BELLEVUE, WA – A call by some Congressional Democrats for tighter gun control legislation following an undercover sting operation by the General Accounting Office that found alleged “loopholes” in the national background check system brought a quick response from Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“It’s time gun owners tell Democrats that we should use the same standard to buy a gun that they want to have applied to voter registration,” Waldron stated. “Democrats in Congress have advocated, and instituted, voter registration laws that allow people to register without verifiable identification. Voting is a civil right. So is buying a gun. The same standard should apply. I wonder how liberal Democrats would feel about that?”
The GAO “sting” was requested by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee. Undercover GAO agents, using fake identification – in possible violation of both state and federal law – purchased guns from licensed dealers in Virginia, West Virginia, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona. Waxman used the revelation to call for a tighter policy, noting, “The name (on the identification) could be Bugs Bunny, and as long as there’s no criminal record on file, the gun can be sold.”
Waldron retorted, “The name on a driver’s license in Waxman’s home state of California could also be Bugs Bunny, yet Waxman and his Democrat allies are willing to accept that as valid identification, just to boost their voter rolls.
“This is especially hypocritical, coming from Henry Waxman,” Waldron observed, “when California reportedly has some of the worst voter fraud in the U.S. And look at St. Louis, MO. – Congressman Dick Gephardt’s stronghold – where widespread voter fraud, including registration of dead people, has been alleged.
“Bring this hypocrisy up,” Waldron concluded, “and all you hear from the liberal Democrats are whines about ‘their’ constituents being disenfranchised by tighter voter registration procedures. But when it comes to gun owners, who are exercising a different civil right when they want to purchase a firearm, Democrats like Henry Waxman have no problem at all disenfranchising them. It’s a deplorable double standard, and Waxman ought to be ashamed.”