Missteps and setbacks impacting gun ban momentum as gun owners start to advance
In spite of Vice President Joe Biden’s threat in this morning’s gun grab task force meeting that “executive actions” are on the way, the legitimacy and survivability of such a move is by no means assured, as the gun ban juggernaut, reanimated following Sandy Hook, has encountered some unforeseen bumps in the road that have the potential of halting it in its tracks with no place to go that isn’t blocked. Gun owners, horrified and then outraged by a full court press from the government, the “Authorized Journalist” media and citizen disarmament advocacy groups, are beginning to push back in a coordinated effort, and are sensing that their enemies, over-confident and unrestrained, have let their reach exceed reality, and revealed an end game that’s beyond their grasp.
Fear and bewilderment at being scapegoated and punished for monstrous crimes enabled by the very people now demanding even more suicidal disarmament edicts is being replaced with anger and resolve, and there’s a sense that the sound and fury is just that, and contrary to the Borg ultimatum, resistance is definitely not futile, and not only that, but that it’s time to go on the offensive and kick some hindquarters.
A national grassroots coalition has put Congress on notice that its combined nationwide memberships will oppose “any attempt to pass gun control including, but not limited to, banning semi-automatic firearms or magazines, or requiring private gun transfers to be registered through the National Instant Check System; and repealing the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1996.”
Once more at the forefront of digging out news the mainstream press with all its horses and men seem oblivious to, as they instead traipse about dispensing administration talking point memes, citizen journalist Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars has revealed in a supreme bit of irony that “Thomas Nee, key member of Joe Biden's ‘gun violence commission,’ has a son who was convicted of plotting a Columbine-style mass murder at a school -- possibly with a service weapon obtained from his father.”
In a way, that kind of answers the "What do you need an assault weapon for?" question.
Wal-Mart, being pressured by a divide-and conquer strategy employed to give incentives to some to stay out of the fight (that’s the reason Dianne Feinstein has made it a point to emphasize that “sporting arms” are exempted from her bill, hoping the Fudds will be too damn dumb and selfish to realize that their “sniper rifles” and “destructive devices” will be next after this beachhead is secured, and the best they can hope for is the Polyphemus promise to be eaten last), has announced it can’t attend Biden’s “stakeholders” group grope on Thursday, and while one could hope that they’d come up with a better excuse than the one Hillary used to stonewall on Benghazi, we’ll take it. [And to show you how quickly things developed, the retail giant just buckled in the time it took to write this draft, and their headache suddenly got better.]
The National Rifle Association will attend. Noting nothing has been said about other more hard-line groups, and nothing appears yet on the Vice President’s public schedule, this correspondent called Biden’s press office yesterday and asked for a list of all who would be attending. At this writing, no list is available, but in a follow-up call this morning, the media representative told me it would be sent out today, and this column will present it when (if) it is received. Additionally, CNN is now reporting the National Shooting Sports Foundation, representing the gun industry, will also be there.
In a related and ingenious development, Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch has written the White House claiming Biden’s task force, as presently being conducted, violates “the Federal Advisory Committee Act which applies to ‘any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group’ that dispenses ‘advice or recommendations’ to the president of the United States.
“Pursuant to FACA, a task force must publish within the Federal Registry notice of any meeting 15 days prior to that meeting, and the meetings must be made open to the public,” Klayman maintains in his letter. “The first meeting of this task force was held a single day after its creation, without the required notice requirements having been met.”
Klayman has a great point, and as Obama has made it clear he is soliciting inputs from “stakeholders,” we who are the ultimate beneficiaries or goats deserve to know exactly who is planning to do what to us, to see what “end game” goals are enumerated by the antis, and what pill, if any, those on the “pro-gun” side think we need to swallow (but aren’t ready to publicly prescribe) to break the fever.
Assuming Klayman’s thrown flag won’t stop tomorrow’s meeting from happening, there have been concerns expressed that a compromise of some sort might be in the works, particularly if only NRA and industry representatives attend the “stakeholder” meeting, and especially if no record of the proceedings, negotiations and potential concessions is kept. That Congress, and not just ostensibly “pro-gun” representatives, but the soft, squishy middle, will be too spooked to just oppose all “gun control” proposals and feel compelled to offer up something, lest they suffer the wrath of manipulated constituencies, has been a subject of concern among some gun rights leaders, resulting in speculation that either an expansion of mental health disabilities or caving on private sales might be offered up to take the heat off the hardware.
That, of course, would be foolish and divisive, and any “leader” proposing such an intolerable compromise would correctly be perceived as a sell-out by a growing army of gun owner activists who are quickly replacing their natural initial fears with a readiness to fight. They have shown little tolerance thus far for industry members who have abandoned them in this time of need and withdrawn from the field due to posturing before the real battle has even started, and words like “Quisling” are freely and contemptuously thrown about in gun activist forums, along with commitments to boycott those perceived as turncoats, or simply as save-their-own-skin cowards.
Fortunately, for those who feel the need to offer Congress “something” to put forward, there is a bill that gun owners can unify behind that will further halt (and has the potential to reverse) the momentum, something politicians who don’t live in hive insect colony districts can take back to their constituents that makes sense and resonates with the sane. It can take the wind out of the prohibitionists’ sails and make them, instead of us play defense.
“Congressman Steve Stockman has introduced H.R. 35, the Safe Schools Act of 2013 -- a bill to allow principals, teachers, and staff to possess firearms in order to defend their students,” Gun Owners of America announced yesterday in a membership alert.
“Within a couple of years of the reenactment of the Gun Free School Zones Act [in which ‘task force leader’ Biden has claimed bragging rights – DC], the Columbine tragedy occurred. And the series of copycat school massacres has shocked and saddened our country ever since,” the GOA alert explains. “Clearly, the gun ban is not working. And it’s past time to try a new approach.
“It’s time to go on the offensive!” GOA asserts. “It’s time to repeal gun control, rather than talk about ‘enforcing the gun laws on the books. We don’t want to enforce gun control laws -- that’s what makes innocent people, including children sitting in their classrooms, less safe.”
Stockman’s legislation, currently referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, is now posted on the Library of Congress THOMAS legislative database, and has one co-sponsor at its introduction, Rep. Paul C. Broun of Georgia. (Go to the THOMAS link and select Stockman from the drop-down “Browse Bills by Sponsor” menu and select the “H.R. 35” link for all information, including the text of the bill.)
GOA is absolutely right to support this, and provides a “Take Action” contact form, where gun owner activists can petition their representatives with the expectation that they will co-sponsor and support the effort, and the importance of doing that cannot be over-emphasized. Gun owners should have contacted theirs already, and be continually demanding no new gun control [If not now, in the midst of the most ferocious assault in recent memory, when, and if not you, who?] and colleague and gun rights organizer Russ Howard has provided a no-nonsense message that will put gun owners truly on the offensive, that we can use to not only stop the gun-grabber momentum but to break the ranks of the collective supremacists and force them to retreat.
“That's right,” take the offensive!” Howard encourages, noting “the gun control hysteria is losing steam.
“You wished for [legislation] and you're going to get it,” he challenges the anti-gunners. “We're sick of being scapegoated for massacres you made possible. They're your fault, and we're not going to be here three or six months from now taking the blame for you again.
“We won't stand for scapegoating, and we won't stand for more defenseless massacres,” Howard pushes back in defiance. “We're going to roll back 'gun free' victim zones, federally, state by state, district by district.”
Take that message and share it with your representatives right now. If you don’t know yours, shame on you, but start making amends by contacting your Congressman and your Senators (and don’t forget your state representatives). If yours are confirmed and secure anti-gunners who can’t be persuaded, there’s nothing that says you can’t contact middle-of-the roaders somewhere else, even in another state. Sample text, which could be included in a contact form or email, printed on a post card, or relayed via fax or telephone call, could be something simple and unequivocal along the lines of:
WE WON’T STAND FOR SCAPEGOATING
NO NEW GUN LAWS
DENY SUCCESS TO MASS MURDERERS BY ABOLISHING PHONY ‘GUN-FREE’ VICTIM / KILLER ENABLING ZONES NOW
WORK WITH US OR WE WILL WORK TO RETIRE YOU
It also wouldn’t hurt to remind your representatives that they control the purse strings, and if the administration is seriously contemplating “executive actions” like banning imports that don’t meet “sporting purpose” requirements (and “never forget” where that term originated), you’ll expect some creative funding retaliation on their part.
And while you’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to contact NRA and NSSF, and let them know this is the message you expect and demand for them to convey on Thursday.
It’s time to show the control über alles freaks, which is what monopoly of violence zealots are, that in their unrestrained public salivation and blood-dancing frenzy they’ve reached too far and revealed too much, that we’re not afraid of them, and that we will beat them, because we can. That’s a certainty if we all not only hold fast, but show the courage to trust in our strength and advance.
Now is the time for confidence. Let the doubts and discouragement be theirs.
------------
If you're a regular Gun Rights Examiner reader and believe it provides news and perspectives you won't find in the mainstream media, please subscribe to this column and help spread the word by sharing links, promoting it on social media like Facebook (David Codrea) and Twitter (@dcodrea), and telling your like-minded friends about it. And for more commentary, be sure to visit "The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance."
