"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Checking the Papers

by Lee

Check out the way that the assault weapons ban lapse is being reported in Australia.  The headline is “Powerful American gun lobby ensures assault-weapons ban will lapse.”

Despite widespread popular backing and some support from President George Bush, the federal law banning the sale of 19 kinds of semi-automatic assault weapons will expire on Monday, due mainly to intense lobbying by the National Rifle Association and the complicated election-year politics.

Police said on Wednesday that assault weapons would flood the streets if the ban was allowed to expire. But Republican congressional leaders expressed no concerns about letting the restriction lapse.

Ooooh, those evil Repiblicans!  They just want to see blood running in the gutters, don’t they?

The politically powerful NRA gun lobby has made killing the ban a priority, and some politicians are fearful of upsetting the association so close to the congressional elections.

It wasn’t because the law was stupid, or because it was blatantly unconstitutional, no!  It’s because the powerful gun lobby flexed its muscles to get it overturned.

Joseph Polisar, the police chief in Garden City, California, and president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said: “Tragically, this year alone there have been more than a dozen officers killed with assault weapons.”

Mr Polisar said dozens of police chiefs had been stonewalled by the White House, which ignored their request for a meeting.

More than a dozen killed by “assault weapons”?  I’m going to call bullshit on that one until someone can find me a cite.  Nonetheless, this shows that Bush is too afraid of the powerful NRA to even talk to a police chief!

And we wonder why the world has such a negative opinion of America.  This is the kind of press we get.

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