Saturday, April 30, 2011

John Bolton: Gun control a top goal of Obama 2nd Term

A man shops for guns. | AP Photo

Obama is laying the foundation to push an ambitious gun control agenda if he wins a second term. | AP PhotoClose

By JAMES HOHMANN | 4/29/11 6:03 PM EDT

PITTSBURGH—John Bolton suggested Friday that Barack Obama is laying the foundation to push an ambitious gun control agenda if he wins a second term.

Trying to make his background relevant to an audience of gun activists, the former ambassador to the United Nations and dark horse presidential candidate accused the administration of using its own failures in the war against Mexican drug cartels as a pretext for more gun control.

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“We can understand that, as he likes to say, he’s playing the long game, and that ‘leading from behind’ means waiting until he’s elected to a second term when he faces no further political constraints and his true agenda can come to the floor,” Bolton told thousands of gun owners at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting here. “And I believe right at the top of it is [to] increase gun control at the federal level and at the international level.”

Bolton focused much of his 11-minute speech on the collapse of order in Mexico, which he worries will continue to spill across the border like a conveyor belt. He cited estimates of 35,000 to 40,000 drug-related homicides in the last five years in Mexico, spoke of how dangerous tourist areas have become and noted recent State Department travel warnings.

“If it weren’t for our demand, the supply wouldn’t be there and the drug cartels wouldn’t be there. But the administration in as cynical a political move as I think we’ve seen in Washington in a long time –and that’s saying something–is using this crisis in Mexico and the use of drugs in our own country not to combat the illicit narcotics but to use it as a foundation to argue for stricter gun controls at the federal level in our country,” he said.

Bolton faulted the administration for having an incoherent foreign policy. He said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been more honest about the situation in Mexico.

“When they do talk about what’s happening in Mexico, our government, our White House follows the Mexican line by saying that the real problem of drug-related violence in Mexico is caused by guns that have come illegally across the U.S.-Mexican border,” he said.

“This is something that is music to the ears of the gun control advocates in this country,” he added, “because they can say, ‘See, actually, it’s our lack of gun controls, our lack of enforcement, that’s the real cause of the problem. So stiffer gun controls in the United States will solve the problem of drug violence in Mexico and prevent it from coming here.’”

Bolton argued that while some guns used by the gangs in Mexico do come from the United States, “the bulk of those guns” originated from corrupt police and military officials or were procured in the international weapons market.

“The idea that what’s going on in Mexico is somehow our fault because of lax gun control laws here is exactly the kind of subterfuge that the Obama administration would like to carry forward in the near future to get stronger gun control laws here,” Bolton said, “and it will provide a foundation for their argument (on) why the United States will have to enter into, in short order, the United Nations-negotiated arms trade treaty.”

He said there’s a draft circulating of that treaty, which gun control advocates have long wanted the U.S. to sign onto.

“This particular draft is a lot less onerous than it could be,” he said. “It just raises the question of whether they want to hurry this draft through to completion to try and get it considered by the Senate before the next election or whether they’re putting it out as a placeholder for negotiations to be concluded after President Obama wins his next term in office because that’s what they’re looking for.”

Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, praised Bolton’s time as ambassador to the UN under George W. Bush.

“When the United Nations wanted to restrict the rights of law abiding Americans to own firearms, this man reminded them that, in the United States, the right to keep and bear arms is not negotiable,” Cox said of Bolton. “He told the UN that they must conform to our Constitution, not the other way around.”

Source:  Politico

Related:

Video: US Gov’t Arms Mexico Drug Cartels  - End Game:  To Blame US Weapons Mfrs and Dis-Arm America

And did you know that we are allowing the Mexican government to sue American gun makers?  Just like have allowed Mexico to affect our immigration policies?

The ATF Wants Your Shotgun… and More!

Activist Post: New Bill is Direct Threat to HAM Radio - This could end up being the only communication we have during a crisis~

Remember the words of Thomas Jefferson "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." (our own or the United Nations!)

See Video of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp’s Congressional Testimony: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For, below 

Video: Suzanna  Gratia-Hupp explains meaning  of  2nd Amendment! -  A must watch if you haven’t seen it!

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