Editorial

Silencing  the lambs

David A. Lombardo

What surprises me more than anything about this administration is the general complacency of the public. I'm not a political historian, but I can't recall any president that has so totally trashed the Constitution.

To be sure there have been presidents from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush who have played fast and loose with one facet or another of the document. But this administration's cavalier attitude underscores a wanton dedication to undermining the fundamental principles of what Alexis de Tocqueville called "The Great American Experiment."

How one can overlook the administration's aggressive attack on the Second Amendment amazes me, but then I'm a gun guy and make no bones about it. But Obama's attack on the Constitution doesn't end with the Second Amendment. Taking troops into harm's way without the consent of Congress, using Predator drones to assassinate American citizens without due process, introducing unmanned aerial vehicles into U.S. airspace to watch citizens and recording every telephone call, email and text message of all Americans is beyond even George Orwell's wildest imagination.

If all that doesn't boggle the mind, there is yet another attempt to strip Americans of their Constitutional rights-an attack on the First Amendment.  

During a September 15^th Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Senator Diane Feinstein expressed her "long standing concern" over freedom of speech. "SD-226 grants special privilege to people who aren't reporters at all and who have no professional qualifications whatsoever," she said of a bill that was being considered by the committee.

By way of example, Feinstein cited that a 17-year-old high school drop-out could buy a web site for $5 and start a blog. "Attorney-client privilege applies to attorneys not to any non-legal advice. Spousal privilege applies to spouses not boyfriends and girlfriends," she said. "SD-226 could have been interpreted to cover hate web sites like that of the neo-Nazi organization, the National Socialist Movement."

While I certainly don't want to listen to the insanity of some neo-Nazi hate group, which in itself doesn't begin to approach the inane drivel to be found on the blog of a 17-year-old high school drop-out, I am loathe to even think of the alternative-banning free speech.

It was Orwell who penned the comment, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." As much as I don't want to hear the inane drivel, and please excuse the cliché, I'd put my life in harm's way to defend their right to drivel away. I'll put up with the inane drivel, thank you very much, but Senator Feinstein finds that intolerable.

Particularly intolerable for the Senator is conservative talk radio and anything with "Fox" appended to the title, so she's developed a test to establish a bona fide journalist: "...someone who is an employee, agent, or independent contractor for a media entity." It includes a broad list of media entities such as newspapers, news web sites and any other news service distributed by any means. It will be interesting to see how she ends up interpreting that to exclude the Fox empire, but the handwriting is scribbled on the wall, no doubt. I simply don't understand why the Lady from the land of the fruits and nuts didn't just propose an amendment banning conservative radio, television and print outlets.

What's next on the laundry list of Obama's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Quarter soldiers in our homes? Which makes me wonder if the guys in the two black SUVs with tinted windows parked across the street from my house 24 hours a day need a place to stay.  

White House inks U.N. Arms Trade Treaty

Secretary of State John Kerry has signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty on behalf of the Obama administration. A bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate is already on record in opposition to ratification of the ATT. On March 23 the Senate adopted an amendment to its FY 2014 Budget Resolution, offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), that establishes a deficit-neutral fund for "the purpose of preventing the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty." This amendment is in addition to the previous efforts of Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to pass concurrent resolutions opposing the treaty in their respective chambers. Notably, the ATT includes "small arms and light weapons" within its scope, which covers firearms owned by law-abiding citizens. Further, the treaty urges recordkeeping of end users, directing importing countries to provide information to an exporting country regarding arms transfers, including "end use or end user documentation" for a "minimum of ten years." Each country is to "take measures, pursuant to its national laws, to regulate brokering taking place under its jurisdiction for conventional arms." Data kept on the end users of imported firearms is a de-facto registry of law-abiding firearms owners, which is a violation of federal law. Even worse the ATT could be construed to require such a registry to be made available to foreign governments. [Source: NRA/ILA] 

Polls show waning support for more gun control

Only 40 percent of Americans say access to firearms under our current system is the main reason for mass shooting in the country, while 48 percent say that our failed mental health system is the leading cause of these tragedies, according to a new Gallup poll. Meanwhile approximately six out of ten Americans surveyed by the Rasmussen organization after last Monday's tragic shooting at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard said they considered it unlikely that tougher gun-control laws would have prevented that shooting. According to Rasmussen, support for more gun control has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year, with only 33 percent of Americans believing that it's at least "somewhat likely" that stricter gun-control laws would have prevented the mass shooting in Washington. A third poll, this one released last week by AP-NORC, shows that a growing number of our countrymen feel that the government is not doing a good enough job of protecting our Second Amendment rights. 

SAFER USA COURSE SCHEDULE

Saturday, September 28, 2013; 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Aurora Sportsmen's Club; Waterman, Illinois

Saturday, October 5, 2013; 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Aurora Sportsmen's Club; Waterman, Illinois 

 Saturday, October 12, 2013; 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Bradley, Illinois

Long Range Rifle (6 Hours)

Saturday, October 12, 2013; 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM

 Aurora Sportsmen's Club; Waterman, Illinois

NRA Basic Shotgun Course 

Saturday, October 19, 2013; 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM

 Aurora Sportsmen's Club; Waterman, Illinois