by Bob Barr | Aug 5, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily CallerIn interviews following the horrendous mass murders by lone gunmen in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio over the weekend, Texas’ governor and lieutenant governor, President Trump, and House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy commented that factors involving mental illness, along with cultural factors such as the popularity and pervasiveness of violent video games, and information available to internet-savvy young adults on the “dark web,” needed to be considered in analyzing and developing strategies to prevent future mass shootings.Democrats were — as usual — quick to dismiss any suggestion that video gaming or other cultural factors (except for “racism” perpetrated by President Trump) might be among the factors causing what has become an all-too-familiar pattern of young males using firearms to commit mass murder. This knee-jerk reaction against consideration of such factors limits the likelihood that government at any level will be able to develop a comprehensive strategy seriously to address the problem of mass shootings; foredooming law enforcement simply to doing their best to respond to such incidents.None of the Republican leaders declared that violent video games were the sole, or even necessarily the major factor prompting last weekend’s or other recent mass murderers to act as they did. They simply urged the inclusion of such matters in any serious, long-term strategy to stave off future such horrendous incidents.Predictably, of course, the $140 billion global video gaming industry consistently pushes back against any hint of a link between mass shootings in real life and the gun carnage depicted in the industry’s phenomenally popular games such as “Call of Duty.” The industry’s opposition is driven by dollars, despite...
by Bob Barr | Jul 31, 2019 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.comPresident Donald Trump’s critics, including those in the media, delight in picturing him as a person unconcerned about human rights, and as a president totally unconcerned with the plight of those seeking freedom around the world. As often is the case in politics, the reality is quite different. The ongoing refugee problem in North Africa presents just such an example.Hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees in North Africa’s Western Sahara region may have more reason for hope today than ever before, thanks to the Trump Administration’s concern and involvement. In the 1970s, the people of Western Sahara, then known as the Spanish Sahara, thought for a brief moment that they would be free when Spain renounced her colonial claims, but it was not to be. The territory was soon occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco which continues to claim the area as its own, despite rulings by the International Court of Justice and numerous United Nations Resolutions recognizing the right of the region’s inhabitants, the Sahrawi, to self-determination.In 1991, after years of fighting, the UN worked out a ceasefire in which the parties agreed that the fate of the territory would be determined by referendum, giving the Sahrawi people the right to determine their own future. By that time hundreds of thousands had fled the conflict and were living in UN-administered refugee camps in Algeria. They were expecting to return home to Western Sahara after the referendum, but that vote has yet to take place and they continue to live in those same camps nearly 30 years later.In the meantime, the people of Western Sahara have prevailed at the...
by Bob Barr | Jul 24, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.comThe world in which most liberals live is one of magic and fairytales — where socialist systems have starved millions of people and destroyed every economy forced into its model, but which certainly will work the next time. It is a world in which using fascist tactics to silence opponents actually makes you an anti-fascist; and where presidential candidates can promise everything for everyone, and still have enough money left over to cut taxes. In this fantasy land, anything is possible if you just feel it to be true.Perhaps nowhere is the Left’s disconnect from reality more acute than in its assault on the Second Amendment. Despite decades of gun control proposals debunked time and again, the same schemes and arguments regularly are recycled and repackaged. Democrats remain convinced that Americans are just waiting for permission to hand over their firearms and their God-given right to self-defense. After all, Democrats say, other countries are doing it, so why not us?Take for instance New Zealand, which recently achieved rock star status in the eyes of Democrats in our country, when its prime minister reacted to a tragic mass shooting with a crushing blow to the country’s firearms rights. The prime minister immediately banned “military-style assault rifles,” to be jump started with a “buy-back” program. As expected, Democrats here gushed with envy at what would be possible in our country. “Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market. This is what leadership looks like,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cluelessly tweeted, echoing sentiments from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Chris Murphy, and others. The “leadership” which so moved Ocasio-Cortez, however, appears to have hit...
