"Why does everyone think I'm paranoid? Do you discuss this behind my back?" (incurably neurotic Danny Zimmer, as played by Jack Weston, in The Four Seasons)March 30th of this year marked three decades since the attempted assassination of Pres. Ronald Reagan. The round-number anniversary reminded thinking Americans that even the most protected man in the world isn't safe from a determined lunatic.
White House press secretary Jim Brady was seriously wounded in the shooting, and his wife, Sarah, exploited their personal tragedy for a national cause. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence engineered the 1994 "assault weapons" ban, plus countless other federal laws, state statutes and local ordinances that disarmed tens of millions of law-abiding citizens.
Every one of those laws was ill-conceived and unconstitutional. None could be credited, at least not plausibly, with reducing violent crime.
Since those dark days, we've managed to reclaim some of the ground lost to Brady. In 2004, Pres. George W. Bush allowed the Clinton-era ban to expire without reauthorizing it. The concealed-carry pendulum has swung in our favor. We've won two landmark cases -- Heller in 2008 and McDonald last year -- in the U.S. Supreme Court. And Pres. Barack Obama, whose election greatly concerned Second Amendment advocates, has been largely silent on gun control.
Despite that momentum, the National Rifle Association and other RKBA organizations continue to implore us not to let our guard down. That's caused some to call American gun owners "paranoid," accusing us of fighting an enemy that exists now only in fearful minds.
On the 30th anniversary of the Reagan shooting, Sarah and Jim Brady went to Capitol Hill to press lawmakers to resume their undermining of the Constitution, notably by banning "high-capacity" magazines. Guess who else showed up at the meeting?
The President of The United States, Barack Obama.
According to Sarah Brady, as reported by The Washington Post, the president assured her that gun control is "very much on his agenda" and that he's "committed to regulation." From the Post article:
"I just want you to know that we are working on it,' Brady recalled the president telling them. 'We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.'"So we're just paranoid, eh?
Sarah Brady, supported by a disturbing number of like-minded enemies of the People, envisions "an America free of gun violence." She calls on "men and women of high morals and conscience to join [Pres. Obama]" in making her naive dream come true.
(Presumably, anyone who supports the Second Amendment and believes in the right to armed self-defense is, by her definition, amoral and lacks a conscience. Our "radar" works just fine, though.)
And consider this: A second-term Obama-Biden-Holder-Clinton-Brady administration would have little to lose, politically, by engaging in a full frontal assault on our right to keep and bear arms.
So the gun-grabbers aren't resting and neither should we. The 2012 election is crucial, too, at all levels -- but it's not enough simply to vote against this president's reelection. We need to vote for independent-minded candidates who think critically and place the Constitution above party and polls.
Clues: It ain't Palin-Beck, and it sure as hell ain't Bloomberg-Trump.
