That the gun issue isn’t a liberal vs. conservative issue, but an authoritarian vs. libertarian one. I rather doubt that FBI Director Mueller is a bleeding heart one-world tofu eating birkenstock wearing hippie campus panty raid party attending joint toking Obama worshipping Trotskyite. Just a guess.
He’s a living, breathing example of the forces of the authoritarian fascism right here on our shores that we need to worry about. What the Kevin Drums of the world don’t realize is that the gun confiscators we worry about aren’t UN Blue Helmet brigades, but rather the anti-liberty daddy-knows-best-do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do people working in our own government.
Maybe he’s not a hypocrite though…and all FBI agents will have to turn in their Sigs.
In addition to Mueller there is Gonzalez (requested the “no fly, no buy” authority of congress to prevent those on watch lists from buying guns), William Bennett who is said to have authored the first attempt at AWB, and Chas. Krauthammer of the WaPo, a virulent gun prohibitionist. And to think, some right-winger was complaining on CBS blog about how a “liberal” like Mueller got appointed to the FBI. Ask Bush.
Comment by SteveM — July 2, 2008 @ 11:33 am
Tho’ SteveM would no doubt label me a “right-winger”, we are in complete agreement about Director Mueller and other authoritarians on the right.
In addition to a big +1 on Mr. Sassi’s remarks about “authoritarian fascism”, I would add that by the time someone reaches the top of an organization like the FBI, he/she is as much a politician as he/she is anything else. Ergo, most of what he/she does is to maintain and enhance his/her power and that of his/her party. Authoritarian politicians (of the right and left) don’t like us peasants having guns. Principled, freedom-loving statesmen (of the left and the right) don’t mind.
Georgia state Representative Tim Bearden (one of the latter)’s confrontation with the management of the Atlanta Airport (some of the former) is a very good illustration of who are the sheep and who are the goats. A former LEO himself, his tireless work on behalf of CCW permit-holders in Georgia makes me willing to forgive him for being a Republican.
Comment by rocinante — July 2, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
PGP has some good points.
Gun-banners can be Democrat or Republican. Gun-rights advocates should be worried about both liberal and conservative gun-controllers.
Still, Democrats seem to have more of a preference for gun control. A Democrat who is in favor of gun control is not an anomaly, but a Republican in favor of gun control is. Think of Rudy G.
Comment by Second Opinion — July 4, 2008 @ 5:18 am
Mueller’s remarks were truly bizarre, hoping for weapons-free campuses for his kids someday (uh, like VA Tech?) and calling campuses potential breeding grounds for terrorism (!?), presumably as the reason to keep them “disarmed”…?
Comment by JJR — July 4, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
I just got an e-mail he other day from gunsamerica.com (a site like gunbroker.com thats basically a “gun eBay”) that says we need to vote for McCain because Obama supposedly wants to take our guns away and some stuff about him and his supporters leading us to anarchist communism. As a gun nut, a social democrat and an scholar/researcher of anarchist/libertaian communist ideas I resent the administrator of gunsamerica.com saying this crap, because It’s clear he doesn’t give a damn about gun rights for the people or militaria as a hobby, but merely his status as a *gun dealer* and a capitalist.
As a person who actually knows what anarchist/libertarian communism is I can tell you that liberals and Democrats are pretty damn far from any interest in such ideas, and I argue with them all the time about it, believe me. Obama is nothing special, and he certainly isn’t “left wing”. He’s just a person who happens to be black, articulate, and intelligent. That’s about it. He stands out right now because after people like Reagan and Bush, he seems like a pretty amazing choice to a lot of ordinary American people.
Let me point out that it was Bush and his Republican pals who signed the “no souvenirs” law that doesn’t allow our soldiers to bring back inert parts of weapons confiscated in Iraq and Afghanistan for secondary selling (especially for us hobbyists it is a big blow).
I am sick of this crap. The people who want to take guns away are law enforcement, not the liberals or the left. After Michael Moore’s excellent movie more and more people are realizing that it’s not how many guns you have but how devious and powerful your ruling class and their media is that causes gun deaths in a country.
The people who are really against our freedom are people who want to either take away guns from those *without* private property, or those who want to force whole towns or states to *require* everyone to buy a gun (the gun dealers wet dream = lots of cash). I have no problem with the latter right-wing obsession IF and ONLY if my tax money can be used to pay for the gun I will be forced by the government to buy, and to pay for my training using it.
Comment by rr@ — July 6, 2008 @ 11:33 pm
Sebastian, you’re my hero.
Comment by Ishpeck — July 7, 2008 @ 11:19 am