Obama Admits Stealth Attack on Rights, Media Yawns

by Jeff Knox

"I just want you to know that we are working on it," Barack Obama told Sarah Brady regarding gun control. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar," Obama said according to Brady.

This interesting bit of news was reported in an April 11 Washington Post Lifestyle section story about Obama's gun control and regulatory policy wonk Steve Croley. Toward the end of the article the writer, Jason Horowitz, mentioned a March 30 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during which the President "dropped in." He then quotes Sarah Brady relating how President Obama gave his personal assurance that he and his administration were working hard on a gun control agenda. Brady reported that Obama then told them about advancing the agenda "under the radar."

What is truly startling about this story is the way it has been totally ignored by the rest of the media. Compare the media's current silence with what happened during the 2000 presidential campaign when then NRA Vice-President (and GOP activist) Kayne Robinson told a group of rights supporters in California that electing Bush would mean "we'll have a president where we work out of their office, unbelievably friendly relations." The media went into a feeding frenzy over this comment to such a degree that Bush distanced himself from the NRA, publicly endorsed reinstatement of the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban and withdrew overt support for the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The story was carried repeatedly on virtually every major media outlet in the country – and it was not based on anything Bush himself had said. Here the leader of a prominent organization is claiming that the President himself had avowed active support for a highly controversial agenda and admitted that he was violating his own promise of transparency in pursuit of that agenda. Yet the media ignores it.

Even the folks at the Brady Bunch are not spreading the news about the stunning reassurances from the President. There is nothing on their web site discussing, or even mentioning Obama's chat with Jim and Sarah. Just the fact that a groups leaders were cordially welcomed at the White House, much less given a private, informal meeting with the President, would generally be something to crow about, but on their web site Brady's focus is to "Tell President Obama to Ban Assault Clips!" (Assault Clips?)

The "Gunwalker" scandal, the push for registration of long-guns through mandatory reporting of multiple sales, and stricter interpretation of various gun laws are all part of the Obama administrations ongoing "under the radar" attack on rights. The recent ATF "study" on the importability of shotguns is one of the most obvious components of this multi-faceted plot against our rights and it is slipping by with little resistance.

As I have previously reported, the ATF "study" examines current laws and practices regarding shotgun imports and concludes that standards need tightening. Like a bank robber wearing a brightly colored hat to distract attention from identifying features, the ATF "study" prominently puts forward a list of features that distinguish non-sporting shotguns from sporting shotguns. As intended, the media, and the rights community, have almost universally focused on this list of features to the exclusion of other critical information in the "study," most importantly a statement that the real test they intend to employ to determine importability is one of actual use, not features. If an importer cannot demonstrate that a particular shotgun style is popular for use in sports such as bird hunting and trap and skeet shooting, the gun will not be allowed into the country. No more will importers be able to replace "non-sporting" features like folding stocks, and pistol-grips with more traditional, sporting style options to pass ATF "sporting purpose" test. The report specifically disqualifies the very popular and growing sports of 3-Gun and tactical shotgun competitions based on the circuitous logic that since ATF rifle and handgun importability studies of several years ago did not recognized these sports, it would be disruptive for them to be recognized now.

Suggestions that import bans could be bypassed by manufacturing the guns in the USA fail to recognize that there are two different places in federal law where almost identical "sporting purpose" language is used: the GCA bases importability on "sporting purpose" and the NFA exempts shotguns from the definition of Destructive Devices based on "sporting purpose." Once a particular style of shotgun is declared to be "non-sporting" for importation purposes, it is a natural, short step to declaring it "non-sporting" for NFA purposes – which would mean it, and any domestic shotgun of similar design, would automatically be classified as a Destructive Device and subject to all of the restrictions of the NFA.

As blatant as Mr. Obama's "under the radar" assault on the Second Amendment is, it seems that the major media, and even the powerful NRA, have their radars turned off.

Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link is included. Text is available at www.FirearmsCoalition.org.

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