by Bob Barr | Apr 2, 2020 | Uncategorized |
American Action News Political maps of the United States routinely distinguish between “blue” and “red” states, with the descriptors providing a short-hand way to differentiate between “liberal” or Democrat-leaning states (blue) and those that are more “conservative” or Republican-leaning (red). While these color-coded distinctions never provided anything approaching a scientific formulation of politics within states, they have remained in common usage for more than two decades. The manner in which states currently are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, illustrates clearly that when it comes to dealing with “emergencies,” red states are equally as eager to push aside privacy, property and other rights fundamental to individual liberty as are their blue counterparts. And it is not only the more “moderate” or liberal-leaning Republican governors, such as Maryland’s Larry Hogan, who figure in such analysis. That Californian Gavin Newsom jumped on the statewide “lockdown” bandwagon early in the coronavirus crisis surprised no one; he is the uber-liberal governor of an ultra-liberal state. Similarly, it came as no great surprise that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy pushed the envelope of emergency executive power when he closed all gun stores in the Commonwealth (a move he has since been forced to reverse). However, it was not blue states that started the cascade of states canceling by executive orders long-scheduled primary elections due to fears that voters would be susceptible to catching the virus while standing in line to vote. That questionable process was led by red states, including Ohio, Georgia and Louisiana. It was North Carolina, a formerly red state trending to “purple,” that was early to close off its beautiful and...
by Bob Barr | Mar 30, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily Caller In 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....
by Bob Barr | Mar 25, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com The 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...
by Bob Barr | Mar 23, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily Caller Original 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...
by Bob Barr | Mar 16, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily Caller One of America’s least-revered Presidents happens to be one of the most gifted in his understanding of history and human nature. It was in 1776 that future President John Adams identified “fear” as “the foundation of most governments.” Adams might also have had in mind the words of a British contemporary, Edmund Burke, who in 1757 noted that “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” Watching videos in recent days of adult women fighting over the last multi-pack of toilet paper to place in their already overflowing grocery carts illustrates that human behavior has not changed in the centuries since Burke’s observation. And considering the number of officials at the federal, state and municipal levels who are declaring states of “emergency” in the face of the Covid-19 virus, confirms that it remains as easy in 2020 to use fear as a tool with which to expand government power as it was in the 18th Century. This not to say that the Covid-19 virus is neither a serious threat to the health and well-being of Americans from coast to coast nor a legitimate reason for governments to take action to limit and reverse its spread. The virus remains a serious public health threat and it would be highly irresponsible for federal, state and local governments not to enact health-related measures to control the virus. Freeing up financial resources to improve delivery of medical services, loosening red tape on private business in the health care and pharmaceutical sectors, accelerating development of anti-virus inoculations, improving protective measures at senior citizen facilities and schools,...
by Bob Barr | Mar 9, 2020 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller Internet search engines have become the encyclopedias of the modern world, gathering and using vast amounts of information on billions of individuals for commercial and other purposes — and updating those databases continuously. With such technology to amass and disperse all manner of data being available, why then is it so difficult to obtain accurate information on just one category of information – crime data? It appears that some, perhaps many, law enforcement agencies may not want accurate and timely information on criminal activity within their jurisdictions available to the public. All of us – including the police — live in the age of the internet. People the world over query search engine behemoth Google constantly. Reliable estimates are that between seven and ten billion Google searches are made every day; trillions each year. Even with that unfathomable amount of information directed to and managed by Google, the company has the capability to disseminate amazingly detailed data on those many users to third parties willing to pay for it. In this, Google is not alone. Other, smaller competitors, along with social media giants like Facebook and YouTube, have developed their own ways of monetizing and reporting information they collect. But when it comes to crime data, we remain in the Dark Ages. Crime statistics are collected and distributed nationally according to a cataloging system developed when Herbert Hoover was our president. The basic tool used by the FBI since 1930 to gather and report statistical data on crimes in the United States is the Uniform Crime Reporting (“UCR”) system. The information made available publicly each year,...
