Fw: [1911TechTalk] FW: Alan-Dave Op-Ed

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Workman" <davew@...>
To: <1911TechTalk@...>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 2:39 PM
Subject: [1911TechTalk] FW: Alan-Dave Op-Ed

For those on the 1911 list who didn't get to read what Al Barth was so 
generous in his praise about...

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Why America’s gun owners are justifiably up in arms

By Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman

From the prospect of an incoming president and vice president with decidedly 
anti-gun-rights voting records, to a liberal West Coast mayor determined to 
ban firearms by “executive order” without benefit of city council or 
legislative review, American gun owners have good reason to doubt the 
sincerity of Liberal Democrats now in control of Congress and soon to 
control the Oval Office, who claim to support firearm civil rights.

     Far too many red flags are being waved for gun owners to take a benign 
posture just six months after a landmark Supreme Court ruling confirmed what 
they had known all along; that the Second Amendment affirms and protects a 
fundamental individual civil right to keep and bear arms.

     President-elect Barack Obama is on record supporting gun registration, 
permanent renewal of the ban on so-called “assault weapons,” slapping an 
exorbitant increase on the federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition, 
and banning handguns outright. His buffoonish vice president-elect, Delaware’s 
Joe Biden, is a veteran gun control advocate who authored the original 
“assault weapons” legislation.

     Recently, it was revealed that prospective Obama Administration 
employees were being asked this invasive question: “Do you or any members of 
your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and 
registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also 
describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any 
personal injuries or property damage.”

     Aside from demonstrating a serious ignorance of gun laws – only five 
states require some level of gun registration, and only in New York City and 
in New York's Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties is there a renewal 
requirement – this question suggests that gun owners, or kin of gun owners, 
will face anti-gun discrimination in their job search. Call it guilt by 
association, either with firearms or with a relative who owns one.

     If this is the kind of “change” we can expect under the Obama 
administration, gun owners have reason to worry. The more that Democrats 
“change” the more they stay the same. American citizens flocked to gun shops 
after the election. Many of those people, ironically, were first-time gun 
buyers or gun owners who voted for the Chicago Democrat. Obama reinforced 
gun owner apprehension by appointing Rahm Emanuel – point man for the 
Clinton administration on gun control issues – as his chief of staff. Eric 
Holder, his nominee for Attorney General, signed an amicus brief in support 
of the Washington DC gun ban, while arguing that the Second Amendment does 
not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms, positions soundly 
rejected by the Supreme Court.

     Both houses of Congress are controlled by Obama’s Democratic Party, and 
leadership positions are occupied by devoted anti-gunners. As we detailed in 
our recent book, These Dogs Don’t Hunt: The Democrats’ War on Guns, the 
party excels in pro-Second Amendment rhetoric, but labors to reduce that 
right to a highly-regulated privilege.

     This brings us around to Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle. He has promised 
to ban even legally-carried guns from city (make that public) property, by 
executive order. Nearly 250,000 Washington State residents are licensed to 
carry concealed handguns, and it is also legal in the Evergreen State to 
carry handguns openly, without a license.

     Nickels was advised by the State Attorney General that he lacks the 
authority under Washington’s model pre-emption law to enact a gun ban, but 
he has vowed to do it anyway.

     Gun owners see this as imperial arrogance, and suspect that if Nickels 
can ignore his own state’s preemption statute, then Congress and a Democrat 
president might just presume to ignore the Constitution.

     Alan Gottlieb is founder of the Second Amendment Foundation 
(www.saf.org<http://www.saf.org/>) and Dave Workman is senior editor of Gun 
Week (www.gunweek.com<http://www.gunweek.com/>). They are co-authors of 
These Dogs Don’t Hunt: The Democrats’ War on Guns.

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