To the editor:
Every time, after a man-caused tragedy, when evil people use guns to cause harm to innocent people, the anti-gunners start blaming guns, the NRA and gun manufacturers for the gun violence that’s happening in this country.
Obama always comes out to push his gun-control agenda, even before he knows the facts. But like Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief-of-staff, said, “You can’t let a good crisis go to waste.”
In 1996, after the mass murder of 35 people — in which the shooter was using a semi-automatic rifle stolen from his first murder victim — the Australian parliament, just 12 days after the shooting, rushed through a massive gun buyback program, and began to collect all registered semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump shotguns that were owned by every registered gun owner in the country.
A few years later, after another shooting using a handgun, they began another buyback program of registered handguns. The truth is, these were not buyback programs; they were, in fact, a mandatory gun confiscation scheme. You see, the Australian gun owners did have a “choice,” to either accept reimbursement and give up their guns they had previously been forced to register, or they could risk forcible confiscation of their property and imprisonment.
In Australia, self-defense is not recognized as a legitimate reason to own a firearm. Obama has said in the past, that we should follow Australia’s example on gun laws. You will notice that the president doesn’t exactly spell out what following Australia’s example would entail. He speaks instead of “common-sense gun-control legislation,” “closing the gun-show loophole” and “universal background checks.”
So to arrive at his own Australia solution today, Obama and his anti-gun friends in Congress need one thing: A list of gun owners and their firearms. They will start with a “common-sense” gun law like a national gun registration program.
Australia has sent American gun owners a message: “Don’t let them register your guns. If they know you have them, then they can come and take them.” Australia proves that registration can lead to confiscation.
Back in 2013, Linn County, Oregon, Sheriff Tim Mueller, in a letter to Obama, said: “We are Americans. We must not allow, nor shall we tolerate, the actions of criminals, no matter how heinous the crime, to prompt politicians to enact laws that will infringe upon the liberties of responsible citizens who have broken no law.”
We have a right that no other country on Earth has — the right to defend ourselves — but Obama, Hillary Clinton and their gun-banning friends want to eradicate the ownership of guns in America and they are willing to do it piece by piece. They want to emulate what happened in Australia. And they will use any crisis to do it.
Ron and Debbie Boggs
Delaware
