Hindsight from The New Gun Week June 20, 1999
Elmer Gantry in the Bully Pulpit
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive EditorWith less than two years left in his second and last term as President, Bill Clinton has been working Teddy Roosevelt's "Bully Pulpit" to a fair-thee-well in an effort to leave office with what historians may finally record as the most anti-Bill of Rights Administration in US history.
Not content with waging a politically correct war in Yugoslavia-without the official consent of Congress-Clinton began exploiting the tragedy at Littleton, CO, on April 20 even before all the victims were buried. He has used every imaginable modern media technique to press an agenda that targets gunowners and pushes aside parental authority and societal mores to make government the Big Daddy for America's children.
Sometimes he is very candid about what he would like to achieve even though he may admit that he is limited by popular attitudes. At other times, he is much more manipulative-suggesting what may be accepted by consensus by concealing his true intentions.
Gunowners, of course, are used to this type of Clinton legislative and administrative slight-of-hand, but other Americans are now beginning to learn more-even the President's big money supporters in the entertainment industry.
Hardly shamed or otherwise impeded by the impeachment process that played through the winter months, Clinton is now bringing all the zeal and fulmination's of a circuit preacher to his spring and summer assault on our rights.
Wake-Up Program
Some Americans may be surprised to turn on their television sets for a morning dose of smile-wrapped entertainment pabulum only to find a glowering Clinton wagging his finger in their faces and everyone for the nation's problems-except himself.
That's what happened when a testy Clinton, with pointed finger and pounding fist, rejected suggestions on the June 4 edition of ABC's "Good Morning America" that he fumbled a golden opportunity to stand tough for gun control.
The sweeping restrictions he would like to see-including a mandate that people "register guns like they register cars"-will take years to enact, he said, because he is hamstrung by a Republican Congress "out of touch with the American people."
The fact that a poll-driven President ignored polls which show that most Americans want less government intrusion of their lives, not more, is characteristic of the current demagoguery.
The President and his wife, Hillary, aimed their anti-youth-violence campaign at family breakfast tables nationwide with occasion, but not total, support from 40 teen-agers-some from schools made infamous by shootings in 1998-for a live brainstorming session.
ABC anchor Charlie Gibson opened the broadcast from the White House Roosevelt Room with a separate interview with Clinton. Gibson quoted an unnamed Clinton ally as saying the President, after the Littleton school massacre, "had a chance to roar and he meowed."
With his eyes narrowed and his finger pointed accusingly, Clinton replied: "Look, let's join the real world here. You want to have an honest conversation, let's have an honest conversation. I am the first President who ever took on the NRA. I got my party in Congress to stand with me on the Brady bill. ... Now wait a minute, you talk about roaring and meowing-then I came forward with this legislation.''
Clinton pounded his left fist into his right palm.
"For you to say I shouldn't take what I can get and instead I should ask for things that I am absolutely positive will be defeated in the Congress is quite wrong," he said, according to an Associated Press report. (I did happen to see part of the performance, but I prefer CNN Headline News or C-SPAN's Washington Journal if I'm going to have TV with my morning coffee.)
The President narrowly won Senate passage in May of an amendment requiring mandatory background checks for all transactions at gun shows, then lost a fight to have the House follow suit before its Memorial Day recess.
Later Battle
He has-as a matter of political practicality, he said-deferred until later the battle for additional gun controls, such as background checks for explosives sales, increasing from 18 to 21 the legal age for owning handguns and "assault weapons" and limiting gun purchases to one per month.
Clinton said on the ABC show that the House Republican leadership delayed a gun vote until after the holiday recess in order to give the National Rifle Association time to lobby and water down the legislation.
"I made it clear I want to do this in sequence. I think this is going to take years. The Congress is out of touch with the American people.''
Following the President's one-on-one interview in the Cabinet Room, he and the First Lady sat down with students from Littleton, Springfield, OR, West Paducah, KY, Conyers, GA, and other areas for an uninterrupted and broader discussion of youth violence.
After 45 minutes, the Clintons agreed to scrap their schedules and stretch it another 10 minutes. "We can stay longer," the first lady said. "I want to hear from them."
But not all of the students seemed to be willing to swallow the whole Clinton approach. The Associated Press report selected some for quotes.
For example, AP reported, one student, Albert Smith, questioned the President skeptically. "How spectacular is this legislation and why will it make a difference?"
AP mentioned that another student in the discussion was Missy Jenkins, who was paralyzed from the waist down on Dec. 1, 1997, when a classmate opened fire inside her West Paducah high school. However, AP did not report on her views.
Indeed, from what little of the program I saw, AP missed the boat on a significant aspect of that show: many of the kids were raising the same questions as gunowners raise.
I didn't write down his name, but at least one youth, reportedly rated as a grand master in the video game "Doom," challenged Clinton. "When millions of us play a game like 'Doom' without every doing any harm to anyone else, why should we be punished for the criminal acts of a few?"
Another young black girl, whose name I didn't record, asked whether the problem wasn't a lack of morality rather than legislation.
A third boy also raised the question of restricting the freedoms of millions law-abiding citizens in response to the aberrant behavior of a few. He didn't sound like he wanted to trade the freedoms he understood for the security the Clinton's promised.
Unfortunately, that part of the program was missed except by the claimed 7 million of so who the network says actually watched that ABC program. I was encouraged that high school age children were politely challenging the Clinton's designs against their basic rights, even though the right to keep and bear arms was not a part of that segment.
Clinton apparently didn't pay much attention to that aspect either. He got to wag his finger in our faces as he did in the Monica Lewinsky denial. He got to pound his fist on the table like a Soviet dictator. And he rushed on to grab more.
More Candid
Sure he spelled out his plans for total gun and gunowner registration, but most of us already knew that. What was surprising is that he got a little more candid than usual on June 4.
Four days later, he held another White House media-pulpit event in company with William Kartozian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. This time it was to announced that the movie exhibitors were adopting, at Clinton's urging, a new policy requiring youths unaccompanied by adults to produce a photo ID proving their age before being admitted to R-rated films.
The R rating means "restricted: under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian." The R rating by the movie industry has more to do with sexually explicit language and content that it does violence, but then who said Clinton and his helpers had to be logical.
Let's see now. If you're a high school student between 17 and 18, you can't go to certain movies unless your parents, but as soon as your 18 you can do what you want.
Not really. With Clinton in charge, when you're 18, you won't be able to buy or possess a gun unless you join the military and the government teaches you who and when to shoot. You also won't be able to buy a beer or cigarettes, and maybe certain video games.
And, by the way, if you committed a felony crime as a juvenile, forget about rehabilitation and privacy, because the juvenile justice bill will open up your former transgressions, no matter how old you are.
Of course, at 18, you will be old enough to vote. Will it be for Clinton-Gore or their cronies?
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com