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Title: George Bush and the NRA
Source: Gun World, 1996
URL Source: http://www.davekopel.com/2A/Mags/George-Bush-and-the-NRA.htm
Published: Dec 5, 1996
Author: Dave Kopel
Post Date: 2018-12-05 00:32:06 by X-15
Ping List: *Shooters*     Subscribe to *Shooters*
Keywords: Bush, NRA, guns
Views: 180
Comments: 3

It's been nearly a year now, since George Bush resigned his NRA membership in a very public huff. As an NRA member myself, I haven't missed him very much. But the story of George Bush's relationship with the NRA--a story that the media entirely ignored while praising Bush's resignation--is worth knowing, because the story shows the dangers that will be faced by gun owners should Republicans take the White House in 1996.

Now George Bush appears to be a nice guy. He served his country bravely during World War II. He would probably make a good neighbor. But in terms of how

George Bush carried out his Presidential oath to defend the Constitution, including the Second Amendment, Bush was an absolute disaster.

George Bush's first major political encounter with the gun issue came when Congress was enacting the Gun Control Act of 1968. Representative Bush was the only Texas Congressperson to vote for the Act, and when doing so, he said that much more needed to be done.

Technically, Bush's vote wasn't counted as an anti-gun vote by the National Rifle Association; the NRA agreed to a compromise by which the gun registration provisions would be removed from the bill, and the NRA, while not endorsing the bill, would not count a vote for the bill as an anti-gun vote.

Still, the entire Texas delegation (except for Rep. Bush) and many other legislator recognized the repressive potential of the Gun Control Act. Shortly after passage of the bill, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (apparently given a green light by gun-hating President Richard Nixon), was perpetrating enforcement abuses against innocent citizens at a rate that has never been equaled, not even under the Clinton administration.

In 1972, Representative Bush captured the Republican nomination for Senate in Texas. But Bush was defeated by Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, who heavily stressed his own opposition to gun control, and Bush's support for it. (Bentsen maintained a very strong pro-gun record in the Senate until 1990).

In 1980, Bush ran for the Presidency. He still liked gun control enough to endorse the idea of a ban on small, inexpensive handguns (so-called "Saturday Night Specials"). Ronald Reagan beat Bush in one primary after another, though, and Bush's support for gun control and abortion hurt him badly among Republican activists.

As Vice-President, George Bush experienced what he described as a profound "change of heart" about abortion, and turned into a major opponent of abortion rights. He courted abortion opponents intensely, even demagogues like Jerry Falwell. Later, as President, Bush kept the promises he had made about abortion, and vetoed many pro-abortion bills passed by Congress.

On the gun issue, Bush underwent a similar, although shorter-lived conversion.

By the end of the Reagan Presidency, Ronald Reagan's declining faculties had made him almost irrelevant to the Machiavellian policy-making going on in the White House. Attorney General Edwin Meese--not exactly a libertarian--was getting ready to have the administration endorse Senator Howard Metzenbaum's bill to ban "plastic handguns." (There's no such thing, but the Metzenbaum bill would have outlawed many thousands of small, all-metal handguns, such as derringers, which were claimed to be invisible to airport metal detectors.)

The NRA went to Vice-President Bush, and he succeeded in blocking Meese's plan. Gun control advocates were furious. Even without administration support, the Metzenbaum bill lost by only two votes in the Senate; had Bush not stopped Meese, the bill almost certainly would have passed.

In early 1988, with the Presidential nominating season about to begin, George Bush reached into his deep pocket, and bought himself a $500 life membership in the National Rifle Association.

After winning the Republican Presidential nomination in 1988, George Bush wrote a public letter to the NRA promising his opposition to waiting periods, gun bans, gun registration, and other forms of gun control.

The NRA gave George Bush more support than it had ever given a Presidential candidate. The NRA dropped over six million dollars in an independent expenditure campaign for Bush, and against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. The NRA bought huge amounts of radio time in rural areas detailing Dukakis's support for gun prohibition. In many areas, NRA "Defend Firearms, Defeat Dukakis" bumper stickers were more numerous than pro-Bush or pro-Dukakis bumper stickers distributed by the political parties.

Dukakis, who had been running even in the polls in Texas, plummeted once word of his anti-gun record got out.

In the end, the NRA campaign was not essential to Bush's victory, but (as with the Reagan victory in 1980), the NRA's intensive campaign changed what would have been a reasonably close election into a landslide. Support from pro-gun, normally Democratic voters helped put Bush over the top in close states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Montana.

But once George Bush became President, this man--who had claimed loyalty and trustworthiness as his prime public virtues--almost immediately began betraying his election promises. The "no new taxes" pledge as least lasted until 1990. But opposition to gun control was abandoned within weeks of the Bush inauguration.

The aptly titled drug "czar" William Bennett--on his first day in office--convinced the Treasury Department to outlaw the import of several models of so-called "assault weapons." The NRA, attempting to preserve a relationship with the White House, praised the "temporary" import moratorium as providing a cooling-off period for a rational discussion of the "assault weapon" issue.

But a few weeks later, President Bush dramatically expanded the import ban to cover many dozens of additional firearms models. Bush Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater added that President Bush wished that he had the additional authority to simply outlaw the domestic manufacture of so-called "assault weapons."

As the New York Times explained, the White House decision to back gun prohibition was based less on deep conviction than the desire to get out in front on what appeared to be a popular issue, after the political setback stemming from the Senate's rejection of John Tower as Presidential nominee for Secretary of Defense.

In the months that followed, the Republican National Committee and the White House were flooded with mail from outraged gunowners. Eventually, Bush waffled a little bit back towards the pro-gun side. In May of 1989, President Bush made the import ban permanent, and proposed a ban on all magazines holding more than 15 rounds, but he backed away from active support for a ban on any additional guns. Under the Bush proposal, all large-capacity "ammunition feeding devices" currently in private hands would have to be registered with the federal government, under terms similar to the current registration of machine guns.

For the rest of the Bush administration, gun rights advocates were shut out of the White House. Even with President Bush trailing badly in the polls in the late summer of 1992, the Bush administration refused to have anything to do with the gun lobby, or to do even the most minor things to help the interests of gun owners.

Instead, the White House pushed for the magazine ban at every opportunity. The White House offered to sign the Brady Bill and a more comprehensive ban on semiautomatics (including a retroactive registration requirement) if the gun control laws were included in a crime bill that the White House wanted.

All the while, President Bush accelerated the trend begun in the late Reagan administration towards militarizing federal law enforcement and freeing it from Constitutional constraints. "No-knock" break-ins became the routine method of serving search warrants. Wiretapping rates set new records year after year. The use of informants grew rapidly. Law enforcement agencies acquired huge stocks of military equipment. The military became increasingly involved in domestic law enforcement, often under specious pretexts designed to avoid statutory restrictions on use of the military against the American people.

The Bush administration pushed hard for even greater restrictions on freedom. The centerpiece of the Bush crime bill would have allowed courtroom use of illegally seized evidence, if the evidence happened to be a gun. If the police broke into your home for no reason, and, literally, tortured you until you told them where your unregistered gun was hidden, the gun could be used against you in court. Other elements of the Bush crime bill (now included in President Clinton's proposed Terrorism Bill) included trials with secret evidence for certain legal resident aliens, and destruction of the right of habeas corpus, by which federal courts review whether state or federal prisoners are being illegally held in prison.

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#1. To: X-15 (#0) (Edited)

Bush and the NRA have compromised themselves over the years. Gun owners have no obligation to listen to either of them. It's important to remember that the right to bear arms is a natural right to be protected by the government instituted under the Constitution. Should that government decide to violate their Constitutional duty the people haven't lost their natural right but rather the government has lost it's right to exist.

That being said, the U.S. Inc. is not the Constitutional Government but in reality is a banking entity that provides government services. Any person with a SSN is a member of the bank and obligated to the bank policies without any regard to the Constitution.

Ephesians 5:11King James Version (KJV)

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. "

The best thing about old age is that it doesn't last forever.

noone222  posted on  2018-12-05   5:23:48 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: noone222 (#1) (Edited)

Bush and the NRA have compromised themselves over the years. Gun owners have no obligation to listen to either of them. It's important to remember that the right to bear arms is a natural right to be protected by the government instituted under the Constitution. Should that government decide to violate their Constitutional duty the people haven't lost their natural right but rather the government has lost it's right to exist.

That being said, the U.S. Inc. is not the Constitutional Government but in reality is a banking entity that provides government services. Any person with a SSN is a member of the bank and obligated to the bank policies without any regard to the Constitution.

I can see your point. But they tell me I get more disability pay than any others. I tell them that is because I worked for it. And that is true.

I made some tall cash snow plowing for State of Illinois in winter. One time they call me in 3 hours early for 18 hour shift. I had to stop and nap a couple of times toward the end of that one.

Then I drove trucks coast to coast at one point. Even driving solo up to Washington for produce. That trip would take 3 days to complete. I would bring produce back to Springfield, MO and from there it would go east.

You are right about the USA being a corporate entity. When the District of Columbia was formed by that Act of 1871, the Constitution was changed. The original organic Constitution was titled a "Constitution for the united states of America".

After passage of the Act of 1871, that title was changed to a "THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". Note the difference in capitalization.

That is key to seeing how we have been bamboozled. ;)

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke

BTP Holdings  posted on  2018-12-05   6:03:19 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: BTP Holdings (#2) (Edited)

When the District of Columbia was formed by that Act of 1871, the Constitution was changed. The original organic Constitution was titled a "Constitution for the united states of America".

I know your UCC position even though I admit to not understanding it. My position is to have no relationship at all with the FED Crime Syndicate. I am truly hopeful that you are safe and that you cannot be entrapped by the cockroaches that have devised a million ways to slay the citizen.

Ephesians 5:11King James Version (KJV)

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. "

The best thing about old age is that it doesn't last forever.

noone222  posted on  2018-12-05   6:09:42 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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