The 800 pound gorilla stirs, but hasn't got off its ass yet, contented to merely sniff the over-ripe banana that is the Gunwalker scandal.

Hans Blix: Mr. Il, I was supposed to be allowed to inspect your palace today, but your guards won't let me enter certain areas.

Kim Jong Il: Hans, Hans, Hans! We've been frew this a dozen times. I don't have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans?

Hans Blix: Then let me look around, so I can ease the UN's collective mind. I'm sorry, but the UN must be firm with you. Let me in, or else.

Kim Jong Il: Or else what?

Hans Blix: Or else we will be very angry with you... and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.

-- Team America: World Police.

My thanks to Jon for forwarding this vintage Heinlein quote. I present it here to all the prags and Fudds out there who refuse, out of an abundance of caution, to jab the NRA gorilla with a sharp stick and motivate it to EFFECTIVE action on the Project Gunwalker scandal.

"There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor" on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else." -- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land.

Here is the text of the letter the NRA sent to Obama declining his invitation to another Munich Conference on firearms, wherein they sniff at the over-ripe banana of the Gunwalker scandal and sing an updated "Give Me That Old Time Religion":

"Gimme that old time Federal Power. . ."

National Rifle Association of America
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030

March 14, 2011

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We read your editorial submission to the Arizona Star. However, to focus a national dialogue on guns – and not criminals or mental health issues – misses the point entirely. Americans are not afraid of gun ownership. To the contrary, they overwhelmingly support the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms. The primary reason why tens of millions of Americans own firearms is that they fear violent criminals roaming the streets undeterred.

We agree with your assertion that "Americans by and large rightly refrained from finger-pointing" in light of the shooting in Tucson. In truth, the professional corps of gun control lobbyists moved with lightning speed to exploit the tragedy. These included the Violence Policy Center ("In the wake of these kind of incidents, the trick is to move quickly"), the Brady Campaign ("Gabrielle Giffords Shooting 'Inevitable'") and Mayors Against Illegal Guns-MAIG ("Bloomberg, Mayors Outline Steps to Help Prevent Another Tucson Shooting"). Your article contains talking points nearly identical to the ones circulated by MAIG for weeks in pursuit of its longstanding gun control agenda. In contrast, it was the National Rifle Association that avoided "playing politics with other people's pain" with our consistent response that only thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families were appropriate in the immediate aftermath.

We also agree with your statement that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. Your record as a public official, however, is anything but supportive of the rights of law-abiding gun owners. In fact, when Congress had an opportunity to voice its support for the basic right of lawful Americans to own firearms, you refused to join a bipartisan majority of more than 300 of your colleagues in signing the congressional amicus brief to the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. In addition, you previously stated (and have never retracted) your support for both Washington, D.C.'s and Chicago's handgun and self-defense bans that the Court rightfully struck down in Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. Further, you surrounded yourself with advisors who have advocated against the Second Amendment for years (Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanuel, to name just a few) and you nominated Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, one of whom has already attempted to eliminate the Second Amendment right entirely. More recently, you selected Andrew Traver to head the BATFE, despite his long-standing association with groups that support onerous new restrictions on our rights.

If you do in fact believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right, we suggest you demonstrate that in your policies and those of your Administration, which you have not done to date. Simply saying that you support the right to keep and bear arms is mere lip service if not put into action.

The government owes its citizens its most vigorous efforts to enforce penalties against those who violate our existing laws. The NRA has members proudly serving in law enforcement agencies at every level. Rank and file law enforcement want to arrest bad people – not harass law-abiding gun owners and retailers.

As for enforcing the laws on the books, we strongly suggest you enforce those that actually take violent criminals off the streets. To start, we urge you to contact every U.S. Attorney and ask them to bring at least ten cases per month against drug dealers, gang members and other violent felons caught illegally possessing firearms.



By prosecuting these criminals in federal court – rather than state court – strong sentencing guidelines would apply and charges would not be plea-bargained or dismissed, nor would criminals be released after serving only a fraction of their sentences. This simple directive would result in roughly 12,000 violent criminals being taken off the streets every year. Surely you agree that this would be a good first step.

Unfortunately, your Administration is currently under a cloud for allegedly encouraging violations of federal law. We suggest that you bring an immediate stop to BATFE's "Fast and Furious" operation, in which an unknown number of illegal firearm transactions were detected – and then encouraged to fruition by your BATFE, which allegedly decided to let thousands of firearms "walk" across the border and into the hands of murderous drug cartels. One federal officer has recently been killed and no one can predict what mayhem will still ensue. Despite the protests of gun dealers who wished to terminate these transactions, your Administration reportedly encouraged violations of federal firearms laws – and undermined the firearm industry's concerted efforts to deter straw purchases through the "Don't Lie for the Other Guy" program. We hope you agree with our belief that this burgeoning scandal merits a full and independent investigation.

There are additional steps you can take to prevent tragic events such as the Tucson shooting from occurring in the future. One of these is to call on the national news media to refrain from giving deranged criminals minute-by-minute coverage of their heinous acts, which only serves to encourage copycat behavior. If media outlets won't show a fan running onto the field during a baseball game because they don't want to encourage that behavior by others – surely they can listen to law enforcement experts and refuse to air the photographs, video messages, or Facebook postings of madmen and murderers.

Another step is to encourage people to report red flags when they see them. In the case of Tucson, a man clearly bent on violence was not reported to the proper authorities by those who had good reason to believe he had serious mental problems. That's not a deficiency in our gun laws, it's a deficiency in our mental health system – and should be treated as such.

In closing, we agree that gun owners in America are highly responsible. This is in large part due to the NRA's 140 years of dedication to promoting safe and responsible gun ownership, an effort on which we take a back seat to no one. We welcome any serious discussion on policies that focus on prosecuting criminals and fixing deficiencies in the mental health system. Any proposals to the contrary are not a legitimate approach to the issue.

Sincerely,

Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President
National Rifle Association Chris W. Cox
Executive Director
NRA-ILA

Robert Farago calls this a "swing and a miss."

The NRA’s screed advises the President to get tough on criminals. And then tells the Prez to call on the media . . .

. . . to refrain from giving deranged criminals minute-by-minute coverage of their heinous acts, which only serves to encourage copycat behavior. If media outlets won’t show a fan running onto the field during a baseball game because they don’t want to encourage that behavior by others – surely they can listen to law enforcement experts and refuse to air the photographs, video messages or Facebook postings of madmen and murderers.

I’m not saying that’s a major league digression, because that would be a bad joke. But c’mon, really guys? A) Do you really want the President of the United States telling the media how to do their jobs, and B) Isn’t it better to let that bat shit crazy stuff go through so that Americans know the real source of the problem? I mean, isn’t that exactly what happened with the Loughner killing, thus knocking the wind out of the sails of the gun grabbers?

In short, the NRA letter is a swing and a miss. Like the President’s op ed, the NRA missive scores a direct hit on their base, but fails to do anything to educate those who don’t know much about gun control, and don’t really want to know much about gun control.

The NRA should have kept it simple: raising the low-hanging fruit that “gun safety advocates” have in their sights: banning high capacity magazines and tightening various statistically irrelevant “loopholes.” The longest journey starts with a single step. They easiest way to stop that journey is to just stick your foot out and let the aspiring traveler trip over it.

Look, there is nothing here to indicate anything other than the NRA remains fundamentally UNSERIOUS about Gunwalker. You will know the day they change their mind (or have it changed for them) when they circulate a letter to all Senators and Congressmen asking that they sign onto to a demand for immediate hearings on Gunwalker AND MAKE THEIR SIGNATURES A CONDITION FOR FUTURE CAMPAIGN DOLLARS AND ENDORSEMENTS.

Until then, all the empty words that NRA speaks or writes on the subject merely have the significance (and stench) of a contented gorilla fart.

And trust me, Obama can stand the smell.

But when (if?) the 800 pound gorilla actually stands up, wobbly on its feet though it may be, Obama and his Gunwalker minions will run like hell.

Help me motivate the somnolent beast, won't you?

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.