As far as I know, there have been no new federal laws passed during President Obama’s term in office that restrict gun ownership or impact gun owner’s privacy. After Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot by one of her constituents, there was a small flurry of bills introduced by Democrats. They were referred to committee and died. When the Republican Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee Peter King (R-NY) announced his intention to introduce a gun control bill, he was quickly shot down by Speaker Boehner.
Certainly, the president hasn’t signed any bills like the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. That bill was signed by George H.W. Bush and was found to be unconstitutional in 1995. Clinton had it tweaked a bit, but it is basically toothless at this point.
There seem to be no grounds for suspecting that President Obama has any kind of gun control agenda at all, and neither does the Democratic Party. This, of course, makes the National Rifle Association (NRA) rather irrelevant, at least in political matters. Their fundraising should be drying up since there really is no need for them to do anything in the political arena. Their opponents were vanquished long ago. Even watching a colleague get shot in the brain wasn’t enough to move Congress to do anything to restrict gun ownership.
Yet, the NRA is telling people that the president has a secret plan to confiscate their guns and actually informed Congress that they will be “scoring” the contempt vote for Eric Holder, as if you couldn’t be a supporter of gun rights if you don’t think the Attorney General should be held in contempt for failing to turn over irrelevant emails and meeting minutes.
Probably the most startling thing about the Fast and Furious conspiracy theory is that the program was initiated by the Bush administration. That single fact undermines the whole theory that the Obama administration initiated the program for any nefarious purpose. They didn’t initiate it.
In fact, they didn’t even know about it. The whole contempt case rests on the idea that Eric Holder initiated a damage-control strategy after he realized that he’d been lied to by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, which resulted in the DOJ giving erroneous information to congressional oversight committees. The Republicans are demanding to see the internal deliberations the DOJ went through after they discovered they’d unintentionally misled Congress. But that has nothing to do with taking anyone’s guns away or any foreknowledge of the program.
Basically, what we’re witnessing is just a way for the NRA to stay relevant in an era where gun control efforts are dead. That’s it. And it’s further proof that the NRA is acting as more of a wing of the GOP than as an advocate for responsible gun ownership.
