by Bob Barr | Dec 14, 2020 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerSelf-styled media “fact checkers” worked overtime last week defending Texas State Rep. Terry Meza’s bill to amend the Lone Star State’s “Castle Doctrine” from well-deserved criticism. No matter the effort to present Meza’s proposal as a serious measure, however, it remains at its core juvenile and dangerous.It is true that Meza’s bill (H.B. 196) does not repeal outright Texas’ Castle Doctrine, the law that codifies situations in which property owners are justified in using deadly force for self-defense. It would, however, gut much of the law by removing “robbery” and “aggravated robbery” from the list of justifying actions. In defending her bill from critics who joked she hoped the change could promote wealth redistribution, Meza used “stealing lawn ornaments” as an example of why the change was needed.One might be forgiven for not being able to separate the satire from Meza herself, but what cannot be excused is Meza’s ignorance of the law, as both a lawmaker and an attorney. It seems she has no clue that under Texas law, theft and robbery are two entirely different legal concepts. Nobody is being shot over “stealing law ornaments,” and if they were, the state’s Castle Doctrine would (rightfully) not protect the property owner from prosecution. At best, her bill is a bad solution to a problem that simply does not exist. The distinction between theft and robbery is important and is what makes Meza’s ignorance – whether deliberate or actual — so dangerous. Both theft and robbery are based on theft of property, but “robbery” and “aggravated robbery” are reserved for property theft in which the assailant either causes, or threatens...
by Bob Barr | Dec 9, 2020 | Townhall Article |
TownhallI am not sure who he was, but when English jurist Lord Sowell in 1788 wrote that, “precedent embalms a principle,” he could just as well have been addressing 21st Century policy makers here in America as he was the protagonists in an 18th Century British court ruling. As gun owners here in America look with trepidation toward a Biden-Harris Administration come January 20th, a precedent set by the Trump Administration is likely to haunt them.Three years ago in Las Vegas, Nevada, mass murderer Stephen Paddock slaughtered 58 innocent people and wounded hundreds more, shooting into a concert audience from a hotel window on The Strip. Among the tools he used in this horrific crime was a device known as a “bump stock.” This contraption, which never has been considered by gun aficionados to be a legitimate firearm accessory, is a piece of plastic with no moving parts. It can, however, be used to increase the rate of fire for certain semi-automatic rifles, even as it reduces accuracy. In response to the Paddock mass murder, in 2018 the Department of Justice directed that the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) change federal regulations regarding machine guns, so that a “bump stock” would fall within the definition of a “machine gun.” With that one “stroke of the pen,” a piece of plastic previously lawful to own, was rendered illegal. Unlike gun control by legislation, this was gun control by fiat. Elected Members of Congress played no role in the decision, having already punted on the question — with some members afraid to upset their pro-Second Amendment constituents, and others fearful that their anti-gun voters...
by Bob Barr | Dec 8, 2020 | Uncategorized |
American Action NewsRunoff elections, required in Georgia if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the underlying primary or general election, historically have been relatively straightforward — all about turnout. Not this time. There is nothing straightforward about the runoff election scheduled for January 5, 2021. Nothing.To begin with, it is a double-header, with both of Georgia’s sitting Republican senators — Kelley Loeffler and David Perdue — on the ballot. Loeffler is in the runoff by virtue of having been appointed earlier this year by Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Then, in a field of 20 candidates, she came in second in the November 3rd special election. Perdue joins Loeffler on the runoff ballot because in his race to secure a second six-year term last month, he barely missed winning a majority.Loeffler’s opponent is Rev. Raphael Warnock, the fire-and-brimstone preacher at Atlanta’s venerable and historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. His well-documented views are far to the left of any person who ever has served as a senator from Georgia. Facing Perdue is Jon Ossoff, a self-styled “investigative reporter” who also has aligned himself with the extreme left wing of his Party.If those were all the elements for the runoff equation — two Republican Senators with solid conservative credentials each facing a Democrat with aggressively liberal views — you could pretty much draft the headline for January 6th: “GOP Easily Holds Both Georgia Senate Seats.” But there are other elements swirling around in this mix; factors that make it far more difficult to handicap either race one month out.Overarching everything in this runoff is the fact that the very balance...
by Bob Barr | Dec 7, 2020 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller On Tuesday, January 5, a runoff election in Georgia will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. Both of the Peach State’s sitting Republican senators will be on the ballot, and if both lose to their Democrat opponents, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will lose his job and the GOP will lose virtually all power to slow or stop the worst excesses of a Biden-Harris administration. What happens on that first Tuesday in January depends to a large degree on whether Georgia Republicans can maintain their focus and their priorities in the face of pressures pulling them off track.Last week, I joined with several of my fellow Georgia Republicans on a letter urging that our focus stay on this essential target – turning out the vote in order to keep David Perdue and Kelley Loeffler in the Senate, and thereby, in the majority. Despite the clear and undebatable need for ensuring as robust a turnout for the January runoff as possible, there are Republicans in Georgia who openly criticized those of us who signed that letter. We were labeled RINOs (“Republicans in Name Only”) and “elitists.”The nonsensical nature of this criticism aside, it does highlight a problem that too often encumbers Republican chances of winning elections — attacking each other over perceived or nonexistence differences.The letter was partly in response to other Georgia Republicans who in recent days have been urging GOP voters not to vote next month. This head-scratcher of a proposition appears premised on the notion that because there appear clearly to have been serious problems with the balloting before, during and after the November 3...
by Bob Barr | Dec 2, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall There never was evidence or scientific data that in-person schooling presented an elevated virus threat for students, faculty, or staff warranting schools’ prolonged closure – no evidence whatsoever. In fact, it was clear even before the traditional school year’s start that children and young adults were far less likely to be infected with COVID or to be severely impacted if they became infected. So, was the response by teachers’ unions and bureaucratic school administrators to reopen but with common-sense health and safety measures in place, so students were not kept away from teachers, classmates, and all the other benefits in-school learning provides? Of course not. Their response was to put on blinders, ignore common sense and hard evidence, and remain…closed.There does now seem to be a glimmer of hope that this close-mindedness is softening slightly. The New York City public school system, for example, plans to open soon for in-person classes, at least for elementary students. The timing of this about-face, and whether it actually will remain in-place, are questions still on the table, and parents should continue to demand to know why it took the teachers and school administrators so long to admit what everyone else knew months ago. Even more important, parents should demand accountability, including firing teachers and bureaucrats for the waste of money caused by their bad decisions, and for the damage inflicted on the students as a result.Waiting for any apology by those self-serving public officials would be a waste of time. As with other fear-driven public policy decisions made in response to the pandemic, refusals to open schools for in-person teaching were nothing more than partisan footballs to be...
