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Daley Obstinacy Necessitates Election Wins, says Gun Law Expert
Washington, DC
Friday, July 09, 2010
"The obstinate reaction of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and others to the Supreme Court's McDonald decision shows that American gun owners must commit themselves to a long-range strategy of political struggle against the gun grabbers until they are thoroughly defeated," gun rights expert John M. Snyder said here today.
"That means anti-gun politicians at the national, state and local level must be run out of office and kept out," he added. "Definitive political action for the gun rights movement is the name of the game.
"When the Supreme Court torpedoed handgun bans throughout this country in McDonald v. Chicago, it applied the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller ruling against the District's handgun ban. Daley and others stuck to the letter of the McDonald ruling but not its spirit. After Chicago's handgun ban fell, they passed an ordinance which, while not banning handguns, made the legal acquisition and use of a handgun a most burdensome undertaking."
Snyder said "the answer to this adamantine attitude and behavior is commitment to righteous and effective long-term political action to overcome the anti-gun owner prejudice of officials in public life.
"This includes working through the political system to ensure that our rights receive judicial protection in the months and years to come. The adamantine anti-gun attitude is found among jurists, too. As The Wall Street Journal indicated after the Supreme Court's 5-4 McDonald decision, 'the High Court's four liberals are holding out to overturn Heller…This means that the matter of Second Amendment rights is far from settled.'"
Snyder said "the welcome judicial victories for gun rights supporters this summer in McDonald v. Chicago and two years ago in District of Columbia v. Heller, both by narrow 5-4 margins, underscores the importance for America's 100 million law-abiding gun owners of mobilizing and organizing to achieve political victories in senatorial and presidential campaigns."
He said that, "While we rejoice in the McDonald and Heller legal decisions, we know that these and other decisions are made by individuals who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. We think with The Wall Street Journal that gun grabbers are hoping for a reversal of these two decisions at some point in the future if the personnel balance on the Court shifts in their favor.
"This is especially evident right now as the Senate considers confirming to the high court an appointment of a candidate, Elena Kagan, whose positions on gun ownership are in the opinion of some disqualifying, by a president, Barack Obama, whose public positions on gun ownership and gun use are unacceptable by the Second Amendment community. After all, Obama's previous appointee, Sonia Sotomayor, confirmed by the Senate under the leadership of Nevada's Harry Reid, voted on the wrong side of the gun rights issue."
"As one of the three branches of our government," Snyder added, "the Supreme Court is a political institution, and must be so regarded. It is not sacrosanct. Gun owners must realize this, and act accordingly now and in the future."
A former National Rifle Association editor, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation.
"That means anti-gun politicians at the national, state and local level must be run out of office and kept out," he added. "Definitive political action for the gun rights movement is the name of the game.
"When the Supreme Court torpedoed handgun bans throughout this country in McDonald v. Chicago, it applied the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller ruling against the District's handgun ban. Daley and others stuck to the letter of the McDonald ruling but not its spirit. After Chicago's handgun ban fell, they passed an ordinance which, while not banning handguns, made the legal acquisition and use of a handgun a most burdensome undertaking."
Snyder said "the answer to this adamantine attitude and behavior is commitment to righteous and effective long-term political action to overcome the anti-gun owner prejudice of officials in public life.
"This includes working through the political system to ensure that our rights receive judicial protection in the months and years to come. The adamantine anti-gun attitude is found among jurists, too. As The Wall Street Journal indicated after the Supreme Court's 5-4 McDonald decision, 'the High Court's four liberals are holding out to overturn Heller…This means that the matter of Second Amendment rights is far from settled.'"
Snyder said "the welcome judicial victories for gun rights supporters this summer in McDonald v. Chicago and two years ago in District of Columbia v. Heller, both by narrow 5-4 margins, underscores the importance for America's 100 million law-abiding gun owners of mobilizing and organizing to achieve political victories in senatorial and presidential campaigns."
He said that, "While we rejoice in the McDonald and Heller legal decisions, we know that these and other decisions are made by individuals who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. We think with The Wall Street Journal that gun grabbers are hoping for a reversal of these two decisions at some point in the future if the personnel balance on the Court shifts in their favor.
"This is especially evident right now as the Senate considers confirming to the high court an appointment of a candidate, Elena Kagan, whose positions on gun ownership are in the opinion of some disqualifying, by a president, Barack Obama, whose public positions on gun ownership and gun use are unacceptable by the Second Amendment community. After all, Obama's previous appointee, Sonia Sotomayor, confirmed by the Senate under the leadership of Nevada's Harry Reid, voted on the wrong side of the gun rights issue."
"As one of the three branches of our government," Snyder added, "the Supreme Court is a political institution, and must be so regarded. It is not sacrosanct. Gun owners must realize this, and act accordingly now and in the future."
A former National Rifle Association editor, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation.
John M. Snyder
Manager
Telum Associates, LLC
Arlington, VA
202-239-8005
