Gonzales’ AWB Renewal Stand Riles Gunnies
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
It’s in writing, and gun rights activists are furious; Alberto Gonzales—President Bush’s pick to succeed John Ashcroft as attorney general—supports renewal of the ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
As word of Gonzales’ statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee began leaking out in January, gunowners began fuming on Internet chat lists and forums at KeepAndBearArms.com (KABA) and Packing.org. Gonzales was pressed to put answers in writing to specific questions from committee Democrats, most notably anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).
According to the Associated Press (AP), Gonzales has a brother, Tony, with the Houston Police Department’s SWAT unit. In his statement to the committee, Gonzales said, “I worry about his safety and the types of weapons he will confront on the street. The president has made clear that he stands ready to sign a reauthorization of the federal assault weapons ban if it is sent to him by Congress. I, of course, support the president on this issue.”
Anti-gun Democrats on Capitol Hill were furious last September when the ban on certain semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and magazines with capacities greater than 10 rounds, expired. A study done for the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice last year admitted that if the ban were to be renewed, its effects on gun violence “are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”
That report, done by the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerry Lee Center of Criminology also revealed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) apparently overstated the use of these firearms in crime during the 1980s and 1990s leading up to passage of the ban during the first Clinton Administration.
It was passage of the ban, and the Brady Law a year earlier, that enraged American gunowners in such numbers that they descended on the polls in November 1994 and threw out more than 50 anti-gun Democrats, turning Congress over to Republicans for the first time in 40 years. Republicans have held a slim margin on Capitol Hill ever since, but gunowners are wary. Many are concerned that more moderate Republicans might be swayed to support renewal of the ban, or passage of even stricter legislation that would broaden its scope.
Gunowners are also worried that Gonzales might reverse a Justice Department doctrine issued by Ashcroft that makes it official government policy to recognize the Second Amendment as protective of an individual right to keep and bear arms. Previously, under a series of administrations, the department had viewed the amendment as one that protects a so-called “collective” right of states to form militias and National Guard units.
That position took a direct hit with the release of a more recent report by the Justice Department that reinforced the individual right view (Gun Week, Jan. 1).
The fact that Schumer and other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sought Gonzales’ opinion about the ban reinforces the notion among many activists that the gun issue is going to be the “litmus test” for their support of Bush nominees, perhaps for positions on the federal court, including the Supreme Court, as well as for cabinet positions.
While some correspondents on the Internet suggested this was “all politics” and that Gonzales had to provide such an answer in order to win the nomination, others were skeptical. One writer on Packing.Org accused Gonzales of being “a statist.”
Over on the KABA site, one angry gunowner observed, “I’m sorry if I sound cold-hearted but I really don’t care what Gonzales’ brother Tony has to ‘face’ on the street. The SKS rifle seems to have become the devilgun of the antis recently, but it’s no more powerful than the 110 year old .30-30 round. . . .”
Others implied that Bush has deceived firearms activists about his stand on the gun issue, and the Gonzales nomination is proof. There were concerns that Bush appointments to the Supreme Court, which are almost certain to come, will not be friendly to the Second Amendment.
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