NRA: Obama Whittling Away Constitutional Rights
3 hrs ago
By Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President

For months now, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has used our gun laws as a scapegoat for the violence caused by the drug cartels in his country. Once again, it seems our own president is joining in the chorus of blame.

Early in the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder called for a new ban on semi-automatic rifles, only to be rebuffed by 65 members of his own party. Knowing that he can't push an anti-gun agenda through Congress, Obama now wants to use the power of the executive branch to issue a new "emergency requirement" for thousands of federally licensed firearms dealers.

This so-called emergency has been going on in Mexico for four years, and has nothing to do with our gun laws. El Paso, Texas is the safest city in the nation. Just across the Rio Grande, in Ciudad Juarez, 3,000 people have been killed this year. This is just a shallow excuse to engage in a sweeping firearms registration scheme, and the NRA will do everything in its power to stop these "emergency requirements" from taking effect.

According to an internal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) memo obtained by The Washington Post, almost 8,500 firearms retailers would be required to submit a report, with the names of purchasers, whenever the store sells more than two rifles within a five-day period that meet the following criteria: a caliber greater than .22, semi-automatic, with the ability to accept a detachable magazine. In other words, the Obama administration wants to know who's buying the most popular and common rifles sold in America today.

The Obama administration is trying to block an Arizona law that would help police identify those who are in this country illegally, including those connected to cartels, but it wants to know the names of law-abiding gun owners? Let me make it crystal clear. The NRA won't sit idly by while our constitutional rights are whittled away for political or ideological purposes.

www.opposingviews.com