Bush Administration Reverses Ashcroft on Second Amendment
When President Bush was campaigning for office he clearly stated that he would sign the renewal of the Semi-Auto ban if it got to his desk. A lot of us took that as “like you’ll ever get that to my desk anyway”. Once elected (like it was an option for Gun Owners to vote for Gore anyway) his appointment of John Ashcroft went a long way to assuage the concerns of conservatives who were afraid Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” was nothing more than a rebranding of his Father’s fence sitting middle of the road politics (which has since proven correct btw). One of the clinchers for Bush’s second term was John Ashcroft’s statement that the Bush Justice Department viewed the Second Amendment as an individual right rather than a collective one, reversing the Justice’s stance under the Clinton administration.
During his second term President Bush has done a lot that is diametricly opposed to the stance taken during his first term. The examples are endless of saying one thing while the beauracrats actually do another whether it’s the taxes or the war in Iraq there is suitable evidence of it. And now the Second Amendment joins that long list. If you view the information on the abuses by those who regulate firearms and the way dealers and owners have been dealt with it’s apparent a beauracratic war against firearms has been raging for several years under the Bush Administration. (e.g. Wayne Fincher) Since the mainstream press thinks only they should be allowed to own guns anyway most of the happenings have been left completely unreported or mis-reported to make an honest citizen look guilty by blurring the facts of the cases and the laws. Not too hard to do considering the inane complexity of gun laws in the US.
And now, while I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, Bush Administration reverses Ashcroft Interpretation of Second Amendment through the FAA. Otherwise, the position shift is that the rights guarenteed by the Second Amendment are a collective right rather than an individual one as Ashcroft stated.
The United States today bears little resemblence to the Republic founded under the Constitution so I wonder why they even bother with the schrade any longear anyway. Other than their being careful not to rock the citizenry too much for the optimism of the citizenry is all that is propping up this house of cards.