'Compromise' on Gun Rights Inevitably Surrenders Constitutional High Ground

Photo Credit: © Oleg Volk

Much ink (or perhaps many electrons) has been spilled since Sunday, in the wake of an announcement by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) that the gun rights group will support the Senate “gun control” bill, S. 649, as amended by Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Toomey (R-PA), with S. Amendment 715. As National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea reports, a great many gun rights advocates are outraged by what they see as either an enormous tactical blunder, or worse, an outright betrayal on the part of CCRKBA.

Taking a very quick and cursory look at some of the “tactical” objections, many point out that what is perhaps the “flagship” provision of S. Amd. 715, the 15-year prison sentence for officials who attempt to abuse S. 649’s record keeping requirements in order to build a national gun registry, depends on the Department of “Justice” prosecuting itself for wrongdoing. Has “Project Gunwalker” already been forgotten?

Prominent and highly regarded Second Amendment scholar and attorney Dave Kopel argues compellingly that many of the “pro-gun” provisions of Amd. 715 (presumably due to Sen. Manchin’s inexperience with drafting this kind of legislation) would in effect be actually strongly anti-gun. And again, this does not scratch the surface of the “tactical” objections to this “compromise.”

The more fiery critics do not believe CCRKBA chairman Alan Gottlieb has miscalculated, but has instead deliberately stabbed gun rights advocates in the back. The Sipsey Street Irregulars’ Mike Vanderboegh presents, that view, as does Western Rifle Shooters Association, and prominent libertarian commentator Claire Wolfe may be even more blisteringly critical–not an easy feat.

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President Obama's Plan for A Socialist One Party State

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The last check and balance on President Obama is the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. He has made clear that he intends to remove that check on his power in the 2014 elections.

Our Founding Fathers wisely provided for a free and independent press as an additional check on government power. But the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC, CBS and ABC decided they had a better idea. They concluded that it is more important to behave voluntarily like the old Soviet press did under government compulsion, when the socialist party is in power.

Of course, we do still have the freedom in America for now for the alternative media — talk radio, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, conservative websites, blogs and a few other media outlets – to air criticism of the reigning socialist regime. But 50% of the country is ensconced in urban enclaves where listening to or reading views that are not friendly to socialist rule is considered socially unacceptable behavior. So, no alternative views, or checks on the reigning regime, ever break through there. That explains why our once grand, world-leading democracy has now been rendered dysfunctional.

An independent judiciary is also supposed to be a check and balance on the abuse of government power. But as his second term drags on, President Obama will have appointed more and more, and eventually a majority of, all federal judges.

Moreover, these won’t just be any judges but liberal judges chosen with a liberal judicial philosophy that their job is not to follow the law, but to do what they think is right, regardless of the law. What is “right” is going to be Obama’s liberal/left agenda.

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Not so fast Washington: Americans want Bills on Guns and Immigration Read Before You Vote on Them

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Last time there was a headlong rush to pass legislation in Washington, Obamacare was birthed. 2,500 pages of excruciating small print, plopped on legislators desks just days before they were expected to vote on it. 2,500 pages purchased with “sweeteners,” “arm twisting” and coercion. Almost all of it done behind closed doors.

Speaker of the House at that time, Nancy Pelosi, brazenly told Congress and the American people, that we could get to know what was in Obamacare after they passed Obamacare,….egregiously misnamed “The Affordable Healthcare Act.”

Pelosi was right, Obamacare has proven to be full of surprises as the 2,500 pages of “Frankenstinian” details and regulations get exposed to the reality of actually trying to implement the law. Hidden taxes and fees, miles of red tape and special dispensation to Obama supporters are just some of the “surprises.”

The new immigration bill is reportedly 1,500 pages long already and it too has been negotiated in secret behind closed doors, by the gang of 8 bi partisan Senators.

How much devil is hidden in these details? No one in the media has seen it to report on the good, bad or ugly that lies within.

Reportedly it will be sprung on the Senate Tuesday and leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, has uncharacteristically promised a swift vote.

Why? What’s the rush Harry? Shouldn’t the public and the Senate have plenty of time to read through and debate these 1,500 pages of proposed legislation? This legislation can profoundly affect the very make up of our country.

Under Reid’s leadership the Senate has turned into a very “deliberative body,” remember it took 4 years to produce one budget.

The same can be said for gun control legislation. The knee jerk response from the politicians is to attack America’s 2nd Amendment rights, in order to look like they are doing something. When in reality, they are really just putting a band aid on an arterial wound.

The root cause of violence is too difficult for them to tackle because it will affect their base of support in big cities and Hollywood. So instead, they go after the guns and not the mental health issues, the street violence and violence in films.

Ask the Obama Justice Dept why it isn’t enforcing the laws already on the books? Out of 15,700 fugitives and felons who tried to illegally purchase a firearm, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted only 44. Perhaps if they just enforced the existing laws, there would be far less violence.

The American people don’t want anymore surprises sprung on them hidden within benign sounding legislation.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Here Come Obama's Middle-Class Tax Hikes

President Obama’s budget spin-meisters at the Office of Management and Budget deserve nomination for the Biggest Whopper of 2013 Award, thanks to their claim that the chief executive’s 2014 budget proposal “represents more than $2 in spending cuts for every $1 of new revenue from closing tax loopholes and reducing tax benefits for the wealthiest.” Sounds like smart budgeting, but is that statement true? As the Heritage Foundation’s Morning Bell put it, “In a word, no.”

Look beyond the rhetoric at the concrete numbers in the Obama budget — which, let it not be forgotten, was submitted two months late and after both the Senate and House adopted their own versions of 2014 spending blueprints — and what becomes clear in three ways is that the president and his key advisers are intrigued by the figure $1.1 trillion. First, remember the sequestration budget cuts that were supposed to produce Armageddon if actually implemented? Those cuts totaled — can you guess? — $1.1 trillion over 10 years.

Second, as Morning Bell ably notes, the Treasury Department calculates that the Obama 2014 budget proposal contains new tax increases totaling $1.1 trillion. Third, remember the 2011 Grand Bargain That Never Was? That was when House Speaker John Boehner insisted on a lengthy list of spending cuts and conceded to $800 billion in new revenues by closing tax loopholes? It never happened because at the last minute Obama demanded another $400 billion in new revenues, which Boehner wisely rejected. Well, now Obama is endorsing Boehner’s spending cuts, which just happen to total $1.1 trillion.

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'Evangelicals, Catholics Could be put on Watch List, Denied Guns'

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Citing recent “inflammatory rhetoric” by Army officials, the head of the Family Research Council is warning supporters that President Obama could put evangelical Christians and Catholics on a “watch list” to prevent them from purchasing guns.

FRC President Tony Perkins said on his “Washington Watch” radio broadcast Wednesday that the Senate’s bipartisan proposal requiring background checks for Internet gun sales is “very concerning given the fact that the United States military has been increasingly showing hostility toward evangelicals and Catholics as being somehow threats to national security and people that need to be watched.”

In an email today to FRC supporters, Perkins explained that a recent Army briefing on “religious extremism” declared evangelical Christians and Catholics are among the biggest threats to America, along with Islamic supremacist groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas.

Perkins said it was also discovered that, in an email, Army Lt. Col. Jack Rich highlighted FRC and the American Family Association as groups that do not share “our Army Values.”

In his broadcast Wednesday, Perkins tied together the Army rhetoric with the proposed Senate legislation.

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Paul: Immigration Reform Starts with a Secure Border

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Congress is getting very close to debating comprehensive immigration reform. I am firmly committed to being part of reforming our nation’s immigration laws. Conservatives and liberals agree that our complex immigration system is broken and in need of repair. Although the two sides disagree on solutions, I have three important ideas that should be part of the debate and that should please most Americans.

My “Trust but Verify” plan has three elements: secure the border, secure the vote and secure the taxpayer’s dollar. If these three elements are met, I think, Congress can move forward on a comprehensive plan to reform immigration law.

Securing the border is my first priority. Under my plan, national and border security will move as the first element of any reform and would require annual votes of Congress to establish that the border is truly secure. No other reform can go forward until this happens. In addition to increased border security, our nation needs to modernize our visa system. We need to know who comes and goes on travel, student and other temporary visas. There must be a workable system to ensure that visitors don’t use travel visas as a way to enter the country, then disappear. This will address the problem of visa overstayers.

National security has to be a cornerstone to any border-security and visa-reform initiative. Our nation needs to look back at the 9/11 Commission report and study the recommendations with regard to terrorists’ use of visas to commit acts of violence against America. The Sept. 11 hijackers used visas to enter the country and to stay here while planning their attacks.

Strong border security includes using cutting-edge technology. Satellites, physical barriers, screening to bar criminals and terrorists from entry, increased patrols on the border and yes, surveillance drones all should be part of a comprehensive plan to physically protect the border. My idea is to take specific measures at the border and then have the office of inspector general for the Government Accountability Office produce a report to Congress on the progress of border security.

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Will the Left Radicalize the Military?

Listen up, Evangelical Christians, Mormons, Catholics, and Orthodox Jews. You read the news. An unnamed instructor with a U.S. Army Reserve unit put together a slide show in which he lumped you together with the KKK, Al Qaeda, and Hamas. Keep your heads up; that buzzing sound overhead might be a drone coming for you.

Down the road, the military’s growing conformity to the American left’s worldview and values may have dire ramifications for the military, national security, and the nation. The further “leftization” of the nation’s armed forces will only exacerbate the deep divisions in American society, between left and right, citizens of faith and the godless, the politically correct, and those Americans who aren’t willing to bend to the PC’s shibboleths. Will the military eventually morph into an enemy of traditional America?

The Army instructor’s exhortation (or should it be termed “indoctrination?”) is being fobbed off as poor judgment on his part, and in no way reflects military policy. Big deal.

The instructor’s slide show is telling because it reveals the left’s continued infiltration of the military for the purpose of radicalizing it, just as the left has and is doing with public schools, higher education, the mainstream news media, the culture, and the arts. Some Pentagon pencil-neck with a star or two on his collars doesn’t have to write a policy in step with President Obama’s and the left’s antipathy to Christianity and Judaism (given the president’s demonstrated ill-will toward Israel) to advance a de facto hostility toward traditional Western faiths (we’re including Judaism).

Ladies and gentlemen, the Army instructor didn’t just follow a wild hare in classifying tens of millions of Christians and Jews as extremists. That thinking is seeping down the chain of command. It’s a fair wager that the instructor presented the now controversial slide because he was confident that it fittingly represented the shifting worldview among the army brass.

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Is There Credible Proof for Darwinian Evolution?

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Many who believe in the Darwinian Evolutionary theory take it to be a proven fact. Not only that, but they also view those with another perspective (i.e.: not believing in Darwinian Evolution) with contempt and disdain.

“It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane.” (Dr. Richard Dawkins, 1999, NY Times article: “Put Your Money on Evolution”)

So, what kind of theories and/or evidence do evolutionists postulate that are so logical and intelligent that anyone who does not believe it (as Dr. Dawkins stated) is ignorant, stupid or insane? Consider the following example of what is being taught by sympathizers of the Darwinian Evolutionary theory:

“The observable universe could have evolved from an infinitesimal region (i.e.: smaller than the period at the end of this sentence). It is then tempting to go one step further and speculate that the entire universe evolved from literally nothing.” (Dr. Alan Guth, Scientific American, May 1984, pg. 128)

Unfortunately, many persons put their faith in a theory that is largely based on interpreted facts; not actual facts. Those who attempt to shed light on the fallacies of the Darwinian Evolution theory are ridiculed, scorned, vilified, attacked, or excluded from so-called intellectual circles of academia.

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Addicted Nation: The Price Tag to our Society and a Way Out for Those Suffering

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America launched a war on illegal drugs in 1979, spending an estimated 1 trillion on law enforcement efforts since then…..How’s that working out so far? See CNN’s War on drugs, a trillion dollar failure

Mexican drug cartels are profiting hugely from our war and have now grown so powerful they are moving into the United States.

Americas insatiable desire to get high, has kept our prisons full. Many of those incarcerated, abused drugs or alcohol; which may have accounted for the criminal behavior that landed them in prison…Perhaps they were involved in the sale and marketing of drugs, or were themselves the end users.

The cost of addiction to our society can’t even be measured in dollars alone. What bad decisions do addictions cause when judgment is impaired? How many families are shattered? Careers and reputations ruined? Accidental deaths and overdose?

In a world view, President Clinton commented on an incident in his book. He said he was briefed by the Secret Service after they found Russian President Boris Yeltsin standing outside the White House guest quarters, totally inebriated. Dressed only in his underwear, he was trying to hail a taxi in order to get a pizza…this was a world leader with his finger on the button of nuclear weapons. Yeltsin was well known for his chronic drinking problems.

Libertarians like Fox News correspondent John Stossel, have been calling to legalize current “illegal drugs,” saying it’s no business of the government to tell adults what they can, or cannot ingest.

Many experts in the field of addiction say it’s time to take the focus away from criminalization and the stigma that goes with it and focus instead on education/treatment.

There are many great organizations ready to help those suffering from addictions.

Alcoholics Anonymous has successfully helped millions of alcoholics to become productive members of society. Many other organizations adopted AA’s basic premise of 12 step groups and have successfully helped millions of others in their struggle with addictions to drugs, gambling and other harmful behaviors. AA and organizations such as Narcotics Anonymous, are available to help those suffering and are free of charge. See addiction recovery groups

Addiction treatment facilities have developed their own unique and successful ways of helping people break their addictions. Some are free or relatively inexpensive such as what the faith based Salavation Army offers. There are also many state supported facilities which offer drug and alcohol treatment for a nominal fee or free of charge. See recovery resources

There are private rehabilitation facilities offering state of the art treatment using their unique brand of intensive psychotherapy and holistic treatments, such as those developed by Richard Taite at Cliffside Malibu. Richard outlined his roadmap for an addiction free life in his book: Ending Addiction for Good

Louise McCallion’s facility in Northern California, Reflections, has devoted itself to providing treatment for not only the addictions to drugs/alcohol…But also has expertise in dual-diagnosis and co-occurring disorders, all under the care of her well qualified and professional staff.

But private treatment facilities can be expensive; from several thousand dollars for a 30 day stay, to tens of thousands and more for high end facilities.

Other unique forms of help are available such as what Declinol offers in natural cures for alcohol cravings. It is an eight-week at home alcohol program that is completely anonymous. There are no group meetings and clients can go about their regular daily routine. Declinol claims its unique blend of herbs assists the body by restoring the balance and helps to reduce alcohol cravings. While on their program, they offer phone support to answer questions and an online forum where you can communicate with current and past clients of the program.

Declinol isn’t a long term treatment program and doesn’t purport to be, but like many of the other programs, it can be a tool to take that first step towards a long term sober lifestyle…. for a fraction of the price that rehab facilities charge.

Millions of people suffer from their addictions, they should know there is a helping hand ready to lift them up. All they have to do is ask for help.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Answer to Gun Violence is Gun Control? Not Hardly.

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Dylan Quick, the 20-year-old accused of going on a stabbing rampage yesterday—injuring 14 people at Lone Star Community College in Texas—should settle the gun control/violence debate, once and for all.

That won’t happen, of course, because people who want to restrict personal freedoms will still turn a blind eye to the obvious: After years of America destroying its mental health care system, leaving it in ruins, as a national disgrace, cases of undiagnosed and untreated mental illness are to blame for the horrific episodes of violence that have made headlines and wrongly fueled gun control legislation.

This is true for Jared Lee Loughner, who shot Congressman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. It is true for James Holmes, the man accused of murdering 12 people in a Colorado movie theatre. It is true for Adam Lanza, the man who murdered 20 children and 6 adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Dylan Quick reportedly fantasized about killing people by stabbing them since he was a child. He reportedly walked around wearing gloves, even in warm weather, clutching stuffed animals.

I believe it will turn out that Mr. Quick, like the rest of the recent perpetrators of mass violence, fell through the colossal cracks in our decrepit system. A system of antiquated psychiatric facilities, understaffed community mental health centers and insurance companies hell-bent on restricting mental health care resources in a disproportionate fashion, compared to those targeted at other illnesses, and one which is a shameful show of prejudice towards the afflicted.

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