Will Congress Take Your Guns?(From 3/09")

Will Congress Take Your Guns?
by Ashley Alber
03/02/2009
Despite the clear language in the Second Amendment -- and last year’s Supreme Court decision that said it preserved an individual’s right to keep and bear arms -- gun rights still are a prime target for liberal legislators. Just last week, Attorney General Holder announced that the Obama administration would seek the return of the so-called “assault weapons” ban.

On the other side of the spectrum, conservatives such as Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) see the Second Amendment as non-negotiable based on this implicit right spelled out in the Bill of Rights.

“This amendment shouldn’t even be an issue, but the mainstream media is eager to distort the truth to the American people,” LaPierre said. “Unfortunately for many Americans who are unaware, the media perpetuates lies in order to help get these bans enacted.”


As mainstream media, particularly CNN, flashes images of firearms shooting into the camera and flickers the slogans “weapons of war” and “guns like our soldiers use on the battlefield,” many Americans are terrified by the thought of machine guns being a commonplace among citizens. LaPierre introduced the panel “Will Congress Take Your Guns?” before a packed audience at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with brief clips from liberals and mainstream media reporting the fallacies associated with the Second Amendment that infiltrate into millions of homes across the country.

The first of these fallacies, LaPierre explains, is that public safety must be maintained by eliminating firearm purchases by citizens, and second, that Mexican drug cartels would not have as many weapons if gun bans were enforced for Americans. However, in the midst of one of the hardest economic times, gun sales are the highest on record said LaPierre.

Rep. Connie Mack of Florida has never supported gun bans and says he will continue this record each time a bill comes before Congress attempting to restrict gun ownership by American citizens.

“Only the liberals in Washington, D.C. can read the Second Amendment and not understand exactly what it reads is what it means,” Mack said.

Mack’s advocacy for limited federal government over the states and citizens was elicited in his statement that in his book and his office, government is not the answer to every problem. The core principle driving the Second Amendment is freedom and security which must ride together as a fundamental American right he said.

Former Virginia governor and senator George Allen, added facts that prove the vast majority of crimes do not result from private gun ownership.

“Look at Washington, D.C., we can’t have guns in this town and we can hardly call this place safe,” Allen said. “It comes down to being harsher on criminals because criminals don’t obey gun bans, so punishing the good guy is not the answer.”

Allen says that it is not the responsibility of the U.S. to uphold the responsibilities rooted in the goals of the U.N. which is working toward an international gun ban, or the authorities in Mexico.

Moderator for the panel, Chuck Cunningham of the NRA reminded the audience that fundamental rights such as the right to bear arms will always be under fire for restriction and the importance for conservatives to activate their voice by joining the NRA in the fight to help preserve this amendment.

“The guys with guns make the rules and I don’t care if that’s not politically correct,” LaPierre said.