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Reflections on "Reflections"
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Reflections on "Reflections"
By David Codrea
codrea4@adelphia.net
August 26, 2002
Why has Massad Ayoob praised John Ashcroft in his "Reflections on the Second Amendment" op-ed? Yes, the Attorney General has given us fine words regarding the Second Amendment, but he refuses to back them up. Instead, he maintains that ALL federal gun control laws are constitutional, falling within the scope of "reasonable and compelling state interest" restrictions. Add to this the push to add more federal prosecutors specifically dedicated to prosecuting "gun crimes" in support of Project Exile/Safe Neighborhoods, a federal power grab violating both the Second and the Tenth Amendments.
With all due respect to Mr. Ayoob, that hardly seems cause for "two cartwheels and a backflip."
Ashcroft's Solicitor General, Ted Olsen, argued against the Supreme Court hearing two gun-related cases that presented Second Amendment arguments, and even argued against restoring gun rights to a law-abiding citizen whose only "offense" was accidentally having a box of ammo in the back of his truck when he visited Mexico. No "crime" was committed in the US, yet this American citizen is still barred for life from owning a gun in the land that supposedly guarantees him that right! Using such logic, an American, say, one of Mr. Ashcroft's fellow Pentecostals caught with a Bible in Saudi Arabia, would be regarded by our government as a felon, with attendant lifetime consequences.
Furthermore, Mr. Ashcroft has ignored the Petition for Enforcement of the Second Amendment, a plea that the federal government enforce the Second Amendment from infringement exactly as they would were other civil rights being violated by government agencies. This Petition has been signed by over 25,000 Americans and sent to the AG over several mailings during the past nine months.
The ONLY response received to date was a letter that did not even mention the redress issues the Petition raised, and it was sent by the DoJ's Chief of Terrorism and Violent Crime. Left unsaid is why they assigned their response to that division, but it appears they equate American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights with terrorists and violent criminals. Tell me this doesn't have (intentional) chilling implications for people who have signed the Petition or may be considering doing so, and for those of us who wrote and continue to promote it.
Ashcroft's words have proven to be hollow and politically motivated -- a scrap thrown to gun owners to make it look like they are making progress without the administration changing a thing. And remember, all it takes is for Bush (who gun owners put over the top, and who won't even allow pilots to be armed, evidently preferring that an F-16 shoot down American hostages) to lose the next election, and the AG will be replaced by a new Lord High Executioner ala Janet Reno, among whose first acts will be to issue an edict rescinding Ashcroft's interpretation.
Words without consistent actions are either meaningless or lies. Ashcroft hasn't shown the "legal acumen and/or judicial temperament and/or intellectual honesty" that the "Reflections" essay credits him with. Until he does, he appears to be just another worm-tongued tyrant -- someone willing to destroy our lives if he catches you, me or Mr. Ayoob defying unconstitutional edicts and claiming our inalienable rights.
David Codrea is a co-founder and director for the national pro-rights media campaign, Citizens of America (CitizensOfAmerica.org), and an advisor and contributor for KeepAndBearArms.com. His professional writing is featured often in Guns and Ammo magazine. Additionally, he is the national coordinator for A Petition for the Enforcement of the Second Amendment (KeepAndBearArms.com/Petition). His archives can be accessed here: KeepAndBearArms.com/Codrea.
http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=3500
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By David Codrea
codrea4@adelphia.net
August 26, 2002
Why has Massad Ayoob praised John Ashcroft in his "Reflections on the Second Amendment" op-ed? Yes, the Attorney General has given us fine words regarding the Second Amendment, but he refuses to back them up. Instead, he maintains that ALL federal gun control laws are constitutional, falling within the scope of "reasonable and compelling state interest" restrictions. Add to this the push to add more federal prosecutors specifically dedicated to prosecuting "gun crimes" in support of Project Exile/Safe Neighborhoods, a federal power grab violating both the Second and the Tenth Amendments.
With all due respect to Mr. Ayoob, that hardly seems cause for "two cartwheels and a backflip."
Ashcroft's Solicitor General, Ted Olsen, argued against the Supreme Court hearing two gun-related cases that presented Second Amendment arguments, and even argued against restoring gun rights to a law-abiding citizen whose only "offense" was accidentally having a box of ammo in the back of his truck when he visited Mexico. No "crime" was committed in the US, yet this American citizen is still barred for life from owning a gun in the land that supposedly guarantees him that right! Using such logic, an American, say, one of Mr. Ashcroft's fellow Pentecostals caught with a Bible in Saudi Arabia, would be regarded by our government as a felon, with attendant lifetime consequences.
Furthermore, Mr. Ashcroft has ignored the Petition for Enforcement of the Second Amendment, a plea that the federal government enforce the Second Amendment from infringement exactly as they would were other civil rights being violated by government agencies. This Petition has been signed by over 25,000 Americans and sent to the AG over several mailings during the past nine months.
The ONLY response received to date was a letter that did not even mention the redress issues the Petition raised, and it was sent by the DoJ's Chief of Terrorism and Violent Crime. Left unsaid is why they assigned their response to that division, but it appears they equate American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights with terrorists and violent criminals. Tell me this doesn't have (intentional) chilling implications for people who have signed the Petition or may be considering doing so, and for those of us who wrote and continue to promote it.
Ashcroft's words have proven to be hollow and politically motivated -- a scrap thrown to gun owners to make it look like they are making progress without the administration changing a thing. And remember, all it takes is for Bush (who gun owners put over the top, and who won't even allow pilots to be armed, evidently preferring that an F-16 shoot down American hostages) to lose the next election, and the AG will be replaced by a new Lord High Executioner ala Janet Reno, among whose first acts will be to issue an edict rescinding Ashcroft's interpretation.
Words without consistent actions are either meaningless or lies. Ashcroft hasn't shown the "legal acumen and/or judicial temperament and/or intellectual honesty" that the "Reflections" essay credits him with. Until he does, he appears to be just another worm-tongued tyrant -- someone willing to destroy our lives if he catches you, me or Mr. Ayoob defying unconstitutional edicts and claiming our inalienable rights.
David Codrea is a co-founder and director for the national pro-rights media campaign, Citizens of America (CitizensOfAmerica.org), and an advisor and contributor for KeepAndBearArms.com. His professional writing is featured often in Guns and Ammo magazine. Additionally, he is the national coordinator for A Petition for the Enforcement of the Second Amendment (KeepAndBearArms.com/Petition). His archives can be accessed here: KeepAndBearArms.com/Codrea.
http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=3500
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878