Constitutional Law, Courts, Justice, Media, Politics

Second Amendment Boogey Man

Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

 

When it comes to the Second Amendment and guns, it seems that President Obama can’t make anyone happy.  Ever since Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency, the NRA has screamed that Obama will be taking away the guns. This scare tactic continued when Obama defeated John McCain for the Presidency.  Just what has Barack Obama done to make the NRA and gun owners frightened for their guns?  The simple answer to this question is nothing. The head of the National Rifle Association, Mr. Wayne LaPierre actually admitted recently that Obama has done nothing to attack gun owner’s rights to bear arms, but claims Obama’s inaction against guns is actually a conspiracy to take away guns!!  ‘ “[The Obama campaign] will say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone,” LaPierre told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday.  “In public, he’ll remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton [assault weapons] ban, he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws… The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment.”  “But it’s a big fat stinking lie!” the NRA leader exclaimed. “It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the Second Amendment in our country.” ‘  Raw Story

Now, before anyone thinks I am making this stuff up, the linked site includes a video clip wherein Mr. LaPierre verbalizes this alleged reverse conspiracy.  Mr. LaPierre makes a point of throwing in the necessary names of alleged liberal co-conspirators to rev up his base.  ‘ “Sotomayor, Kagan, Fast & Furious, the United Nations, executive orders. Those are the facts we face today… President Obama and his cohorts, yeah, they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners.  Some in the liberal media, they are already probably blogging about it. But we don’t care because the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!” ‘

The lying, conniving Obama crowd as Mr. LaPierre labels them has not done anything to harm the Second Amendment rights that the NRA claims to be at risk.  I was interested in the last few words of LaPierre’s quotation above.  The phrase “kiss our Constitution” appears to lay claim that the NRA and its followers own the Constitution and its protections.  I could have sworn that my law school Constitutional professors taught me that the Constitution protects all citizens, but maybe I heard them wrong.  But, I digress.

As the Raw Story article suggests, President Obama has actually taken heat from his own supporters over his alleged conspiracy to not take away the guns.  NPR  Does Mr. LaPierre provide any evidence of this bizarre claim?  None that I could find.  Maybe you will have better luck than me in finding evidence of presidential actions to hide President Obama’s intentions and/or actions of stealing legal guns from their owners.

I have to admit that if you read the comments section of the NPR article that details how the Left is disappointed with Obama’s inaction on gun control, you will read almost nothing except gun owners claiming that Obama’s words of inaction are actually code words that the End is Near and the Sky is Falling for gun owners!  Just what will it take gun owners to ask Mr. LaPierre for evidence of his wild claims?  I, for one would love to hear his answer to that question. I understand that candidate and President Obama may have stayed away from the 2nd Amendment issues for political reasons, but where is the evidence of this alleged conspiracy?  I would think Fox News would be sending Bill O’Reilly’s reporters all over the country to uncover such a heinous conspiracy.

If Mr. Obama has not written any executive orders or supported additional legislative steps to control or take away guns since he has become President, just what is the basis for these wild claims?  I realize that the NRA has a financial interest in getting gun owners scared into buying more guns, but are there other, underlying reasons why the gun owners are frightened so easily, when the facts do not support the NRA’s claims?

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

Additional sources:  Gun Owners of America; NRA-ILA; Pajamas Media;

 

 

798 thoughts on “Second Amendment Boogey Man”

  1. Bron,

    You’re dead wrong about Elizabeth Warren – she’s been a tireless advocate for consumers and understands economics better that 99.99% of Americans.

    Richard Feynman pointed out (in his autobiography) that he’s smarter that the AVERAGE of 100 engineers – similarly, Ms. Warren is far smarter than the average of 300 million people who are acting in their PERCEIVED best interests (which is rarely truly in their best interest).

  3. It works both ways Slarti. A good many people born rich see their fortunes reduced. Think Kennedys.

    Lots of dirt poor people rise out of poverty in this country. Use to happen more before all this progressive crap started but it still happens.

    How many people born into the middle class become rich? It isnt easy to do no matter what your station in life.

    How many people born rich increase their fortunes vs lose it all or a portion?

    You are an extremist in your views and surely arent dumb enough to believe what you write.

  4. “The social contract is not a contract to give up your liberty which is what Warren and people like her insist on.”

    That’s exactly what the social contract is – group of people band together and agree to limit absolute individual liberties in exchange for mutually derived social benefits administered through the forms of laws and governance. There is a word for an absolutely free state of total individual liberty and that word is “anarchy”.

  5. Slarti:

    who pays the most in taxes in this country? the Top 10%.

    I also say that since you guys charge a gas tax to pay for roads the people who use them the most are paying for them.

    And schools? if they were private they would be less money and individuals would be paying for them. And she wouldnt be able to say that. Most people are forced to go to a public school because they cannot afford a private one because of taxes.

    Police protection is a valid function of government and so is the military and that is what taxes should be used for.

    The social contract is not a contract to give up your liberty which is what Warren and people like her insist on.

    It is all about control with people like Warren. God same us from people who think they are smarter than the combined intelligence of 300 million people acting in their own best interest.

  6. Bron,

    What are the odds of a person from the ghetto becoming rich? What are the odds of a person born on third base becoming richer? It seems to me that you are saying that Trump would have been part of a 1 in a million group* (conservatively) had he been born to a poor family in Detroit, say, because he was part of a 1 in 10 group** (pessimistically)? I call bullshit on that and I don’t think you are dumb enough to truly believe it either.

    * People born poor who have become rich

    ** People born rich who have become richer

  9. Without the advantages of his birth, Trump would have ended up a used car salesman or a pimp. The same thing he is now, just on a smaller scale.

  10. Elaine M;

    how do you know he wouldnt be?

    To some people you started on third base. Did you have 2 parents? Did they own their own home?

    If you did then compared to some you started on third base.

  11. AY:

    And I think you dont understand America. There are many people who rise out of devastating poverty through shear force of will alone. A man like Trump would have done it in spite of his surroundings, maybe he wouldnt have risen as far, but he would still be a rich man.

    And many people rise out of poverty and do other things as well.

  13. Bron,

    I think the point is being missed by you…I think maybe it is being said….What if Trump had not been born into a very wealthy New York Real Estate Family…..say he had been born in Harlem or Cabrini-Green…….

    Maybe…something like he actually had to think of a way to make money….rather than the family way?

  14. Elaine M:

    “I still wonder where Trump would be today if he hadn’t been born on third base.”

    Where he is today with maybe a few less dollars in his bank account maybe he would only be worth 1 billion instead of 2.7 billion. Or maybe he would just be a guy worth 600 million. He would still be rich.

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