LaPierre Says Obama Has All the Gun Laws He Needs

Just listened to a video on Facebook made by the darling of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre. He was adamantly claiming the “carnage” in the U.S. would stop if Obama would simply enforce the current U.S. gun laws. (I’m not posting the video itself as I don’t want to give LaPierre any more publicity than necessary.)

President Obama has all the laws he needs to stop the bloodshed now …

Coincidentally, just a few hours before listening to this message, I had typed in Google search: “Gun laws in the U.S.”

Here is what I found on Wikipedia:

Most federal gun laws were enacted through one or more of these acts:^[1][2]

• National Firearms Act (NFA) (1934) – Taxes the manufacture and transfer of, and mandates the registration of Title II weapons such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, heavy weapons, explosive ordnance, silencers, and disguised or improvised firearms.
• Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (1968) – Prohibited interstate trade in handguns, increased the minimum age to 21 for buying handguns.
• Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) (1968) – Focuses primarily on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.
• Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA) (1986) – Revised and partially repealed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Prohibited the sale to civilians of automatic firearms manufactured after the date of the law’s passage. Required ATF approval of transfers of automatic firearms.
• Undetectable Firearms Act (1988) – Effectively criminalizes, with a few exceptions, the manufacture, importation, sale, shipment, delivery, possession, transfer, or receipt of firearms with less than 3.7 oz of metal content.
• Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990) – Prohibits unauthorized individuals from knowingly possessing a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.
• Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1993) – Requires background checks on most firearm purchasers, depending on seller and venue.
• Federal Assault Weapons Ban (1994–2004) – Banned semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices. The law expired in 2004.
• Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (2005) – Prevent firearms manufacturers and licensed dealers from being held liable for negligence when crimes have been committed with their products.

Maybe I’m missing something, but does anyone see something in here that confirms LaPierre’s statement that Obama has all the laws he needs?

The laws talk about taxes, interstate trade, interstate commerce, guns that contain less than 3.7 oz. of metal content, gun-free school zones, background checks, and negligence liability related to manufacturers and dealers. The only Federal law that resembles any kind of gun control is the background checks — and we’ve seen the effect they have had.

Please. Someone enlighten me.

I’m aware there have been cases before the Court that addressed the various use of guns (mostly, it seems, related to state laws), but the above are the “Federal Gun Laws.”

It is important to note that state gun laws do vary considerably, and are independent of existing federal firearms laws. They can be broader or more limited in scope than the federal laws.

Also note that the one law that could have made a difference EXPIRED in 2004.

So What if President Obama is Muslim?

There is a video making the rounds via email that totally disgusts me.  It is about President Obama and his Muslim background and is clearly an attempt by the video producers to show him in a negative light by using soundbites and images to promote their personal ideology.

If you haven’t seen it, the link is at the bottom of this posting.

Ever since he took office, President Obama has been trying to get the American people to think positively of the Muslin people and of the Islamic faith. He wants us to stop focusing on the Muslim extremists and realize there are good people in Iran (and other Muslin countries) just as there are in other nations of the world. He says himself that he is trying to fight the negative stereotypes that the American people have of Muslim people.

During WW2, people did the same thing they’re doing today — they condemned every German and Japanese person just because of the actions the governments of these countries took against the U.S. Were all the people bad? No. Surely we know by now there are bad apples in every barrel. Or do we?

Obama has never denied his Muslim background. Would we prefer that he did … and then find out about it later? How would that have set with the American people? Just because he chooses to honor his background rather than deny it and cast it in a bad light, certain people castigate him and call him disloyal to the U.S.

Towards the end of the video, Obama makes the statement that America is not and never will be at war with Islam. He has made it clear in other speeches that we are, however, at war with the extremists and jihadists who want to destroy America.

President Obama once made the comment that we are not a Christian (or a Jewish or a Muslim) nation and many people went ballistic! How dare he! What they failed to hear was his next statement: “We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

What is often forgotten — or deliberately overlooked — is that our Constitution does NOT say we are a Christian nation. On the contrary, our forefathers wanted to make it clear that each of us has the right to practice any religion of our choice. (Read the First Amendment — and while you’re at it, read about the religious background of the founders of the Constitution.)

This video is just one more example of individuals trying to whip people into a frenzy and add to the already-present discord and strife in our country. It does nothing but breed fanaticism and an ongoing spiral of hate, fear, and reprisals.

Finally, I find it interesting that those who denounce President Obama’s Muslim background often claim to be Christians … yet they overlook one of the greatest commandments ever uttered by their Leader  … love your neighbor as yourself.

Here is the link to the video.

McCain the Warmonger

Quote from McCain:

We know what it takes to succeed in Afghanistan: a resolute commitment to the principles of counterinsurgency, which turned Iraq around during the surge. This won’t be perfect or easy, but it will allow America’s fighting men and women to leave Afghanistan with honor, and it will enable Afghans to build a better, more peaceful future.

I have to ask McCain …

1. What’s more important to our fighting men and women — leaving  Afghanistan “with honor” or staying alive?
2. Why do Americans have to die to help Afghanistan “build a better, more peaceful future?”

McCain says he sympathizes with President Obama because “sending men and women into harm’s way is the most difficult decision that a commander in chief must make.”

Contrary to McCain’s desire to go in with guns blazing, Obama makes this statement:

Every time I sign an order, you know, I’m answerable to the parents of those young men and women who I’m sending over there, and I want to make sure that it’s for the right reason.

I’m not big on following war news, but it seems to me that somewhere along the way we’ve lost sight of the original goal — to get Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Now, according to McCain,  it seems to be all about helping Afghanistan build a more secure nation.

Am I missing something? 

 

Go President Obama!

Well, the 2008 presidential elections are finally over and, in my opinion, the Best Man won.

There is one thing that bothers me, though. Everyone is making a big deal of the fact that we have elected an African-American to the presidency.

Let’s back up for a minute. 

What we have done is chosen an AMERICAN to be our president — a man who just happens to be of African descent and who just happens to have a darker skin tone than some other Americans.

We simply cannot allow ourselves to get all hung up on Barack Obama’s ethnic background. Instead, we need to see him for what he is — a man who promises to take us to new places, who promises to provide us with new opportunities, who promises … well, let him speak for himself:

“This is our time: to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.”

GO PRESIDENT OBAMA!