Gop A Puppet For Nra, Militias
You would think that in the wake of the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings, passing a bill strengthening the FBI’s ability to fight terrorism would be a slam-dunk. But so far the only thing getting dunked is the bill itself.
This is a shameful tale - one that suggests that the soul of the Republican Party, at least in the House of Representatives, has been taken over by lawmakers who despise their own government much more than they fear any foreign terrorists.
Yes, it’s true that HR2703, the Comprehensive Anti-Terrorism Act, was also hampered by objections - over privacy issues - from the American Civil Liberties Union. But the real work of gutting this bill was done by the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby, which ordered the freshmen Republicans to jump - and the only question they asked was “How high?”
Indeed, an NRA vice president boasted that his organization’s success at diluting the anti-terrorism bill - which would have made it harder for terrorists to raise money, buy weapons and organize in this country - “was as slick a piece of sophisticated lobbying as you’re ever going to see.”
What is most troubling about the NRA’s success is that the gun lobby was not defending the rights of weekend duck hunters or scared homeowners who want to keep a pistol in the drawer. They were defending the wacko anti-government militias, who love to cheat and harass the U.S. government (like the freemen of Montana). These militias are the only domestic organizations whose military activities might have been marginally constricted by this legislation. So House Republicans can rest easy. America is safe for the next Timothy McVeigh.
For instance, the early versions of the anti-terrorism legislation, initiated by Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called - at the behest of police chiefs - for a ban on the manufacture and sale of any bullets that can pierce police bulletproof vests.
This amendment passed, but the NRA then instructed House Republicans to reverse the vote and convert the ban into “a study” of whether such bullets should be outlawed. Then Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., the NRA’s chief handmaiden in Congress, got even that study limited.
The original bill forbade fund raising for, or providing material support to, “terrorist organizations” abroad. Right now that is not a crime. You can mail a check to Abu Nidal. The NRA-Republicans got that tossed out because it might expand the power of federal law enforcement officials.
The original bill included a study of how to tag explosives for detection, so police could trace bombs back to the supplier. The NRA-Republicans gutted that provision by excluding from the study the most common explosive in home-made bombs, black powder. (Militias don’t like traceable explosives.)
Among those lobbying alongside the NRA was Larry Pratt, director of the Gun Owners of America, who was bounced from Pat Buchanan’s campaign after disclosures that he had spoken at rallies held by white supremacist and militia movements. Said Schumer: “This is the first time in a substantive debate in the U.S. Congress that the paranoid anti-government view was not just expressed, but prevailed and shaped legislation. There have always been extremists in the House, but the idea that Larry Pratt, a man so widely discredited that Pat Buchanan had to remove him from his campaign, can control the agenda on something as important as fighting terrorism is frightening.”
Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who co-sponsored the legislation, bravely declared from the House floor as the bill was being strip-mined: “It was kind of a sad day for me. Standing back there I heard a dear friend of mine, a great Republican, say: ‘I trust Hamas more than I trust my own government.’ … What’s happened? Why is my government such a terrible thing?”
Where is the Republican leadership to answer that question? Where is the voice that will say to the NRA and the freshmen Republicans, “Enough; we respect the right of Americans to bear arms, but we will not let the laws of this nation be written by people who believe that the U.S. government is fundamentally evil”? This is a sickness the Republican leadership must confront. Where are you, Newt? Bob? Colin?