by Bob Barr | Apr 2, 2021 | FullMAGnews |
FullMAGnewsIn the United States, where the Constitution is — or is supposed to be — the supreme law of the land, two things are true. Police, tasked with upholding the law, have the right to do what is necessary to secure control of a situation in order to protect themselves and others. Equally important, however, is that police officers afford due recognition of and respect for the fundamental, natural right of the citizenry to keep and bear arms at home and outside the home. Balancing these rights and responsibilities is not always easy, especially in times of unrest and, as now, when increasing gun control is placing additional obstacles in the way.Ideally, when these two truths come to a head, the situation is resolved peaceably and without altercation, which is how the vast majority of cases are resolved. Unfortunately, when the situation falls short of this ideal, the result can be injury or death to citizens and at times to police officers themselves. Worse still, such tragic outcomes are increasingly common as gun rights in America are put to the test like never before. For the sake of the nation, the lives of our brave men and women in blue, and the future of gun rights in America, it is imperative that the police and Second Amendment citizens must work together to reverse this unsettling trend.Although Second Amendment conservatives and racial justice activists rarely see eye-to-eye, not least of all because of the outright anti-police rhetoric of Black Lives Matter, recent incidents that have stoked the anger of these groups should also cause conservatives generally to pause and pay attention to what is going on. Behind the...
by Bob Barr | Mar 31, 2021 | Townhall Article |
TownhallIn 1850, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a novel in which the female protagonist was forced to wear a highly visible “scarlet letter” as a sign that she had committed a terrible sin (adultery). The term has ever since been used as shorthand for publicly stigmatizing someone who has done (or not done) something for which they should be ostracized or punished.Now, more than 170 years after “The Scarlet Letter” was published, President Joe Biden, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and others are calling for a 21st Century scarlet letter (in this case a “C” for COVID), in the form of an electronic app attesting that the bearer has either received a COVID vaccine or has otherwise been deemed immunized to the virus.Unlike the “A” that Hawthorne’s protagonist, Hester Prynne, was forced to display, the new-fangled “COVID Passport” works also in reverse, by identifying those who have not been immunized and are therefore to be denied admission to an event or service they might otherwise access. The hypocrisy of the Democrats’ plan for a COVID ID is glaring.Just last week, Biden blasted the governor and legislature of Georgia for mandating that absentee voters must show a valid ID in order to receive a ballot. There were other measures included in the legislative package, but the ID requirement caused the loudest howl by Biden and other Democrats who claimed it was “racist” in its intent, and in practice would “suppress” the minority vote. In a word, requiring a person to show a valid ID in order to obtain a benefit, here an absentee ballot, was, in the view of the President of the United...
by Bob Barr | Mar 29, 2021 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerWhile age may have slowed Jesse Jackson’s political activities (he is nearly 80 years old), the strategy he launched in the early 1980s of using race as a lever to pressure corporations into donating money to causes he championed lives on, with renewed vigor in today’s hyper-partisan political environment. Truly, no sporting event or business is safe from becoming a racial football.In Georgia, the 85th Masters Golf Tournament, which has withstood charges of racism and sexism in recent years, now is under attack not for anything it has done (or not done), but simply because the governor of the state in which it is located last week signed legislation making the state’s voting procedures more secure. That act alone was enough to initiate calls by Black Lives Matter groups and others to both boycott and move the venerable tournament out of Augusta, Georgia.Baseball, which historically was considered America’s apolitical national pastime, now also is in the crosshairs of these same groups for the very same reason. The annual All-Star game, scheduled to be played this summer at the Atlanta Braves stadium in a suburb of the city long considered the “Capitol of the New South,” is being targeted for boycott and transfer to a stadium in another state.For now, at least, neither batting averages nor handicaps define professional sports in America, only race.This actually is nothing new since racial activists five years ago discovered that disrespecting the playing of our National Anthem prior to professional sporting events garnered them significant publicity. What is new, however, is the widening scope of activities that now trigger calls for boycotts, and the vehemence that accompanies such...
by Bob Barr | Mar 24, 2021 | Townhall Article |
TownhallOld English law, transported to the United States centuries ago, holds that “a man’s home is his castle” and may be protected against unwanted entry except in limited circumstances. The Supreme Court of the United States has now taken under advisement a case from Rhode Island that could significantly weaken that protection.The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution enshrines the “castle doctrine” as it relates to one’s home, by requiring the police to obtain a warrant before they may lawfully enter that domicile and seize evidence. There are, of course, exceptions to this warrant requirement, and the Rhode Island case, on which the Supreme Court heard arguments just this week, is but the latest in a continuing effort by state police agencies to expand those warrant exceptions.As with most every case that finds its way to the High Court, this latest one (the facts of which actually occurred six years ago, in August 2015) presents a reasonable, if not persuasive argument for the government — at least on the surface. The local police were called by the wife of the homeowner, one Edward Caniglia, because she was concerned that, following an argument the previous day, he might harm her or himself with one of the two handguns he owned lawfully and kept in their home. The police came and reportedly told Caniglia they would confiscate his firearms unless he agreed to be taken to a local hospital for a mental evaluation. Based apparently on the officers’ pressure, Mr. Caniglia was transported to a hospital for such an evaluation, which concluded he did not pose any threat. However, while he was away and being...
by Bob Barr | Mar 22, 2021 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerDemocrats are sniffing glue and reading the New York Times again. How else can one explain their reduction of the deeply complex and innately subhuman act of slaughtering eight individuals to a run-of-the-mill “hate” crime, on par with screaming racial slurs at a passerby on the sidewalk? It is an explanation so sophomoric that it borders on irresponsibly stupid.No act of mass murder is an ordinary crime, whether fueled by anger, passion or psychosis. Intentionally murdering innocent strangers requires a detachment from basic humanity that is not an attribute common to the vast majority of criminals. Comprehending how an individual arrives psychologically at such a dark depth is a key to preventing similar tragedies in the future.Progress in understanding such horrific criminal behavior, however, grinds to a halt when a key stakeholder refuses to scratch even a micron below the surface of the overt acts. Worse still, in the case of last week’s murders at massage parlors in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, Democrats have displayed actual hostility toward those who delve beneath the surface, when facts and analysis begin to contradict their simplistic narrative. As cultural commentator Jon Stokes recently noted on Twitter, it “isn’t just the incuriosity, but the . . . anti-curiosity” that strikes him as particularly troublesome with the Democrats’ reaction to the Atlanta shootings. “You’re just supposed to say ‘amen’” and move on.Consider Georgia’s newly elected, far-Left Sen. Raphael Warnock, who clapped back at the FBI last weekend when the agency suggested the Atlanta shooting did not appear to be racially motivated. Warnock’s un-inquisitive explanation for the murders was simply, “we all know hate when we see it.”Which narrative is more...
