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Anti-Gunners Shamelessly Exploit September 11
Tragedies
From the NRA:
As we predicted, the anti-Second Amendment
community has employed the disgraceful tactic of exploiting our
nation`s fear over terrorism to promote attacks on our Right to Keep
and Bear Arms. On September 25, the Boston Globe published a grossly
misleading attack on gun shows by syndicated columnist Tom Oliphant-an
attack clearly inspired by a "fact sheet" provided to him by
the anti-gun organization called Americans for Gun Safety (AGS).
Oliphant and AGS seem to have collaborated in a deliberate attempt to
inject the word "terrorist" into the gun show debate by
digging up a case the FBI began investigating more than a year ago.
Oliphant and AGS attempted to use the case of a convicted felon, Ali
Boumelhem, suspected of going to gun shows to purchase firearms
intended to be shipped overseas for use in terrorist activities as a
reason for promoting legislation that would shut down gun shows as we
know them today. The facts do not support the anti-gunners, though,
because the system worked-the suspect was arrested, prosecuted, and
convicted in federal court.
In order to foster the ruse that there was a link between gun shows
and terrorism, AGS selectively edited material it sent journalists and
members of Congress to try to create a nexus for its agenda of placing
new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. The AGS "fact
sheet" mailing states an FBI informant previously had seen
Boumelhem in Beirut unloading shipments of weapons and explosives. The
Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, which AGS cites as its source, is
much more specific, saying the FBI informant "had seen Boumelhem
in Beirut unloading shipments of automatic weapons, explosives,
grenades and rocket launchers." Clearly, "automatic weapons,
explosives, grenades and rocket launchers" was changed to
"weapons and explosives" by AGS, knowing full well that none
of those items can be bought or sold at any gun show anywhere in
America.
AGS, the recent creation of anti-gun billionaire (and a past board
member of the gun-ban lobby formally known as HCI) Andrew McKelvey,
was conceived as a public relations ploy to push the same old gun
control agenda behind the facade of "third way" centrist
rhetoric. And despite its carefully focus-grouped moniker, McKelvey`s
creation has zero Americans for members and nothing to do with gun
safety programs.
AGS is joined in its shameless exploitation of tragedy by McKelvey`s
old friends at HCI. But Sarah Brady`s gun-ban lobby took Oliphant`s
column a step further, and is using it to promote the registration of
all law-abiding gun purchasers. But even more shamelessly than AGS,
which refuses to publicly admit its true national agenda is the
licensing and registration of all gun owners, HCI has further expanded
the exploitation of the tragic events of September 11. Virtually every
release from the gun-ban lobby concerning the recent terrorist
attacks-attacks, we should all remember, that did not involve any
firearms-has included a pitch promoting its anti-gun agenda. Even a
recent release regarding the discussion of arming airline pilots as a
possible safeguard against terrorist hijackings saw the gun-ban
lobby`s president, Michael Barnes, include a pitch for registering gun
owners.
In the days and weeks to come, Congress will consider many proposals
that seek to ensure America`s safety from terrorists, but promoting
attacks on legal gun shows and pushing registration schemes for
law-abiding gun owners have no place in this discussion. Be sure to
let your federal lawmakers know that the debate over legislative
attacks on legal gun shows, such as S. 767, introduced by U.S. Senator
Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and S. 890, introduced by U.S. Senators Joseph
Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), have no place in an
appropriate congressional debate on the threat of terrorism. Be sure
to contact your U.S. Senators, at (202) 224-3121, and your U.S.
Representative, at (202) 225-3121, and urge them to do everything
possible to end the threat of terrorism, but not at the expense of our
freedom. You can also find contact information for your federal
lawmakers by using the "Write Your Reps" tool found at http://www.NRAILA.org.
For the complete text of Oliphant's dishonest article click
here, but have a barf bag ready.
Bud Link's Response to Oliphant's drivel
Mr. Oliphant:
Are you serious? Do you think a couple of
terrorists here could supply the movement in any serious way from gun
shows, background check or not?
Do you really think American street prices, plus
trans-continental shipping, plus the costs of living here long enough
to buy very large numbers of arms, make these arms cheaper than they
are in Middle-Eastern arms bazaars (both literal and figurative
bazaars)? Do you really think they don't have sources of free arms
from the national armories of Syria, Lebanon, Libya, et al? What about
China?
What about the practical issues of buying, say,
10,000 AK-47s one, two, or even ten at a time? Then crating and
shipping them? And getting them through the necessary paperwork? The
time involved alone is staggering. And it would have to be repeated
again and again to make up for field attrition.
I've read reports of AK-47s being sold in the
Middle East for as little as $15.00. You can't buy a magazine for one
for that price in the U.S., thanks to the Brady Law. The idea gun
shows are an important source of arms is absurd.
You wrote: "...easy for terrorists to shop
for the very instruments of their business." Wait a minute: the
instruments they used were airline tickets, box cutters, and un-armed
American passengers, disarmed by the very "security"
measures that are demonstrably useless. The first Trade Center
bomber's "instruments" were a rental truck, fuel oil The
last and most powerful of their weapons was this: the willingness of
Americans to discard their freedom and submit, sheep-like, to the
decimation of their rights. It's a weapon you want to wield, sir.
You also wrote: "...it's not too much to
insist that we should make it much harder for terrorists to shop for
weapons in this country." And just what do you say to the sale by
the Clinton Administration to high-end computers, fiber-optic secure
communications technology, and so much more to China and others?
BTW--none of the September 11th terrorists used
firearms of any sort. Remember? But you can bet your gluteus maximus
they made great use of the frequency-skipping radios sold by Bill
Clinton, and by the bushel basket, to Syria.
Of course, you make the same old error: you write
as though the material object, a firearm, were the source of evil. It
isn't. And no law nor "security measure" will stop evil
hearts willing to die to reach a goal. Either your reasoning powers
are minute in that you don't see this, or your goals and objects are
not what you claim. Hmmm.
Last, you wrote: "...after repeated
warnings, homeland defense of our citizen front line is on its way to
creation." Mr. Oliphant, you're wrong yet again. Men much wiser
than I (maybe even wiser than you?) established our "homeland
defense" policy well over 200 years ago. It reads: "A
well-regulated [meaning competent] Militia [meaning armed citizens],
being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
If you think it laughable to consider the Second
Amendment in this way, remember the Japanese reaction at the idea of
invading California: they rejected the idea out of hand, realizing
they'd find a well-armed populace.
Well, sir? Defend your claims, I say. Defend them
if you can.
Bud Link
Related Links:
MICHAEL MOORE HAS AN EPIPHANY
"I cannot go to work. But I have a film to
finish. Our editor has been unable to make it in from New Jersey, but
he is there now waiting for some word on what to do. I can't even
think about this movie. I don't WANT to think about it because if I
think about it I will have to face an ugly truth that has been gnawing
through my head... This started out as a documentary on gun violence
in America, but the largest mass murder in our history was just
committed -- without the use of a single gun! Not a single bullet
fired! No bomb was set off, no missile was fired, no weapon (i.e., a
device that was solely and specifically manufactured to kill humans)
was used. A box cutter! -- I can't stop thinking about this. A thousand
gun control laws would not have prevented this massacre. What am I
doing?" -- Michael Moore, gun control advocate who badgered
K-Mart into stopping the sale of pistol ammunition http://www.michaelmoore.com/2001_0922.html
Americans for the Protection of Terrorists and
Violent Criminals
http://ww2.americansforgunsafety.com/
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