Obama's "under the radar" gun control efforts...

[funkfool]

Obama: We’re working on gun control “under the radar”...

posted at 1:15 pm on May 25, 2011 by Ed Morrissey





I missed this last week, and so may many who didn’t notice Instapundit’s link to the Greeley Gazette’s post on the White House’s efforts to impose gun control through executive-branch regulatory adventurism. Jack Minor caught this anecdote buried below the jump on a Washington Post Lifestyle profile of Steve Croley, first published six weeks ago. Described as “the White House’s point man on gun regulation policy,” the Post includes this rather telling quote from President Obama on the issue of gun control from March:

On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady, who sustained a debilitating head wound in the attack, and his wife, Sarah, came to Capitol Hill to push for a ban on the controversial “large magazines.” Brady, for whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named, then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.

“I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Minor noted that this under-the-radar anecdote matches up with other reporting:

The statement reinforces an article in the Huffington Post describing how the administration is exploring ways to bypass Congress and enact gun control through executive action.

The Department of Justice reportedly is holding meetings discussing the White House’s options for enacting regulations on its own or through adjoining agencies and departments. “Administration officials said talk of executive orders or agency action are among a host of options that President Barack Obama and his advisers are considering. “

That also matches up with Obama’s approach on … nearly everything, it seems. Regulatory adventurism has been a hallmark of every other Obama priority, whether it be health care, financial-services reform, labor policy, and now on gun control. When his agenda is too radical for Congress, Obama simply plans to bypass Congress and rule by decree.
Glenn Reynolds headlined this under the banner “TRANSPARENCY.” That’s fitting, but “RADICAL” and “DISHONEST” work well, too. Here’s the problem for Democrats: Ever since the Clinton years, they have avoided gun control like the plague, and the courts have taken a libertarian view of the Second Amendment. How many of the incumbent Democrats in the Senate want to defend Obama on his power play to impose gun control by executive fiat in the dark? How will that fly in places like Missouri, Nebraska, and West Virginia? How about in open seats like Virginia’s, which Democrats hope to hold?
Update: I meant “executive fiat,” not “legislative fiat.” The latter is an oxymoron, obviously.

John Lott site
Make sure folks hear about this!!

Obama is a lying sack-o-sΩ±t - but I repeat myself...

[Ronin13]

Scary find there... Especially since I like my 30 round magazines in my AR and AK... I swear they start trying to enact these ludicrous gun control measures I'll be hearing everyone quoting the famous "From my cold dead hands..." line a lot, myself included. Can we impeach a president based on deceptive anti-American tactics?

[Byte Stryke]

Can we impeach a president based on deceptive anti-American tactics?

no but he did kinda fumble that whole war powers act time limit.

then there's the article about the Kenyan Senator running for office from Ill.

[funkfool]

Some good commentary on gun control via regulation by Glenn Beck in the video...

Chaffetz vs. Sunstein

Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 1:36 PM EDT
You’ve heard Glenn refer to Cass Sunstein as the most dangerous man in America, but why? Because he has fingerprints all over everything and he’s out to change the country without having to pass a single law. And after the administration said they were working under the radar to ban guns, Congressman Jason Chaffetz was the only person to confront the man who could make it happen.
“Now, there’s a couple of things that you need to know about this. First of all, the president has had a conversation with Mrs. Brady. What’s her name, Sarah Brady? James Brady is the guy who was shot during the Reagan assassination, and he has gone for, or she has gone for major gun control,” Glenn explained. “So she came up to President Obama and they were talking and she said, what are you doing on gun control? And his quote ‑‑ his quote is that he is working on gun control. Let me get the exact thing. ‘I want you to know that we’re working on it, but we have to go through a few processes but under the radar’,” Glenn explained.
“Now, what are the processes? I can tell you. It’s Cass Sunstein, the most dangerous man in America. Because it’s all under the radar. They can pass a law, but the guy who writes the regulation is the one that you have to worry about. This is the way it happens in every communist country. It’s the regulation that kills you. That’s where Cass Sunstein comes in,” Gelnn said.
So what did Chaffetz say to Sunstein?
“You said, quote, we ought to ban hunting, end quote. Is that something you or anybody in the administration is working on at this point?” Chaffetz asked Sunstein.
“Absolutely not,” Cass responded.
“You had said in your book or written in your book Radicals in Robes, quote, almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine. And if the Court is right, then fundamentalism does not justify the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms, end quote. Is that something that you or anybody in the administration is working on?”
“That quotation actually was from a position, not a position I held at the time. I was describing a position that some other people held. In any case, one thing that’s very clear is what academics write in their academic capacity as exactly no appropriate bearing on what government officials do in their governmental capacity,” Sunstein responded.
“And I appreciate. That’s why I’m asking if those previous positions are something you’re currently working on now. You are, I believe the quote is, you had said, quote, animals should be permitted to bring suit with human beings as their representatives. Is that something you’re working on or anybody in the administration is working on?” Chaffetz asked.
“I’m working on implementation of Executive Order 13563 and not on those issues,” Sunstein said.
What does Executive Order 13563 say? Pat read, “This is Section 1. Our regulatory system must protect public health, welfare, safety and our environment while promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness and job creation. “
What does that mean? Well, the language is very vague. Glenn said you could bet there would be more government jobs and more regulations.
“There’s a lot of people that are screaming for a reduction of federal regulation, but that’s not what Cass Sunstein does,” Glenn said. “But that’s what this executive order is trying to make you think it does.”

[Rust_shackleford]

These are the times that try men's
Will the Republic fall?

[two shoes]

"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction."

Some controversy as to whom this quote is attributed to, but it is fitting. And I am sure I know the answer...