Fellow citizens - The article, copied from concealcarry.org, details this idiots rant. It also has contact info should you wish to offer corrections to his article..
Bush is letting assault weapons ban expire
August 14, 2004
http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-ref14a.html
BY STEPHEN YOUNG
Four years ago, gun violence was a key issue. After a series of mass shootings across the country and the failure of Congress to pass one piece of legislation addressing them, voters wanted answers. On Mother's Day 2000, 750,000 people gathered in Washington at the Million Mom March to demand action.
On Mother's Day 2004, the Million Mom March put out the call for another gathering, and 2,500 showed up. What happened to the gun control movement?
War, terrorism and jobs have pushed the gun issue off the political radar screen, which is where the Bush administration would like it to stay. But they're not going to get their wish.
Assault rifles are about to become legal in September when the law banning assault weapons expires. These are the same weapons our troops are trying to take off the streets of Baghdad. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said he supported the ban. Early in 2004, he said he'd sign an extension of the ban if it reached his desk. That's turned out to be a big if.
In election year politics, saying he'll sign it doesn't mean he supports it. Recently, an Illinois congressman confided to gun control activists that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has received no White House directive to bring the ban extension bill on the floor.
This past March, the White House was caught unprepared when an extension of the ban was heading to Bush's desk as an amendment to the ''Lawful Protection of Commerce Act.'' The bill, which sought to give the gun industry almost 100 percent legal immunity from lawsuits, so enraged the gun-control movement that in a rare display of teamwork, it unified to defeat it. The victory prevented the dismissal of dozens of lawsuits pending against gun manufacturers and retailers, including a suit I've filed in Illinois arising from the death of my son with an illegally trafficked handgun.
Over the past 20 years, the gun industry's products have taken the lives of more than 30,000 Americans annually. The industry's critics accuse it of refusing to police itself and allowing junk gun manufacturers and unethical retailers to pour guns into illegal markets.
The Lawful Protection of Commerce Act was a product of the National Rifle Association in reaction to the slew of lawsuits brought by victims and governmental entities. It argued the suits have financially stressed an industry selling a ''legal'' product, and that more suits could close firearms companies, throwing thousands of employees out of work. No mention was made of the hundreds of thousands who have lost the ability to work because they were shot dead.
Bush said he'd sign the bill, claiming that tort reform is needed to protect defendants from unreasonable lawsuits. Bush also specified he wanted the bill to reach his desk with no amendments. The bill's opponents used that strategy to bring it down. Three amendments attached in the Senate survived by narrow margins. The first required that trigger locks be sold with all handguns. The second stipulated closing the gun show loophole that allows felons and the mentally unstable to buy weapons without a background check. The third extended the assault weapons ban.
To moderate voters, the three amendments seem reasonable. But the extremists won: The NRA refused to accept the three amendments, and the White House ordered the bill defeated.
On Sept. 13, the assault weapons ban will expire, and Bush will tell the electorate he would have signed the bill had it reached his desk. Police officers support the ban almost unanimously, as does about 75 percent of the American public. Still, Bush has decided to stick with his base in the NRA.
As we approach the election, Bush will claim he's the stronger candidate in dealing with terrorism, but if the gun control movement is smart, they'll ask him: How is it we're safer if assault weapons are now legal, and felons and terrorists can waltz into weekend gun shows to buy a military combat rifle with no questions asked?
Stephen Young is an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University.
And Mr. Young would like you to email him at: [email protected] and tell him how much you enjoyed his article. You can also email the Sun Times Letters section at [email protected]
Posted By John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc. Comments welcome: [email protected]
Bush is letting assault weapons ban expire
August 14, 2004
http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-ref14a.html
BY STEPHEN YOUNG
Four years ago, gun violence was a key issue. After a series of mass shootings across the country and the failure of Congress to pass one piece of legislation addressing them, voters wanted answers. On Mother's Day 2000, 750,000 people gathered in Washington at the Million Mom March to demand action.
On Mother's Day 2004, the Million Mom March put out the call for another gathering, and 2,500 showed up. What happened to the gun control movement?
War, terrorism and jobs have pushed the gun issue off the political radar screen, which is where the Bush administration would like it to stay. But they're not going to get their wish.
Assault rifles are about to become legal in September when the law banning assault weapons expires. These are the same weapons our troops are trying to take off the streets of Baghdad. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said he supported the ban. Early in 2004, he said he'd sign an extension of the ban if it reached his desk. That's turned out to be a big if.
In election year politics, saying he'll sign it doesn't mean he supports it. Recently, an Illinois congressman confided to gun control activists that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has received no White House directive to bring the ban extension bill on the floor.
This past March, the White House was caught unprepared when an extension of the ban was heading to Bush's desk as an amendment to the ''Lawful Protection of Commerce Act.'' The bill, which sought to give the gun industry almost 100 percent legal immunity from lawsuits, so enraged the gun-control movement that in a rare display of teamwork, it unified to defeat it. The victory prevented the dismissal of dozens of lawsuits pending against gun manufacturers and retailers, including a suit I've filed in Illinois arising from the death of my son with an illegally trafficked handgun.
Over the past 20 years, the gun industry's products have taken the lives of more than 30,000 Americans annually. The industry's critics accuse it of refusing to police itself and allowing junk gun manufacturers and unethical retailers to pour guns into illegal markets.
The Lawful Protection of Commerce Act was a product of the National Rifle Association in reaction to the slew of lawsuits brought by victims and governmental entities. It argued the suits have financially stressed an industry selling a ''legal'' product, and that more suits could close firearms companies, throwing thousands of employees out of work. No mention was made of the hundreds of thousands who have lost the ability to work because they were shot dead.
Bush said he'd sign the bill, claiming that tort reform is needed to protect defendants from unreasonable lawsuits. Bush also specified he wanted the bill to reach his desk with no amendments. The bill's opponents used that strategy to bring it down. Three amendments attached in the Senate survived by narrow margins. The first required that trigger locks be sold with all handguns. The second stipulated closing the gun show loophole that allows felons and the mentally unstable to buy weapons without a background check. The third extended the assault weapons ban.
To moderate voters, the three amendments seem reasonable. But the extremists won: The NRA refused to accept the three amendments, and the White House ordered the bill defeated.
On Sept. 13, the assault weapons ban will expire, and Bush will tell the electorate he would have signed the bill had it reached his desk. Police officers support the ban almost unanimously, as does about 75 percent of the American public. Still, Bush has decided to stick with his base in the NRA.
As we approach the election, Bush will claim he's the stronger candidate in dealing with terrorism, but if the gun control movement is smart, they'll ask him: How is it we're safer if assault weapons are now legal, and felons and terrorists can waltz into weekend gun shows to buy a military combat rifle with no questions asked?
Stephen Young is an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University.
And Mr. Young would like you to email him at: [email protected] and tell him how much you enjoyed his article. You can also email the Sun Times Letters section at [email protected]
Posted By John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc. Comments welcome: [email protected]
