Eric Holder is the new attorney general of the United States by a vote of 75-21 (which means four senators couldn’t even be bothered to vote). What does this mean for Americans?
I can only speculate but it is likely that efforts to keep guns out of the hands of “average” Americans will intensify. Eric Holder is the kind of elitist who thinks most people are too irresponsible to own guns and that government needs to make lots of rules about who, what, when, why and how firearms are distributed throughout a society. Let’s be honest; Eric Holder is a proponent of the nanny state.
As deputy attorney general in the Bill Clinton administration from 1997 to 2001, Holder “was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control,” according to The Volokh Conspiracy, a Web site that focuses on the legal system and the courts.
He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three-day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called “assault weapons” by anyone under age 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, and national gun registration.
“He also promoted the factoid that ‘Every day that goes by, about 12, 13 more children in this country die from gun violence’ — a statistic that is true only if one counts 18-year-old gangsters who shoot each other as ‘children,’” noted the Web site, founded by law professor Alexander Volokh.
After the 9/11 attacks, Holder wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post arguing that a new law should give “the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms a record of every firearm sale.” He also said prospective gun buyers should be checked against the secret “watch lists” compiled by various government entities.
I am completely pro-training when it comes to firearms. As a libertarian I hesitate to put the state in charge of the training, or of any other claptrappy rules system set up to protect us from us in regards to firearms. The whole mentality surrounding firearms needs to change from the ground up. A tool is something to be treasured and valued because it extends and reflects the beauty of being human in one fell swoop. Instead of fearing the tools we create it would be prudent to develop systems that train our citizens in their proper use. In the case of firearms we should be teaching memes that involve sober, defensive ownership. A shotgun should be no different from a hammer.
Why can’t we be reverently respectful of what the firearm represents? Why can’t we teach our kids to love and respect the equalizing power of weapons used for defensive purposes? Why do we have to put up with authoritarian elitists who try to restrict weapons. Restricting weapons changes the tone of national dialogue completely. Two men, both armed, always speak politely to one another. This is not the case when only one of the men is armed. When only the authorities have the power to defend themselves against agression the logical outcome is that the authorities will always set the tone of the conversation.
Holder also played a key role in the snatching of 6-year-old Cuban Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives’ home in April 2000, according to the Web site. Gonzalez was to be sent to Cuba where his father lived.
Although a photo clearly showed a federal agent pointing a gun at the man who was holding the terrified child, Holder claimed that the federal agents sent to capture Gonzalez had acted “very sensitively.”
I look forward to the new sensitivity we can expect to find rushing out of the Justice Department like manna from heaven.
Eric Holder will have to work very hard to earn my trust and respect. I’ll be watching him very carefully and complaining loudly if he tries to further demonize the way of the gun, my right to personal self-defense or to collectively nanny citizens in any way. I expect to be busy.