FROM THE LEFT: THE DEBATE ON GUNS

 

ABC's Charlie Gibson seemed to abandon the Leftmedia script on

Wednesday night at the Democrat debate in Philadelphia, when

he aimed some uncharacteristically tough questions at Hillary

Clinton and Barack Obama. On the subject of the Second

Amendment (http://PatriotPost.US/histdocs/constitution/bill_of_rights.asp),

Gibson asked Obama whether the District of Columbia's ban on handguns was

consistent with an individual's right to bear arms. Obama affirmed his belief

in an individual right to bear arms, but then said that, like other rights,

it is subject to government constraint.

 

As is typical of Democrats, Obama went on to mention the importance of

firearms in the context of "tradition" and "hunting," but not once did he say

anything about the right to self-defense or the role of firearms in keeping

the government accountable to the people. (See: "Revolution, American.") This

is hardly surprising, considering that Obama told the Chicago Tribune in

2004 that he favored a national ban on concealed carry. When Gibson asked

Obama if he still favored registration and licensing of guns, Obama dodged

the question by saying that he favored "common-sense approaches," another

favorite phrase from the Democrat playbook. When Gibson mentioned that Obama's

handwriting was on a questionnaire that supported a total ban on handguns,

however, Obama denied it, adding, "[W]hat we have to do is get beyond the

politics of this issue and figure out what, in fact, is working."  Obama used

Chicago as an example, where "[W]e've had 34 gun deaths last year of Chicago

public-school children." Obama failed to say how many of those children were

gang members, and he conveniently left out the fact that Chicago, like DC,

has had a total ban on handguns for years.

 

Hillary Clinton's responses were similarly vacuous. She said that she

would renew the so-called Assault Weapons Ban (or as we say in our shop,

"the ban on guns with certain cosmetic features"), and that she supports

"sensible regulation." On the question of whether the DC ban was consistent

with Second Amendment rights, Hillary evaded by saying she didn't know the

facts of the case. She also praised Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter for his

(illegal) efforts to curb crime (by banning guns). More on that later.

 

Of course, Hillary is in favor of "federalism" when it comes to allowing

states to have their own restrictive laws concerning guns. She said, "What

might work in New York City is certainly not going to work in Montana. So,

for the federal government to be having any kind of, you know, blanket rules

that they're going to try to impose, I think doesn't make sense." Blanket

rules like, you know, the federal "assault weapons" ban?

 

Speaking of Patriots Day, both gun-grabbing candidates should keep in mind

what Justice Joseph Story had to say on the matter. Story was a Supreme

Court nominee of James Madison, the author of our Constitution. "The right

of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered," he said

in his Commentaries on the Constitution, "as the palladium of the liberties