by Bob Barr | Jul 18, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller The Democratic Party’s appetite for gun-control legislation is constant, especially in the wake of a mass shooting. Occasionally, they are able to enlist sufficient Republican support in the Congress to actually pass legislation limiting the Second Amendment rights of citizens. This was the case last month when the requisite number of Republicans crossed over and gave Democrats a victory in sending the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” to President Biden for his eager signature. Not content with their success in passing that expansive legislation, Democrats in the House last week passed another bill to prove they are “doing something” to prevent criminals from shooting innocent victims. At least that’s the theory behind the “Active Shooter Alert Act of 2022” (H.R. 6538) that now awaits Senate action. H.R. 6538 has a price tag of “only” $2 million (at least to start) and does not itself restrict exercise of citizens’ Second Amendment rights. It is, however, pointless and unnecessary. Obviously the bill’s primary sponsors, Democratic Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline and Republican Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, concluded that existing “alert” communications between law enforcement agencies are inadequate. Thus, we need an office at the U.S. Department of Justice dedicated to monitoring such events and alerting everyone else — another bureaucracy to “coordinate” something, along with a “study” to be conducted by the Government Accountability Office to let us know how they are doing. Don’t get me wrong, the disgracefully inadequate, bordering on criminally negligent behavior by the school police agency during the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, illustrates that there are shortcomings in how some police departments and individual officers...
by Bob Barr | Jul 11, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller The “wokeness” that has distorted how America’s history and culture are presented has received a great deal of analysis and media coverage in the past biennium. It now has sunk to a truly idiotic level at George Washington University (GWU), one of the most expensive universities in the country and, at least in years past, considered by many to be one of the more prestigious. It is a truism that in modern times, colleges and universities across the country have served as incubators for the teaching of left-wing worldviews to students. Such perspective is further solidified in the professional realm via academic journals and government-funded research projects reflecting similarly liberal biases. Such woke nonsense has infected even the curriculum at West Point, where cadets now are forced to spend time learning about Critical Race Theory (CRT). In decades past, our nation’s oldest military academy focused on producing Army lieutenants schooled not in the continuing evils of slavery in America, but in how to win wars and protect our nation’s security. Times and priorities change. America’s historical landmarks have not been immune from woke revisionism. Especially hard hit has been Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president, author of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the University of Virginia. The foundation responsible for preserving and maintaining Jefferson’s beautiful estate outside Charlottesville, Virginia previously and unashamedly lauded his genius and his myriad contributions to our nation. Its current left-leaning board now considers it more important to highlight slavery in virtually every aspect of how the former president, his house and its grounds are presented to visitors. Ultimately, it is our universities and...
by Bob Barr | Jul 5, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling late last month that New York’s 110-year-old concealed carry law was unconstitutional, the Empire State’s Democrat-controlled legislature and left-wing accidental governor, Kathy Hochul, wasted no time reaffirming that they will go to any lengths to prevent its citizens from lawfully carrying firearms outside the home for personal protection. The new law, signed over the weekend by Hochul, almost certainly will ultimately be thrown out by the federal courts. However, the state’s lawmakers know that such a process likely will take many months if not years to be finally decided, and that for at least that period of time, they will be free to continue denying citizens the right to protect themselves in public. The immediate impetus for New York’s latest anti-gun maneuver was the Supreme Court’s 6-3 opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, issued June 23. As recited by Justice Clarence Thomas in his majority opinion, the prior law, known commonly as the “Sullivan Act,” was constitutionally defective because it placed far too much discretion in the hands of local state officials to arbitrarily deny an applicant a concealed carry permit unless he or she convinced them that they had a unique, “proper cause” to carry a concealed firearm outside their home. For more than a century, this provision worked to prevent all but a very select few New Yorkers from carrying a gun to protect themselves in public (open carry is not permitted in the state, so concealed carry is the only alternative). In signing the new and highly restrictive legislation over the Independence Day...
by Bob Barr | Jun 27, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller It is now the law of the land, signed last Saturday by President Biden – the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.” Hidden deep within one of its most controversial provisions, dealing with Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), more commonly known as “Red Flag Laws,” is language that provides a clever way for judges to ignore the “constitutional rights” that purport to guard against abusing these problematic provisions. The bill itself – S.2938 – is 81 pages long; somewhat short by today’s standards, when bills running to hundreds of pages are not uncommon. It is not until a reader is well into the text of the bill that the “Firearms” provisions are laid out in any detail, and this is where the real problem becomes clear – clear, that is, if you read carefully the provisions regarding ERPOs. As is standard operating procedure for federal legislation, S.2938 does not directly mandate that states or local governments implement red flag laws. It does so by offering states money to do the federal government’s bidding. Uncle Sam knows that state and local governments are always eager to receive federal largesse, even with the inevitable strings attached. In this instance, the “bipartisan” legislation (14 House Republicans joined with 15 of their colleagues in the Senate) provides that “Byrne” grants, which have been a vehicle to shovel money to states for criminal justice programs since 1988, can be used to establish “extreme risk protection order programs.” This authorization is linked directly to a list of “due process rights” that attach to such grants. This laudable language is expansive, and warns that no such program can...
by Bob Barr | Jun 14, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller Despite an excessive degree of regulatory intervention, American-style free market economics remains the gold standard for organizing an economy. Unfortunately, one of Uncle Sam’s favored tools with which to attack the business sector – antitrust power – is being considered by both major parties in the U.S. Congress to undercut that advantage. American innovators have improved the lives of generations of citizens. Consider, just among recent success stories, the invention of the Apple iPhone, the Twitter method of communication, the Google search engine, Uber’s ride-sharing concept and the use of Facebook to keep up with family and friends. Amazon is a company that was critical in moving goods to people everywhere during the recent pandemic. While none of these companies are perfect, all are miracles of free market economics and rewards in a nation that embraces entrepreneurs. Now, those same wildly successful companies are under attack by liberals who have a profound distaste for private enterprise and success, fueled by a deep skepticism of free market capitalism. There is an emerging effort to give Washington power players even more power to attack so called “Big Tech,” under the pretext of antitrust law. This attack emanates from both major political parties — the populist right and progressive left, in a way that will greatly harm a struggling national economy. Giving more power to government bureaucrats to micromanage the economy has never been a good idea, but it is especially bad at this juncture. The current centerpiece of this attack on “Big Tech” is S.2992, mistitled the “American Innovation and Choice Online Act,” which singlehandedly will stifle innovation and limit consumer...
by Bob Barr | Jun 6, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller Last week, President Biden delivered a prime time address to the nation on “Gun Violence in America.” The speech was long on drama, including several explicit references to God and a maudlin display of candles behind the presidential podium. The occasion was in fact serious, coming as it did just days after two mass murders committed by a pair of obviously deeply troubled young men with the blackest of evil in their hearts and minds; but the speech offered nothing of real value. This failure to use the presidential bully pulpit to propose serious solutions to serious problems reflects a deliberate decision by Mr. Biden to not address the causes of recent mass homicides. Indeed, this has become the generational failure of Democrats to “do something” about what is now endemic violence in our culture. Democrats’ myopic focus on gun control is itself a tacit recognition that it is far more difficult, costly and politically sensitive to tackle the root causes of such tragedies than it is to rail against “guns!” Ah, yes — “root causes.” Following her visit to Central America in the summer of 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly lectured us to address the “root causes” of migration. Too bad Biden did not heed her advice when addressing “gun violence” last week. Other than a passing reference in his June 2 speech to the “mental health” aspect of violence-prone individuals like the evildoers in Buffalo, Uvalde and other sites of mass shootings, President Biden failed to address any of the “root causes” of such tragedies. Even when he did refer briefly to “mental health,” it was as a “consequence” of gun violence rather...
