Extracts from the Patriot Post.US

02 May 2008 Patriot Vol. 08 No. 18


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Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation to allow the FBI to retain information from background checks on gun buyers for 180 days, instead of the current 24 hours. Prior to 2004, the FBI kept records for 90 days. Nothing like turning back the clock, as liberals always say. Of course, Lautenberg couched his bill in fighting crime and terrorism, calling it the Preserving Records of Terrorist & Criminal Transactions (PROTECT) Act of 2008.

After a weekend that saw 36 shootings in Chicago, perpetual Mayor Richard Daley has decided to equip Chicago police officers with “high-powered M4 carbines” (more commonly known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians). Just one day after blaming the gun industry for Chicago’s crime problem, Daley said it was “not a difficult decision” to issue rifles to every police officer, making it unclear whether Daley thinks guns are the problem or the solution. Daley also failed to elaborate on how the Chicago Police Department’s new acquisitions were supposed to help citizens defend themselves in the city with America’s second-strictest gun control laws (crime-ridden Washington, DC, is first). A famous quote goes likes this: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” Such absurd reasoning has its own parallel in Chicago, where official policy is that defenselessness will continue until crime improves. Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama supported his hometown’s draconian stance on self-defense last week when he told the Chicago Sun-Times, “There has not been any evidence that allowing people to carry a concealed weapon is going to make anybody safer.” In light of Obama’s opinion, we think he should give up his Secret Service detail, since it isn’t “going to make anybody safer” and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money.
Meanwhile, law-abiding gun owners are busy proving Obama wrong. When an angry customer pulled a gun on the manager of a grocery store on Monday in West Palm Beach, Florida, the manager and his assistant both drew their own handguns, forcing the attacker to retreat. Manager Marino Hernandez and assistant manager Robert Espinal found the criminal, 73-year-old Marshall Hugo Grant, cowering in the parking lot, where they detained him until police arrived. We’re not sure how Hernandez and Espinal would have been safer without their guns, but we’re sure Barack Obama does. Leftists always know a great many things that aren’t so.
In other Second Amendment news this week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out New York City’s lawsuit against gun manufacturers that claimed the industry was selling guns despite knowing that they can be diverted to illegal markets. The Associated Press reports that the city claimed “the industry violated public nuisance law by failing to take reasonable steps to stop widespread access to illegal firearms.” The suit, which was originally filed in 2000, sought no monetary damages, only a court order requiring gun manufacturers to “more closely monitor” gun dealers who sell guns later used in crimes. It reminds us of Universal Studios’ 1980s lawsuit against Sony over VCRs because consumers might use them for illegal purposes