Examining the anti-gun gang

July 12, 3:52 PMDallas Libertarian ExaminerGarry Reed

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Two-Faced Tactic: make a big scary display of weaponry seized from
people who don't obey laws (criminals, terrorists, drug runners) and then
demand harsh gun laws that disarm gun owners who do obey laws.
(AP Photo)

The long anticipated "Americans Can't Be Trusted With Guns" legislation is here, sneaking its way through congress while heads are turned by sexier, flashier bills like Universal Health Scam and the Cap and Trade Swindle.

But Examiners are on top of it in a big way.

Your congenial host, the Dallas Libertarian Examiner, introduced you to HR 45 back in February with Jim Crow gun laws, a title by which is meant that peaceable people who wish only to protect themselves from assault by people the police can't, and are legally not required, to protect them from, will henceforth be treated like second class citizens just as the descendents of Southern slaves were once treated.

Introduced by Obama-State congressman Bobby L. Rush, the ploy of this proposal is to leave the right to keep and bear arms entirely untouched but to so burden the would-be gun owner with so many rules and regulations and hoops and hurdles and hitches and hazards and snags and snares that actually exercising that right will be nearly impossible.

So, just as the Jim Crow laws of the pre-Civil Rights Movement South were designed to circumvent the Constitution as a way of discouraging Negroes from voting, so HR 45 is designed to discourage all citizens today from owning firearms.

As Jim Crow featured a burdensome poll tax so HR 45 includes a license fee and multiple re-registration charges. As Jim Crow included a demanding “literacy test” so HR 45 includes a gun ownership test designed to fail as many people as possible.

But that's just for starters. Portland Civil Rights Examiner Dianna Cotter, in her recent article, HR 45 to impose federal gun control, summarizes this malicious muddle of lawmaking she rightly refers to as "an underhanded attempt to eliminate the constitutional right to ownership of Firearms."

Meanwhile, over at the Gun Rights Examiner, David Codrea sounded what could be the initial alarm way back in January about the intrusive and Byzantine "HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009" in his 'Qualifying firearms' feature. David has written copious critiques on this anti-freedom farce since, getting into the down and dirties by diligently dissecting the details. His summary is simple: "This is nothing less than a declaration of war on American gun owners."

With the enemy ably identified, the question is how to fight back. Here are some Examiner thoughts.

Dan Bidstrup, the Denver Gun Rights Examiner, takes a logical line in Our congress turns us a deaf ear. Two fascinating facts are:

1. Gallup polling found that 62% of self-identified liberals believe Americans should have a right to own guns. Democrats are likely aware of this, and Dems from conservative districts are apt to see fighting against firearms as their personal political third rail.

2. John Lott, he of The Bias Against Guns book, continues updating county-by-county stats from the FBI that shows violent crime receding as more citizens arm themselves.

But this may only serve to further convince the choir. The anti-gun culture is immune to logic, as though the Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Age of Reason never happened and the real world is still subject to mystical faith in such incantations as, "If we just outlaw guns all gun violence will disappear."

Watchdog Politics Examiner Martha R Gore gave us Gun law proposals in Congress 2009, which identified six gun-related laws introduced early in the year.

Four, including HR 45, require ratcheting up restrictions on our rights while two appear to be pro-gun proposals. HR 17 protects the right to get and use guns for security and self-defense, while HR 18 is the self-descriptive National Right To Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009. Conservative libertarians, those who don't question why anyone should beg permission from anyone else to begin with, might be able to get behind these bills.

Meanwhile, Alexandra de Scheel over at Seattle Libertarian Examiner introduces us to Vanessa Scanfeld, founder of MixedInk.com, "a web-based tool that enables citizens to speak with a single voice." Alexandra's article, Online democracy, tells us "A group of gun rights activists recently used this tool to express their opposition to HR 45," suggesting that developing a nationwide network of firearms aficionados might be the way to battle this bill.

Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner Paul Valone has another, more radical approach for safeguarding our gun rights. Guns and the Constitution: A legislator finally 'gets it' tells the tale of New Hampshire state House Rep Daniel Itse who introduced a resolution that would allow the Granite State to secede from the union in the event of “Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition…”

Now that's a plan.

But maybe the ultimate, and most desperate, attempt to keep gun ownership alive in America is this:

Worried about gun control? Make your own gun.

British self-defense-rights activist Philip A. Luty, says Civil Liberties Examiner J.D. Tuccille, publicizes info on building homemade guns and ammo and sells how-to plans from "The Home Gunsmith Website." Or at least he used to. The site has apparently been raided and shuttered by the Brit powercrats.

There are likely many other Examiners confronting the HR 45 affront in their own ways, but this sampling will have to do for now.

Happy handgunning.