AGS Continues to Shamelessly Exploit
September 11 Acts of War
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"...In its campaign to resurrect its gun show legislation, AGS is
reduced to pointing to two cases that actually show current laws
work to stop criminals..." |
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The national public policy debate was plunged to a new low
yesterday by
Americans for Gun Safety (AGS), the anti-gun lobby
funded solely by Internet billionaire Andy McKelvey - who is also a
former board member of the gun-ban lobby formerly known as HCI.
AGS continues its outrageous attempt to link the terrorist
strikes against this country to a national tradition as old as
America itself - gun shows. In an ad appearing in Thursday`s
Capitol Hill newspaper,
>a href="/cgi-bin/pass.cgi?url=http://www.rollcall.com/">Roll Call, AGS exploits the fear of
global terrorism left by the attacks of September 11, but its
attack on gun shows is simply the same tired gun control agenda
in new packaging.
"It`s time for full disclosure," said NRA-ILA Executive Director
James Jay Baker. "Americans for Gun Safety has zero Americans
for members, and nothing to do with gun safety programs. It`s a
billionaire`s pet project, staffed by the architects of the
anti-gun agenda of Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.), who are desperately seeking new justifications for
pushing their tired gun control agenda."
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"...AGS`s attempt to link the terrorist actions of September
11... to gun shows is
not only an assault on the truth; it is an attack on logic..." |
The president of AGS is Jonathan Cowan, who served as aide to the
self-appointed anti-gun czar of the Clinton cabinet -
HUD Secretary
Andrew Cuomo - whose agenda for fighting crime revolved around
threatening
nonsensical lawsuits against gun makers.
Cowan is
assisted by former White House political aide Matt Bennett, and
by Jim Kessler, the former gun advisor to Senator Schumer.
In its campaign to resurrect its gun show legislation, AGS is
reduced to pointing to two cases that actually show current laws
work to stop criminals.
First, AGS desperately dug up a case the FBI began investigating
over a year ago that involved a felon, Ali Boumelhem, suspected
of attending gun shows in the Detroit area to purchase firearms
for shipment overseas to the Hezbollah. The FBI placed the man
under surveillance, and in due course, he was arrested,
prosecuted and convicted in federal court. (AGS`s
misrepresentations of the facts in this case, both in yesterday`s
ad, as well as in a message to Congress, were exposed in
NRA-ILA
FAX Alert, Vol. 8, No. 39.)
The day the Roll Call ad ran, the Washington Post obligingly
spread the AGS fraud, providing space to Eric Holder, whose past
experience in the Clinton-Reno Department of Justice included
countless trips to Capitol Hill to defend the Clinton
Administration`s failure to
enforce federal firearms law. Holder
wrote: "previously convicted felon and terrorist, Ali Boumelhem,
went to a Michigan gun show, where he was legally exempt from a
background check, and purchased assault weapons, shotguns,
ammunition and flash suppressors that he intended to ship to the
terrorist group Hezbollah." A convicted felon "legally exempt?"
Holder also mischaracterized the case of four people convicted
last year of illegally buying guns at a Florida gun show - a case
AGS also attempted to exploit recently. He downplayed the fact
that enforcing the law worked, because he was more interested in
advancing the charge that the guns were purchased "for use by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army." He failed to mention, though,
that the jury rejected the IRA connection charge. Admitting that
fact would totally collapse the bridge his friends at AGS are
deceitfully attempting to build between gun shows and terrorists.
AGS`s attempt to link the terrorist actions of September
11 - which, of course, in no way involved firearms - to gun shows is
not only an assault on the truth; it is an attack on logic. As
the editor of the Arab American News in Dearborn, Mich., pointed
out in commenting on the Boumelhem case last May: "Hezbollah is
getting millions of dollars from Iran. They have plenty of
weapons. They don`t need a few shotguns from Dearborn."
Commenting further, ILA`s Baker stated, "This outrageous attack
on Americans` Second Amendment rights proves that AGS is the same
as every other radical fringe anti-gun group-they have the same
solution to every problem, and are willing to sink to any depth
to exploit the headlines in pursuing their pet agenda.
"America faces many difficult challenges in the months ahead.
Those challenges should not include efforts that make it more
difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase and use firearms.
True American public opinion is telling its own story. Since the
attacks of September 11, media outlets have been filled with
reports of Americans purchasing their first firearms and learning
to use them safely and responsibly for self-protection.
"AGS is no doubt simply doing the bidding of its corporate master
in going to such desperate lengths to justify anew its agenda,"
Baker continued. "Americans understand that the tools of
terrorism will not be found in their neighborhood gun show. But
the threat of political opportunism taking hold is very real, and
I urge every law-abiding American gun owner to contact their
federal representatives to ensure that our rights do not become a
casualty in the war against terrorism."
Be sure to let your federal lawmakers know that the debate over
legislative attacks on legal gun shows, such as S. 767, introduced by
U.S.
Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and
S. 890, introduced by
U.S. Senators
Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), have no place in
a legitimate congressional
debate on the threat of terrorism.
Be sure to contact your U.S.
Senators, at (202) 224-3121, and your U.S. Representative, at
(202) 225-3121, and urge them to do everything possible to end
the threat of terrorism, but not at the expense of our freedom.
You can also find contact information for your federal lawmakers
by using the "Write Your Reps"
tool found at
NRAILA.org.
Related Stories...
More About the Gun-Ban Lobby at work
Bush Administration Ends Clinton/Cuomo Gun-Surrender Program
AGS "Study" Attacks Gun Shows
AGS Continues To Try To Exploit Fear Over Terrorism
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