Enforcement Lacking Now

With literally hundreds of gun laws on the books, why, as Clinton demands, do we need even more?

Of 6,000 students caught at school with guns in the last two years, only 13 were prosecuted at the federal level. Of law breakers who illegally provided guns to juveniles, only 11 were prosecuted in the last two years. Why?

Passing more anti-firearms laws with apparently no intention of enforcement is an outright fraud on the American people who need, yes demand, protection against the criminal predator class.

The 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights states: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

At the time of adoption of the Bill of Rights on Dec. 15, 1791, the word militia being described that body of adult citizens, not then in the organized defense forces, able to bear arms in the defense of the nation against foreign foes or to protect themselves from any government attempting to deny or overthrow constitutionally protected freedoms.

The current and pervasive hysteria for more gun laws seek to do, by indirection, what is prohibited by the Constitution.

New demands for more new gun restrictions, by Clinton, in response to the new Littleton, Colo., school tragedy, are his typical technique for seeming to respond to each new problem with strident calls for legislative solutions. As noted above, the laws now on the books are not being prosecuted by this justice department and his Attorney General Janet Reno.

A note to all legislators: You have each sworn an oath "to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help you God." The 2nd amendment, the right to keep and bear arms is at the heart of our rights as citizens. If any of you vote further unconstitutional restrictions on self-protection, you will be in violation of that sworn oath. Such action is impeachable at the polls next November.

It is a self-evident truth that when law-bidding citizens no longer have guns, only the criminals will have guns.

By: Robert Morgan Emerson, of Anacortes. This article appeared in the Anacortes American Wednesday, May 19, 1999. Page A-5