…….says American gun law expert

Washington, DC 20036 February 8 2007

Gun rights expert John M. Snyder released the following column today:

The report this week that the U.S. Department of Justice is rapping the knuckles of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for conducting sting operations that fall within the jurisdiction of federal agents comes as welcome news to tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners in the United States, as well as to America?s legitimate firearm manufacturers, distributors and dealers.

That, however, is not the end of the story. Much remains to be done to win the war against American firearm owners and the gun industry currently being waged by Bloomberg and by Bloomberg?s fellow New Yorker, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, and their gun-hating, right to self-defense hating supporters.

This week, according to the New York Daily News, which broke the story, Michael Battle, director of the executive office for United States Attorneys at the Department of Justice, told the Bloomberg administration that it will not file criminal charges against any of the 15 out of New York State gun dealers Bloomberg accused in a federal lawsuit of illegally selling guns.

Battle also scolded Bloomberg for engaging in sting operations involving persons ?without proper law enforcement authority,? indicating that could put the City of New York in legal jeopardy.

What?s underlying the Bloomberg anti-gun campaign ? and this is a crucial point ? is a dangerous legal theory, dangerous for gun owners, dangerous for gun dealers and, indeed, dangerous for American business in general.

Under this theory, the manufacturer, distributor or dealer of a perfectly legitimate product lawfully sold, should be held responsible for the illegal use of that product by a purchaser, a secondary purchaser, or even a thief, of that product.

In addition, the manufacturer, distributor or dealer should be liable in civil court for damages caused by the third-party user, or rather, mis-user, of the product.

This theory, if ever accepted, could be used to destroy the American firearms industry, as well as the individual Second American civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms.

People like Bloomberg and Schumer and their ilk, through criminal charges or the threat of criminal charges and/or lawsuits or threats of lawsuits, could legally terrorize the firearms industry into destruction. Then, Americans would not have a general source for the guns they need to activate their right to keep and bear arms, their right to self-defense, their very right to life itself.

As part and parcel a what obviously is an intricate and well-thought-out political plan to undermine the Second Amendment, Bloomberg and his national coalition of about 150 mayors want a federal law which would allow anti-gun city officials to access firearms transaction records of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the U.S. Justice Department, so that they can use the data in these records in legal actions against the firearms industry. Under current federal law, these records are for purposes of federal criminal investigation and prosecution only, and not for the use of gun-grabbing local officials in court actions. The law specifically forbids the use of federal funds for such disclosure.

Bloomberg?s fellow-gun hating New Yorker, Schumer, whose wife just recently resigned as Bloomberg?s Commissioner of Transportation, is the author of a bill, S. 77, which specifically would eliminate the prohibition of this disclosure, and facilitate the legal attacks against the firearms industry for which Bloomberg and company are so obviously salivating.

Schumer, as Vice-Chair of the Democratic Conference in the U.S. Senate, the third-highest ranking Democrat in that body, is a dangerous politician ? dangerous to the Second Amendment, dangerous to the American firearms industry and, indeed, dangerous generally to American business.

If the Democrats expect to assuage Americans? fear of their attitude towards the independence of American business, towards the right to keep and bear arms, the right to self-defense and the right to defend life itself, they?re going to have to do better than Schumer. They?re going to have to do a lot better.

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John M. Snyder ([email protected])
Manager
Telum Associates, LLC
PO Box 2844
Arlington, VA 22202
Phone : 202-326-5259

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !