----- Message from SAF Alerts <safalerts@...> on Mon, 1 Dec
2008 11:45:40 -0800 -----
Subject: Why America's Gun Owners Are Justifiably Up In Arms

Why America's gun owners are justifiably up in arms
By Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman

From the prospect of an incoming president and vice president with
decidedly anti-gun-rights voting records, to a liberal West Coast mayor
determined to ban firearms by "executive order" without benefit of city
council or legislative review, American gun owners have good reason to
doubt the sincerity of Liberal Democrats now in control of Congress and
soon to control the Oval Office, who claim to support firearm civil
rights.

Far too many red flags are being waved for gun owners to take a benign
posture just six months after a landmark Supreme Court ruling confirmed
what they had known all along; that the Second Amendment affirms and
protects a fundamental individual civil right to keep and bear arms.

President-elect Barack Obama is on record supporting gun registration,
permanent renewal of the ban on so-called "assault weapons," slapping an
exorbitant increase on the federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition,
and banning handguns outright. His buffoonish vice president-elect,
Delaware's Joe Biden, is a veteran gun control advocate who authored the
original "assault weapons" legislation.

Recently, it was revealed that prospective Obama Administration employees
were being asked this invasive question: "Do you or any members of your
immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and
registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also
describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of
any personal injuries or property damage."

Aside from demonstrating a serious ignorance of gun laws – only five
states require some level of gun registration, and only in New York City
and in New York's Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties is there a
renewal requirement – this question suggests that gun owners, or kin of
gun owners, will face anti-gun discrimination in their job search. Call it
guilt by association, either with firearms or with a relative who owns
one.

If this is the kind of "change" we can expect under the Obama
administration, gun owners have reason to worry. The more that Democrats
"change" the more they stay the same. American citizens flocked to gun
shops after the election. Many of those people, ironically, were
first-time gun buyers or gun owners who voted for the Chicago Democrat.
Obama reinforced gun owner apprehension by appointing Rahm Emanuel – point
man for the Clinton administration on gun control issues – as his chief of
staff. Eric Holder, his nominee for Attorney General, signed an amicus
brief in support of the Washington DC gun ban, while arguing that the
Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to keep and bear
arms, positions soundly rejected by the Supreme Court.

Both houses of Congress are controlled by Obama's Democratic Party, and
leadership positions are occupied by devoted anti-gunners. As we detailed
in our recent book, These Dogs Don't Hunt: The Democrats' War on Guns, the
party excels in pro-Second Amendment rhetoric, but labors to reduce that
right to a highly-regulated privilege.

This brings us around to Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle. He has promised to
ban even legally-carried guns from city (make that public) property, by
executive order. Nearly 250,000 Washington State residents are licensed to
carry concealed handguns, and it is also legal in the Evergreen State to
carry handguns openly, without a license.

Nickels was advised by the State Attorney General that he lacks the
authority under Washington's model pre-emption law to enact a gun ban, but
he has vowed to do it anyway.

Gun owners see this as imperial arrogance, and suspect that if Nickels can
ignore his own state's preemption statute, then Congress and a Democrat
president might just presume to ignore the Constitution.



These Dogs Don't Hunt: The Democrats' War on Guns

This book is a must read for every gun owner concerned about the election
results.
Buy now at a discount
from www.amazon.com



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