Monday, June 19, 2006

Stop The Madness!

The Call of the Gun Lobby - New York Times:
The criminalizing of peace officers for swapping federal data beyond their narrow jurisdictions is only one of the provisions in a pair of treacherous bills quietly on the move, in another sweeping triumph for the gun lobby. The bills would gut what is left of initiative in the hamstrung bureau that's supposed to control firearms. They would roll back laws for stopping illicit gun traffickers, water down criminal definitions and penalties, and snuff out the current notification to concerned police officials about the virtual fire sales of multiple guns to single buyers by dealers arming the underworld.

These two bills would give crooked dealers more — not less — leeway in interstate trafficking. The Justice Department has warned that the worst provisions would have a 'chilling effect' on gun control and law enforcement. If they had been in effect during the deadly spree of the Washington, D.C., snipers, the dealer who peddled the murder rifle and scores of other crime guns could never have been shut down under federal law.

The gun lobby will do almost anything to deny basic information about the gun mayhem that Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and 60 other mayors are properly pursuing through the courts. The bills answer the question of how craven Congress can get in catering to its demands.
Or, just shoot me. Kidding. The gun lobby is one of the worst when it comes to public health concerns. Big tobacco was hardly more cutthroat. The second amendment mentions state militias, but somewhere along the way that part has been forgotten or purposely overlooked. The lobbyists keep saying that if we criminalize gun ownership, only criminals will have guns (they conveniently leave out the police and armed forces), and that's just fine with me. They have them now! So what difference will it make, other than make the sale of guns to criminals a crime and therefore stoppable?!

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