by Bob Barr | Mar 30, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily CallerIn the song, Things Have Changed, Bob Dylan observed that “people are crazy and times are strange.” There are few compositions that better capture the nature of the world in which we now find ourselves than those lyrics penned by Dylan two decades ago for the movie Wonder Boys.The strangest thing of all is that times are certain to become even stranger in the days ahead. Glimpses of what is in store for us appeared this past weekend in several places, from Maine to Florida.Federally enforced geographic quarantines were suggested by President Trump in comments to the White House press corps as he was leaving for Norfolk to be present for the departure of the Hospital Ship USNS Comfort, which was headed to New York City to help doctors and hospitals in that COVID-19 beleaguered city.While Trump verbally backtracked on the quarantine comments following pushback from Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose citizens would be on the receiving end of such a draconian measure. The move obviously is something the federal government is considering and likely already has plans drawn up to justify and implement.As we saw in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9-11, the U.S. Department of Justice is always ready with memoranda to justify whatever “emergency” action a president might take as “commander-in-chief.” It was in those days right after 9-11 that high-level government lawyers drafted memos arguing that whatever the president does as “commander-in-chief” is permissible – even deploying the U.S. armed forces inside our borders for law enforcement purposes without being subject to limitations in the Bill of Rights.Subsequent rebuke of such extreme and...
by Bob Barr | Mar 25, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.comThe latest victim of the COVID-19 pandemic is not a health care worker, a first responder, or a cruise line traveler. The purveyor is not an invisible microbe. The perpetrators of the latest assault on men and women in cities and states across the country, are left-wing governors and mayors who have decided the pandemic provides a convenient excuse to deny law abiding citizens the freedom to exercise their Second Amendment rights.As I wrote last week, we already have seen examples of the COVID-19 pandemic being used as an excuse to do just this; and the trend is accelerating.Just last weekend, for example, the New Jersey State Police sent a message to all of the state’s Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL), telling them that Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy had decided to deactivate the Commonwealth’s ability to access the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that is required to be used during the purchases of all firearms in business transactions. According to Murphy, firearm purchases are not “essential” during the COVID-19 outbreak, and thus are within his “emergency” jurisdiction to slow the spread of the viral disease. The Bill of Rights be damned. Second Amendment advocates have long pointed to the background check system as a potential chokepoint in the gun purchase process; exploitable by anti-gun officials to cripple the Second Amendment without the need for congressional or even state legislative action. As a National Rifle Association alert points out, while a majority of states use the FBI directly to run NICS searches, New Jersey is one of twelve “full point of contact” (POC) states (a group that includes California and...
by Bob Barr | Mar 23, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily CallerOriginal copies of the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights remain on display at the National Archives in our nation’s capital. Many Americans consider that the system of government established by those documents is as strong as the pieces of parchment themselves. Quite the contrary. The system of government bequeathed to us more than 230 years ago – one of defined and limited powers designed above all else to protect individual liberty — is far more fragile than most citizens realize.At no time is the fragility of guaranteed individual liberty more at risk than in times of “emergency;” including, as we face today, one posed not by outside human forces, but by nature. Many in our country clamor for the federal government to control virtually every aspect of dealing with the COVID-19 virus, including use of the military and virtual suspension of civil liberties (as some cities and states are already doing). If the system of limiting government power and maximizing individual liberty as delineated in the Constitution is to continue in any meaningful degree, we need to remember that our Founders and their generation faced challenges far beyond those we face today. They knew the country they were establishing would face serious threats, including military threats from beyond our shores. They knew as well that Americans would be challenged by Mother Nature, whether by natural forces or by disease.Yet knowing all that, the system of government they created was one of deliberately limited and defined powers and premised on fundamental pre-existing individual liberties. Our Founders clearly understood that individual liberty protected by the...
