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Will Tom Ridge defend your freedoms or threaten them?
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Will Tom Ridge defend your freedoms or threaten them? Some of your fellow Pennsylvanians are questioning the former governor's track record. Maybe you should be, too. Mike Slavonic is the Legislative Committee chairman of the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League. The nonprofit organization describes itself as "an educational organization dedicated to the preservation of our natural wildlife resources through hunting and fishing. "The ACSL also teams with other pro-gun organizations and works to preserve the fundamental Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms as protected under Article 1, Section 21 of the Pennsylvania Constitution's `Declaration of Rights,' and the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution educating Legislators and the general public regarding the Constitutional prohibition on any form of gun control, and the historic failures of gun control legislation as a crime control tool." In a telephone interview, Slavonic said, "We know Ridge's record." While Slavonic stressed that the Sportsmen's League supports President Bush during these trying times, he said its support for Ridge as head of the Office of Homeland Security is another matter - i.e., there is none. There are six privacy issues regarding Ridge and his tenure as governor that Slavonic wants you to consider: 1) The constitution says the right of citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned. Slavonic says the database the state maintains of law-abiding gun owners does question them, violating that provision. Coincidentally, criminals cannot be made to register their firearms because the Fifth Amendment protects them from self-incrimination. (Haynes v. U.S. 1968) 2) The ACSL was very concerned about Ridge's enthusiastic support of the Conference of States resolution. In fact, he wanted the de facto constitutional convention held in Philadelphia. Slavonic said constitutional experts were near-unanimous in agreeing that the proposed convention placed the U.S. Constitution in jeopardy. 3) Ridge's support of the roving wiretap bill (SB 635), according to Slavonic, absolved government agencies of accountability if they made "good-faith" mistakes, like wiretapping without a warrant. 4) Did Ridge want the feds to be free to enforce state laws, with immunity from criminal and civil liability, even though they weren't trained to understand them? Slavonic said Ridge did not appear to oppose SB 75, which expanded the power of the federal government. 5) By not opposing SB 806, Ridge essentially was allowing the dumbing down of the state constitution. Slavonic says Section 8 of Article 1 of the state constitution gives you more protection from illegal search and seizure than the U.S. Constitution. Yet Ridge wanted the state version to be construed as being in conformity with the inferior Fourth Amendment. 6) Slavonic reminds law-abiding gun owners that Ridge voted for the banning of semiautomatic weapons when he was a congressman. Since he was willing to do that as a representative, you have to wonder what else he'd be willing to exchange for the promise of a little more security. And since Ridge was so willing to compromise many of your freedoms during peacetime in Pennsylvania, what will he be willing to do during wartime throughout America? The ACSL concerns may be on target. Dimitri Vassilaros is the morning radio talk host on News Radio 1170 WWVA. His e-mail address is dimitriv@stargate.net. http://www.triblive.com/live/news/news_story.html?rkey=180527+sid=46ee75314d15a11f6b4ed04976efd69f+cat=news-columns-dimitri+template=news1.html
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When you want to dial long distance...AT&T, .223, or Jeremiah 33.3?
When you want to dial long distance...AT&T, .223, or Jeremiah 33.3?
So many guns to buy. So little money.