|
Holder Living Up To Reputation As Gun Grabber
By Steve Hempfling
The choice of Eric Holder for attorney general sends an alarming signal to gun owners about how the Obama administration will view individual gun rights, as affirmed this year by the Supreme Court.
Holder signed an amicus brief in the Heller case that supported the District of Columbia’s handgun ban, and also argued that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right. He has supported national handgun licensing and mandatory trigger locks. As deputy attorney general under Janet Reno, he lobbied Congress to pass legislation that would have curtailed legitimate gun shows.
This is not the record of a man who came to office as the nation’s top law enforcement officer with the rights and concerns of gun owners in mind. Holder’s selection, like the appointment of anti-gun Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as White House chief of staff, tells American gun owners that Obama’s campaign claims supporting the Second Amendment were empty rhetoric.
 |
America’s 85 million gun owners have ample reason to be pessimistic about how their civil rights will fare under the Obama administration. Obama has a Congress with an anti-gun Democrat majority leadership to push his agenda. Gun owners have not forgotten Obama’s acknowledged opposition to concealed carry rights, nor his support for a ban on handgun ownership when he was running for the Illinois state Senate.
Obama vigorously portrayed himself on the campaign trail as a man who supports gun ownership. But now that he was won the election, he is surrounding himself with people who are avowed gun prohibitionists. What better indication of what to expect from Obama as president than the people he is selecting to lead his administration? This isn’t a roster of devoted public servants. It’s a rogue’s gallery of extremists who have labored to erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights.
Steve Hempfling is the president of the Free Enterprise Society, a group dedicated to removing government intrusion into the personal and business lives of Americans. He may be reached at [email protected]
(Issue # 13, March 30, 2009)
|
