McCain Announces Anti-Gun Show Campaign
Will Be Revived In January
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"...the tools of terrorism used against America have been box cutters,
airplanes, and biological weapons, and the war on terrorism will not be
won by attacking the rights of American citizens..." |
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On Tuesday, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) told USA TODAY that he
will launch an aggressive campaign to promote
S. 890 - the legislation he
authored with U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) that would
effectively end traditional American gun shows - as soon as the U.S.
Senate convenes in January for the second session of the 107th Congress.
In an effort to help move his stalled legislation, McCain has embraced
the anti-gun organization
Americans for Gun Safety (AGS) and the gun-ban
lobby formerly known as HCI, as well as the
shameless strategy these
groups have adopted of exploiting our nation's legitimate fears over
terrorism in the wake of the attacks of September 11.
Even more troubling, perhaps, is the fact that Senator McCain is also
parroting the AGS/HCI myth that "terrorists" use gun shows to pose a
threat to national security. McCain told USA TODAY: "Clearly, alleged
members of terrorist organizations have been able to secure guns and
weapons using the gun show loophole," a bogus claim AGS began making
within days of the terrorist attacks. NRA-ILA Executive Director James
Jay Baker accused McCain, AGS, and others who attempt to link terrorist
acts to legal gun shows of "trying to bootstrap on the Sept. 11
tragedy," and told USA TODAY, "None of the terrorism we saw visited on
this country on September 11 had anything to do with firearms." (For
the truth regarding the "terrorists at gun shows" myth espoused by
McCain, AGS, et al., see NRA-ILA's FAX Alerts Vol. 8,
No. 39 & No. 46.)
It should not be too surprising to find Senator McCain reading from an
AGS-supplied script, however, as the Arizona lawmaker and the anti-gun
organization have schemed to promote attacks on gun shows for more than
a year. AGS - founded and funded by billionaire and former HCI Board
Member Andrew McKelvey - has committed to spend at least $1 million to
promote McCain's legislation. So much for McCain's "opposition" to
well-funded special interest groups, which has been the rhetorical crux
of his efforts to pass
campaign finance "reform" legislation.
Besides Lieberman, McCain is also working to promote S. 890 with the
Senate's most vocal anti-gun member, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and he has
also recruited the help of Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a senator whose
voting record on firearm legislation has been quite mixed. McCain,
likely realizing he does not have enough support to pass his bill
through Congress on its own, sent a letter to fellow Senate Republicans
that informed them of his intent to attach his bill to another piece of
legislation as soon as possible. The probable vehicle, as USA TODAY
suggests, will be a "homeland security measure."
U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who has been promoting his own attack
on gun shows - S. 767, the reincarnation of
the Lautenberg Gun Show bill
from the 106th Congress - apparently feels challenged by McCain's attempt
to grab the anti-gun show media spotlight. He responded to McCain's
announcement with his own, stating on the floor of the U.S. Senate,
today, that he would also begin promoting his bill to end gun shows as
soon as the Senate convenes in January.
NRA members and the rest of the pro-gun community must contact their
federal lawmakers to object to the passage of any legislation that would
end gun shows as we know them today. Remind your elected officials that
the tools of terrorism used against America have been box cutters,
airplanes, and biological weapons, and the war on terrorism will not be
won by attacking the rights of American citizens. Existing laws that
target the illegal purchase of firearms have proven to be effective in
catching the suspected terrorists mentioned in the cases cited by
McCain, AGS, and others, so no new laws that target legal gun shows are
necessary.
You can reach your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121,
and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121. You can also find additional
contact information by using the "Write Your Reps" tool at
www.NRAILA.org.
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