The gun-grabbers truly are
upset with President George W.
Bush for nominating Judge Samuel
Alito for a seat on the U.S. Supreme
Court. The Violence Policy Center
(VPC) complained that Alito, as a
member of the Third Circuit Court
of Appeals, voted in 1996 to strike
down the 1986 federal machine
gun ban in the case of U.S. v.
Rybar, (103 F.3d 273). If his views
on firearms and public safety, as
expressed in his opinion in that
case, said VPC, “became the law of
the land, all Americans would be at
greater risk from virtually
uncontrollable firearms
proliferation.†Another anti-gun
outfit, the Brady Center to Prevent
Gun Violence, called the judge in
frustration, “Machine Gun Sammy.â€
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA),
during controversy following
destruction caused by Hurricane
Katrina, in late October reversed a
policy of prohibiting firearm
possession in emergency evacuee
trailer parks, known as “FEMA
villages,†and other temporary
housing provided by the agency.
The reversal followed complaints
by CCRKBA Chairman Alan M.
Gottlieb, Founder of the Second
Amendment Foundation (SAF),
that the original policy violated the
Second Amendment civil rights of
evacuees and that it was
discriminatory as well. “Victims of
natural disasters should not be
victimized a second time by FEMA
or other relief agencies,†Gottlieb
said. “A citizen doesn’t give up his
or her civil rights simply because a
disaster strikes.â€
Some Illinois law enforcement
officials apparently have succeeded
in pressuring state lawmakers to
oppose measures designed to
make some gun control laws
friendlier to gun owners. Illinois
State Police Director Larry Trent
urged legislators to uphold anti-gun
Governor Rod Blagojevich’s vetoes
of several proposals, such as one
calling for the destruction of certain
gun purchase records. The attempt
to override the veto of a measure to
void all local gun transportation laws
more restrictive than those of the
state failed last month. The Illinois
Association of Chiefs of Police fears
that repealing local ordinances will
make it easier for people to store
guns in fanny packs.
CCRKBA expressed “cautious
optimism†following Homeland
Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff’s vow that his agency will
increase efforts to expel illegal aliens
from the United States. CCRKBA
Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb has
started a nationwide “Border
Control, Not Gun Controlâ€
campaign following a Zogby poll
indicating 70 percent of likely voters
believe tightening security along the
nation’s borders is far more
important to national security than
tightening the country’s gun laws.
“We’re going to want to see just
how serious this effort is,†Gottlieb
said, “but it certainly is a step in the
right direction. Our members have
responded overwhelmingly to our
campaign to flood the White House
with mail and telephone calls.
Demand for our ‘Border Control,
Not Gun Control’ bumper stickers
has been phenomenal.â€
Remember the gun grabbers’
hysterical concerns that, after the
so-called ban on so-called “assault
weapons†expired on September
13, 2004, there would be a surge in
crimes committed with guns? “Well,
what happened,†asks John R. Lott,
Jr., of the American Enterprise
Institute, a CCRKBA honoree and
frequent speaker at the CCRKBA
cosponsored annual Gun Rights
Policy Conference. “On October
18, the FBI released the final data
for 2004. It shows clearly that in the
months after the law sunset, crime
went down. During 2004 the murder
rate nationwide fell by three percent,
the first drop since 2000, with
firearms deaths dropping by 4.4
percent…Curiously, the seven
states that have their own assault
weapons bans saw a smaller drop
in murders last year than the 43
states without such laws. States
with bans averaged a two percent
decline in murders. States without
bans saw murder rates fall by more
than 3.4 percent. Indeed, that, too,
suggests that doing away with the
ban actually reduced crime…The
real question is how much longer
can the media take such hysteria
seriously when it is so at odds with
the facts.â€
