Tuesday, September 2, 2008

John Snyder Compares the McCain/Palin Ticket to the Obama/Biden Ticket

John Snyder issued a press release comparing the McCain/Palin ticket to the Obama/Biden ticket titled "Palin Pick Protects Pistol Power, says Gun Law Expert, and Overshadows Obama Oscillation on Second Amendment Issues:"

Arlington, VA September 1 2008

Palin Pick Protects Pistol Power, says Gun Law Expert, and Overshadows Obama Oscillation on Second Amendment Issues

When GOP presidential nominee John McCain last Friday picked Alaska’s sharp shooting Gov. Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential running mate, the selection underscored the significance of Americans’ gun rights in the forthcoming national elections and began to galvanize the Second Amendment movement into support for the McCain candidacy, right to self-defense advocate John M. Snyder stated here today.

The McCain-Palin ticket, Snyder added, contrasts sharply with gun-grabbing records of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama and vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden.

McCain signed the congressional amicus brief supporting Dick Heller’s challenge to the District of Columbia handgun ban as a violation of the individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms. Under Palin’s gubernatorial leadership, Alaska joined a multi-state amicus brief supporting Heller. Both Senators Obama and Biden refused to sign the congressional brief. The Supreme Court agreed with McCain and Palin and threw out the D.C. law in its landmark District of Columbia v. Heller decision on June 26.

Snyder said, While McCain notes that, ‘for more than two decades I’ve opposed efforts to ban guns,’ Obama’s been a gun banner from the get go. He has an extensive anti-gun owner public record despite his occasional euphemistic references to the Second Amendment, including the one last week in his nomination acceptance speech. He even had the cynical gall to state he agreed with the Court decision in the Heller case after his campaign had told the Chicago Tribune last November that ‘Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.’

When ABC’s local Washington, D.C. affiliate asked Obama: ‘One other issue that’s of great importance here in the district as well is gun control…but you support the D.C. handgun ban?’ Obama: ‘Right.’ When ABC’s Leon Harris continued with, ‘and you’ve said that it’s constitutional,’ Obama said, ‘right.’

Snyder recalled also that an Illinois candidate questionnaire revealed Obama supported a general state handgun ban in 1996. He later flatly denied the handgun ban statement and blamed it on a state senate campaign staffer for incorrectly filling out the questionnaire. However, the publication Politico located a copy of the filled-out questionnaire. Obama’s own notes in his own handwriting showed that he personally checked answers and corrected them.

Obama is a shifty character and his election to the highest office in the land would be a tragedy for America’s 80 million law-abiding gun owners and also for the entire country, noted Snyder. Some people in political life may try to square the circle, to claim they support both gun rights and Obama, but you can’t have it both ways. You cannot serve both freedom and Obama! You cannot honor both truth and Barack!

Obama has supported a ban on the sale of all semiautomatic firearms. He and Biden support reinstatement of the Clinton Administration era’s ban on the sale and importation of certain semiautomatic firearms, a ban that was allowed to sunset 10 years after it took effect because of its failure as a crime control measure. Biden voted three years ago against a measure to prohibit harassing third party civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers or importers of firearms or ammunition. By contrast, McCain voted for the measure and it became law, known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

Snyder pointed out that a gun rights plank in the draft Republican Party 2008 Platform to be voted on by GOP national convention delegates this week underscores the significance of the right to keep and bear arms for the party’s national ticket. We uphold the right of individual Americans to own firearms, it reads, a right which antedated the Constitution and was solemnly affirmed by the Second Amendment. We applaud federal court rulings affirming the right, particularly the Supreme Court’s Heller decision, and we assert the individual responsibility to safely use and store firearms. We call on the next president to appoint judges who will similarly respect the Constitution.

Gun ownership is responsible citizenship, enabling Americans to defend their homes and communities against violent individuals and the drug culture. We call for education in constitutional rights in schools, and we support the option of firearms training in federal programs serving senior citizens and women. We urge immediate action to review the automatic denial of gun ownership to returning members of the Armed Forces who have suffered trauma during service to their country. We condemn frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, which are transparent attempts to deprive citizens of their rights. We oppose federal licensing of law-abiding gun owners and national gun registration as violations of the Second Amendment.

###

John M. Snyder
Manager
Telum Associates, LLC
Arlington, VA
Phone : 703-212-9863

No comments: