Op-Ed: Bar the Bar Association

No man’s liberty is safe when activist lawyers plot ways to implement their personal agendas.

The American Bar Association (ABA) is the country-wide professional membership association for my fellow lawyers (of which I am not a member). The ABA claims that it is in the business of “defending liberty and delivering justice as the national representative of the legal profession.” Sadly, like many organizations that lose track of their original purpose or use semantics to disguise it, the ABA has turned advocacy for the legal profession sideways, into ideological activism on a host of issues. Today the ABA mostly pushes the (Democrat) statist party line.

Case in point, promoting gun control as a way to “defend liberty.”

American Bar Association meeting on gun controlYes, you read that right. Earlier this year the ABA held its annual meeting. Before a small audience, ABA’s current and temporary President took the opportunity to tout work performed by the ABA’s Standing Committee on Gun Violence. Seems all but one member of the “Gun Violence” standing committee is a paid gun-control advocate. Why should ABA members stand for any standing committee composed of paid activist lawyers, especially on the topic of gun control? And what does this have to do with advocating for the legal profession?

During the committee’s pitch (to a nearly empty room) the ABA’s gun violence committee members told some real whoppers. They recited by rote the talking points of gun control groups, and were aided by liberal constitutional academics. What they said is worth considering, because their assembled sound bites, positioning statements, and other canned talking points tell us where some of the legal battles over gun rights will be fought in the future.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at CalGunlaws.com.