wit, Feinstein said of the 1994 legislation,
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate...for an outright
ban, picking up every one of them -- Mr. and Mrs. America, turn
them all in -- I would have done it!"
Other Congressional Leftists such as Sen. Frank Lautenberg and
Reps. John Conyers and Carolyn McCarthy have drafted additional
legislation to ban or confiscate millions of guns used for personal
protection -- this despite the spirit and plain language of the
Second Amendment. (Memo to Lautenberg, Conyers and McCarthy:
What is it about "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms
shall not be infringed" that you don't understand?)
Our Republic's Founders had it right. "To disarm the people is
the best and most effectual way to enslave them," warned George
Mason. Patrick Henry concurred, imploring future generations:
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one
who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve
it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are
inevitably ruined."
The Bush administration's calculation that the renewal of the
Feinstein-Schumer legislation will never get to the President's
desk because it won't make it through Congress is a dangerous
gambit, and there is no excuse for the advance notice that Mr. Bush
would sign the renewal, which served only to encourage Leftist
gun confiscators. That encouragement just made re-election of
conservatives in Congress -- and the White House -- more difficult
and more expensive.
There are at least six bills reauthorizing Feinstein-Schumer
pending in the Senate and House. Congress will return from its
summer recess on 7 September and will be in session only four
work-days before the sunset date. Fellow Patriots, let us urge our
elected representatives to oppose H.R. 3831 and S. 2498 and any
other legislation seeking to extend the so-called "assault-weapons"
ban. And let us not underestimate the resolve of those who would
infringe upon our Second Amendment rights: "I really believe
passionately in this," said Senator Feinstein. "I'm not going to
give up." (Memo to Senator Feinstein: Neither are we.)
Please act now -- join more than 60,000 fellow Patriots on the
frontlines in defense of our Constitutional liberties who have
already signed a petition against Feinstein-Schumer renewal.
Link to -- http://patriotpetitions.us/nogunban/
(If you don't have Web access, please send a blank e-mail to:
<sign-nogunban <at> patriotpetitions.us> Each e-mail sent to this
address will be counted as one signature for the petition. (No
duplicate e-mail addresses are counted.)
Quote of the week...
"[R]especting the right to keep and bear arms is one of the best
ways governments can reduce crime. Conversely, cities where the
government imposes gun control have higher crime rates. Far from
making people safer, gun control endangers innocent people by
increasing the odds that they will be victimized! Gun control
also increases the odds that people will lose their lives and
liberties to power-hungry government officials. Tyrannical
governments throughout the world kill approximately 2,000,000
people annually. Many of these victims of tyranny were first
disarmed by their governments. ... I would remind my colleagues
that policies prohibiting the private ownership of firearms were
strongly supported by tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin,
and Mao Tse-Tung." --Rep. Ron Paul
THE FOUNDATION
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly
been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a
republic..." --Justice Joseph Story
______----********O********----______
THE PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE
Top of the fold --
On Feinstein-Schumer gun-control -- just say "Nay"!
On the eve of the upcoming presidential election, Constitutional
constructionists -- Patriot advocates of the liberty and freedom
ordained by our Creator as framed in our Constitution -- were
informed by the Bush administration that President George
Bush will sign renewal of the 1994 Clinton-Feinstein-Schumer
gun-control regulations scheduled to expire on 13 September,
2004 -- if Congress supports extending the measure.
It is understood that the administration's position on this
legislation -- which is indistinguishable from that of John
Kerry -- politically calculates that the measure will not get
through Congress. This would prevent the legislation from becoming
political fodder just prior to the presidential election.
However calculated, it is a stupefying example of bad judgment and
timing -- arrogance in fact -- that President Bush's pragmatic
handlers have taken a public stand on this legislation when
the administration could have remained silent and waited for
Congress to act one way or the other. In taking a position on the
legislation now, the administration offended both the overwhelming
majority of the President's constituency, and the constitutional
foundational of our Republic -- a colossal blunder!
The Constitution's Second Amendment prohibition against government
interference in the "right to keep and bear arms" is the one
assurance that ensures all other rights. As noted by Justice Joseph
Story, appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison: "The right
of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered
as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a
strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of
rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the
first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
Indeed, Madison himself wrote in Federalist No. 48, "The advantage
of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of
almost every other nation...forms a barrier against the enterprises
of ambition, more insurmountable than any...." That is no less
true today than it was in 1787.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Charles Schumer were the original
sponsors of this gun-control measure, which narrowly passed the
Democrat-controlled House and Senate in 1994 and was signed into
law by Bill Clinton. Though House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says
that the votes in the House are not there to renew the measure,
Feinstein and Schumer will press for a roll-call vote in order
to politicize this legislation prior to the election.
Feinstein and Schumer even applauded the Bush administration's
position on the measure, writing: "We welcome your support
and look forward to working with you to gain swift passage of
this legislation. With your assistance, we will be able to pass
legislation to continue the ban and help make America's streets
safer."
"Safer"? For whom?
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, firearms-related
crime has declined 54 percent in the last decade. The number
of violent crimes reported in 2002 was 980,000 fewer than in
2000. But a National Institute of Justice report (headed by
Christopher Koper at the University of Pennsylvania) concludes,
"We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's
recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no
discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun
violence." Feinstein's own California Assistant Attorney General
Patrick Kenady noted in an internal memo, "Information on [these
guns] would not be sought from forensics laboratories as it was
unlikely to support the theses on which the [Feinstein-Schumer
gun-control] legislation would be based."
Even The Washington Post painfully admits, "[The banned guns]
play a part in only a small percentage of crime."
Feinstein-Schumer, ostensibly, claims to protect law-abiding
citizens. Of course, only law-abiding citizens comply with such
restrictions -- and at their own peril. Criminals don't care
whether the weapon they're using comports with the 23,000 federal,
state and local gun restrictions already on the books. But they
do care whether their intended victim has a firearm: Extensive
interviews with violent felons make it clear that they prefer
to prey on the victims who are least likely to possess a gun
for self-defense.
In Commonplace Book, Thomas Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from
his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: "Laws that forbid the
carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for
the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather
to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may
be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Again,
no less true today than it has been throughout history.
For 30 years, the Left has used the "safety" claim as the
foundation for its strategy of "incremental encroachment"
on the Second Amendment to achieve its ultimate goal of gun
confiscation. The Feinstein-Schumer legislation, which prevents
law-abiding citizens from owning semi-automatic rifles (so-called
and decidedly misnamed "assault weapons") for lawful purposes,
is no exception. To wit, Feinstein said of the 1994 legislation,
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate...for an outright
ban, picking up every one of them -- Mr. and Mrs. America, turn
them all in -- I would have done it!"
Other Congressional Leftists such as Sen. Frank Lautenberg and
Reps. John Conyers and Carolyn McCarthy have drafted additional
legislation to ban or confiscate millions of guns used for personal
protection -- this despite the spirit and plain language of the
Second Amendment. (Memo to Lautenberg, Conyers and McCarthy:
What is it about "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms
shall not be infringed" that you don't understand?)
Our Republic's Founders had it right. "To disarm the people is
the best and most effectual way to enslave them," warned George
Mason. Patrick Henry concurred, imploring future generations:
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one
who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve
it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are
inevitably ruined."
The Bush administration's calculation that the renewal of the
Feinstein-Schumer legislation will never get to the President's
desk because it won't make it through Congress is a dangerous
gambit, and there is no excuse for the advance notice that Mr. Bush
would sign the renewal, which served only to encourage Leftist
gun confiscators. That encouragement just made re-election of
conservatives in Congress -- and the White House -- more difficult
and more expensive.
There are at least six bills reauthorizing Feinstein-Schumer
pending in the Senate and House. Congress will return from its
summer recess on 7 September and will be in session only four
work-days before the sunset date. Fellow Patriots, let us urge our
elected representatives to oppose H.R. 3831 and S. 2498 and any
other legislation seeking to extend the so-called "assault-weapons"
ban. And let us not underestimate the resolve of those who would
infringe upon our Second Amendment rights: "I really believe
passionately in this," said Senator Feinstein. "I'm not going to
give up." (Memo to Senator Feinstein: Neither are we.)
Please act now -- join more than 60,000 fellow Patriots on the
frontlines in defense of our Constitutional liberties who have
already signed a petition against Feinstein-Schumer renewal.
Link to -- http://patriotpetitions.us/nogunban/
(If you don't have Web access, please send a blank e-mail to:
<sign-nogunban <at> patriotpetitions.us> Each e-mail sent to this
address will be counted as one signature for the petition. (No
duplicate e-mail addresses are counted.)
Quote of the week...
"[R]especting the right to keep and bear arms is one of the best
ways governments can reduce crime. Conversely, cities where the
government imposes gun control have higher crime rates. Far from
making people safer, gun control endangers innocent people by
increasing the odds that they will be victimized! Gun control
also increases the odds that people will lose their lives and
liberties to power-hungry government officials. Tyrannical
governments throughout the world kill approximately 2,000,000
people annually. Many of these victims of tyranny were first
disarmed by their governments. ... I would remind my colleagues
that policies prohibiting the private ownership of firearms were
strongly supported by tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin,
and Mao Tse-Tung." --Rep. Ron Paul