Don’t Blame Liberals for Gun Control
author: Richard Poe
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Anti-gun crusaders seem worried about the advent of a Republican administration. Heaven knows why. Republicans, in recent years, have managed to do nearly as much damage to the Second Amendment as Democrats.
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In 1969, journalist William Safire asked Richard Nixon what he thought about gun control. "Guns are an abomination," Nixon replied. According to Safire, Nixon went on to confess that, "Free from fear of gun owners' retaliation at the polls, he favored making handguns illegal and requiring licenses for hunting rifles."
It was President George Bush, Sr. who banned the import of "assault weapons" in 1989, and promoted the view that Americans should only be allowed to own weapons suitable for "sporting purposes."
It was Governor Ronald Reagan of California who signed the Mulford Act in 1967, "prohibiting the carrying of firearms on one's person or in a vehicle, in any public place or on any public street." The law was aimed at stopping the Black Panthers, but affected all gun owners.
Twenty-four years later, Reagan was still pushing gun control. "I support the Brady Bill," he said in a March 28, 1991 speech, "and I urge the Congress to enact it without further delay."
One of the most aggressive gun control advocates today is Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York City, whose administration sued 26 gun manufacturers in June 2000, and whose police commissioner, Howard Safir, proposed a nationwide plan for gun licensing, complete with yearly "safety" inspections.
Another Republican, New York State Governor George Pataki, on August 10, 2000, signed into law what The New York Times called "the nation's strictest gun controls," a radical program mandating trigger locks, background checks at gun shows and "ballistic fingerprinting" of guns sold in the state. It also raised the legal age to buy a handgun to 21 and banned "assault weapons," the sale or possession of which would now be punishable by seven years in prison.
Gun control crusaders argue that the Republicans are simply yielding to grassroots pressure, to gain political advantage. But polls show little evidence of such pressure.
A Gallup/CNN/USA Today survey taken in June 1999 - only two months after the Littleton massacre - showed that the number of Americans who favored stricter gun laws had declined by 20 percent since 1990.
Public support for gun control has dwindled even further since then. An Associated Press poll released on the one-year anniversary of the Littleton shootings shows that Americans favor strict enforcement of existing laws over new gun laws - the exact position of the National Rifle Association (NRA) - by 42 to 33 percent.
That same month, a survey by the Pew Research Center showed that only 6 percent of Americans believed that tougher gun laws would prevent future school shootings.
Meanwhile, a Tarrance Group poll has shown that only 5 percent of Americans want gunmakers and gun dealers held responsible for misuse of firearms.
Clearly, the pressure for gun control is not coming from the grassroots. It comes from those layers of society that the left calls the "ruling classes" - academics, Hollywood stars, Washington insiders and multibillion-dollar media conglomerates.
The latter are particularly influential in pushing anti-gun propaganda. A study by the Media Research Center released in January 2000 showed that television news stories calling for stricter gun laws outnumbered those opposing such laws by a ratio of 10 to 1.
The blame for this media bias is traditionally assigned to "liberal journalists." And, indeed, most journalists do hold left-of-center views. A 1996 survey of working journalists by the Roper Center and the Freedom Forum showed that 89 percent had voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. Only 4 percent identified themselves as Republicans and only 2 percent as conservatives.
Yet, their "liberal" views probably have less impact on the media's anti-gun bias than most people assume. Rank-and-file reporters have little power to influence the political spin even of their own stories.
When I worked at the New York Post in the mid-1980s, I found the newsroom filled with liberals. They grumbled constantly about the paper's conservative slant. But they went along with it, because it was company policy.
Liberal news organizations are no different. Political bias comes from the top. Rank-and-file reporters simply do what they are told.
Those of us who cherish our Second Amendment rights are keeping our fingers crossed about George W. Bush. But the monolithic commitment America's "ruling classes" have shown toward gun control makes one wonder whether even a president is free to buck the current.
 http://reformed-theology.org/html/issue11/dont_blame_liberals.htm
EDWARDS' SUPPORT FOR GUN CONTROL MIRRORS BUSH'S:
http://www.csgv.org/news/news_releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=86
GUN CONTROL SENATORS CHEER BUSH:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32170
UPSET GUN OWNERS SET TO DUMP BUSH:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32094
GUN SUPPORTERS BAFFLED BY BUSH'S STANCE:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32074
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"For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!"
-- Adolf Hitler, 1935
AGAINST gun control; Mahatma Gandhi
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Mass Murder REQUIRES Unarmed Victims
GENOCIDE IS ONLY POSSIBLE WITH GUN CONTROL
Gun laws don't work. They never have and they never will. By removing all firearms from citizens, the government is then able to dictate anything it wants and not fear a possible uprising. For years, governments have either restricted or confiscated firearms. The relationship between gun confiscation or restriction and genocide that took place will never be forgotten. Here are some of the facts:
When guns are outlawed, only governments will own guns.
56 million people murdered by their own governments in the 20th century.
Turkey established gun control in 1911.
* From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
The Soviet Union established gun control in 1929.
* From 1929 to 1953, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
China established gun control in 1935.
* From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Germany established gun control in 1938.
* From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, Catholics, Gypsies, socialists, homosexuals, trade unionists, disabled and mentally ill people, and other "mongrelized peoples," unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Cambodia established gun control in 1956.
* From 1975 to 1977, 1 million "educated people," unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Guatemala established gun control in 1964.
* From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Uganda established gun control in 1970.
* From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
In 1937, four years after the end of Prohibition, the United States Congress enacted the National Firearms Act in direct violation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution in order to create jobs for idle Alcohol Revenue agents. This law ultimately led to the creation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). In 1993, 86 members of a "religious cult" residing outside Waco, Texas were exterminated by the BATF because of unsubstantiated allegations that they had failed to purchase $200 tax stamps for certain firearms in their possession as required by the unconstitutional 1937 National Firearms Act. Congress is currently considering passage of additional unconstitutional gun control laws in response to a few widely-reported-by-the-corporate-media acts of mass violence perpetrated by deranged individuals. It remains to be seen how many more innocent members of minority groups will be exterminated in the name of these unconstitutional laws.
If you were adding up the numbers, the amount would total 56 million innocent people who were slaughtered by their own governments; governments that had first rendered their citizens defenseless by restricting or confiscating guns.
People are at far more risk from their own government than all the Eric Harrises and Dylan Kiebolds of the world.
"Both the oligarch and Tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms."
-- Aristotle
"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."
--William S. Burroughs
"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA. Ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State"
-- Heinrich Himmler, Nazi leader
Help make genocide safe for the governments of the world:
Support international gun control.
Gun Control: White Man's Law - the racist and elitist roots of gun control:
The Racist Origins of US Gun Control;
The history of gun control in America has targeted blacks and other minorities. Citizens Opposing Racism and Discrimination (CORAD) believes that gun control on law-abiding citizens is racist:
The Racist Roots of Gun Control: