The Debate About Simple Truth

The debate between NRA and the Clinton-Gore Administration is not about harsh words, or personalities, or charges and counter charges. It's about simple truth; the black letter of the law, what it says, what it is supposed to do versus a duty intentionally ignored by those entrusted with enforcement of the law.

This fight is about Bill Clinton versus Bill Clinton. It is about the light of truth, and he can't stand it.

On NRA's part, we have insisted that Federal firearms laws be enforced in a surgical way to take violent criminals out of circulation. We have called for a common-sense solution to crime.

On Bill Clinton's part, his rebuttal is marked by denial, vilification and "spin." With him, this is personal. He fears us because we don't fear him, and we proved it when we elected a pro-gun Congress in 1994.

We have drawn a line in the sand as Americans who are willing to stand and fight when our rights are threatened. For that, other Americans are proud of us. I hear it everywhere.

The responsibility for firearms violence lies not with us: It hangs around the necks of violent criminals and those who keep the criminals on the streets, those who refuse to enforce the law--the president, vice president and the attorney general. Just ask any police officer you know how he feels when a criminal walks.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president has a duty, an obligation to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed ... ." Yet his Administration steadfastly neglects that duty, which serves to keep a false issue alive.

And this debate is also about politicians who jump on tragedy so they can display outrage and demand you pay the price they aren't willing to lay on criminals!

Be it Columbine or the latest outrage in Flint, Mich. ... or the next victim ... and the one after that ...

We are supposed to take the hit. We are supposed to pay for those crimes with the loss of our rights!

In the latest demand for controls over peaceable gun owners, the White House has embraced the senseless shooting of a 6-year-old girl who had the courage to stand up to a bully. The murderer--a kid with a history of violence--used a gun, taken from the crack-house where he lived with his crack-dealer uncle. Police say the gun was stolen, the boy's mother is an addict, and his father is in prison.

Bill Clinton's answer? Not a word about child endangerment. Not a word about drugs. Not a word about all the Federal gun law violations ignored at that crack house. ... No, Clinton said, "I'm not at all sure that even a callous, irresponsible drug dealer with a 6-year-old in the house wouldn't leave a child trigger lock on a gun." (Emphasis added) Bill Clinton by his own words--those words--defines himself as a political predator.

I have said for many years that if the American people only knew the truth about existing Federal laws with respect to criminals using, possessing and carrying on any commerce in guns, the call for phony new "gun control"--Federal registration of all your guns, Federally imposed licensing and photo IDs, waiting periods and Federal penalties on trigger-lock use--would all be moot.

There is everything ever needed in Federal law to get violent criminals to the one place where they have no access to guns--prison.

For years, we have been driving hard at the Administration's abysmal record of non-enforcement. With that proven lack of enforcement, the Justice Department is now on the defensive trying to explain away the Clinton-Gore Administration's own brag about the 500,000 criminals who were caught illegally trying to buy guns and who were allowed to walk out the door.

The White House suggests there is no crime committed by the bad guys they turn down and turn loose--179,000 felons, fugitives, stalkers and drug dealers--since the National Instant Check System (NICS) took effect.

The warning on the Federal form 4473, which everyone who attempts to buy a gun must fill out and sign--before undergoing the NICS check--is unmistakable:

"I ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT THE MAKING OF A FALSE ORAL OR WRITTEN STATEMENT OR THE EXHIBITING OF ANY FALSE OR MISREPRESENTED IDENTIFICATION WITH RESPECT TO THIS TRANSACTION IS A CRIME PUNISHABLE AS A FELONY." That crime alone calls for 10 years in Federal prison.

Confronted with the truth, the Clinton-Gore White House spins another lie--that gun law violations by criminals are a state or local matter.

For fugitives, felons, drug addicts, possession of any gun is a Federal felony that reaches every corner of the nation. The operative word here is FEDERAL. And the operative law-enforcement agency is the United States Department of Justice.

Look at the "most wanted" posters in any large city, and you will find criminals with long histories of firearms-related state crimes. You will find lenient parole and revolving-door justice. But the firearms involvement in those state crimes are also Federal Crimes. FEDERAL.

And you will find victims--people killed, robbed, maimed. These are crimes that could have been prevented had Federal laws been enforced.

A few in the media finally see it. All we ask of those reporters is to do their jobs. Look at the law. Look at the truth and report it.

As the American people learn that truth, they are beginning to understand and demand answers. The answers they get from the Clinton Administration will be spin, hot air, smoke and mirrors.

Because of a cold-hearted crack-house kid, Clinton and Gore are demanding you and I give up our rights step by step. It is our singular job to stop them! If you haven't written or called your congressman and senators, please do it. Let them know you won't pay the price for Bill Clinton's and Al Gore's malfeasance. No more gun control!