CRASH: What I Learned From Bill White: 2nd Amendment Rights

As I previously related, I attended a "town hall" sponsored by a TEA Party outfit from a northern Houston suburb featuring Bill White, the Deemocrat candidate for Texas governor. I listened VERY carefully.

White has made no secret that he hopes to peel off GOP voters (his only hope of winning), and he seems to have settled on a few themes he expects will work to that end.

Talking points:

1. Local governance is the best governance
2. He's a strong backer of the Second Amendment ("owns a pistol")
3. Any notion that Houston under White was a sanctuary city is "a myth and a lie"
4. Immigration enforcement via an Arizona-type law would damage police function
5. Cap and Trade isn't the right solution (which may mean it isn't economically invasive enough)
6. In spite of No. 1 (above), he's good with dictating where kids can go to school

Texans are strong supporters of individualism, which means we are strong supporters of the right to effectively defend ourselves, our families, and our property.  We do and will own, use, and carry firearms.

Bill White, of course knows this.  He wants Texans to think he's a supporter of the Second Amendment, because he would not have a chance in hell if Texans think otherwise.  Mr. White, in his remarks, said he supports the Second Amendment.  I am not convinced.

Part of the reason for my lack of conviction is that one of White's favorite negative statements about Rick Perry (without naming names) is to talk about "posturing politicians" or "preening politicians".

Bill White, as Mayor of Houston, belonged to an outfit called "Mayors Against Illegal Guns".  Now, when I see organizations bearing names like that, my neck-hairs tingle.  I mean, is there a "Mayors FOR Illegal Guns"?  What mayor is NOT already kind of a member of a population of people against illegal guns (i.e., all law-abiding Americans)?  And what, exactly, is membership in such an organization BUT posturing?

Well, that question got me to wondering.  See, I go back a LOOOONNNGG way with gun control types.  I've seen some deeply dishonest tricks attempted over the years in their attempts to disarm Americans.  So I wondered about who "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" really is, and what is their agenda....really?

That's Michael Bloomberg and Thomas Menino, mayors of New York City and Boston, Mass., respectively.  Also, the co-chairs of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.  "We support the Second Amendment and the rights of citizens to own guns", they say, right there on their web-site.  So, no problem...right?


Well, sorry, when I think Michael Bloomberg, I find it hard to think of any Constitutional right he supports.  Certainly not the Second Amendment--

Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity.

      "Apparently Mayor Bloomberg has a problem with both the First and the Second amendments," Lawrence Keane, the general counsel of a firearms industry association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said.
    The trial, set to begin May 27, involves a Georgia gun shop, Adventure Outdoors, which the city alleges is responsible for a disproportionate number of the firearms recovered from criminals in New York City. The gun store's owner, Jay Wallace, says his store abides by Georgia and federal regulations and takes steps to avoid selling firearms to gun traffickers. Mr. Wallace's store is one of 27 out-of-state gun shops sued by New York City, and the first to go to trial.
   City lawyers, in a motion filed Tuesday, asked the judge, Jack Weinstein of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, to preclude the store's lawyers from arguing that the suit infringed on any Second Amendment rights belonging to the gun store or its customers. In the motion, the lawyer for the city, Eric Proshansky, is also seeking a ban on "any references" to the amendment.
    "Any references by counsel to the Second Amendment or analogous state constitutional provisions are likewise irrelevant," the brief states.

 Well, that fills me with all kinds of assurance about Bill White's REAL position on gun ownership!  But perhaps that's unfair; what about Mayor-For-Life Menino?

• NEW YORK -- Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston joined 14 other big-city mayors at a gun summit yesterday, all pledging to create regional intelligence databases to track illegal guns, launch a website to share information and antiviolence strategies, and put together a plan to lobby officials in Washington for stricter gun laws.

snip

Lawrence G. Keane, a senior vice president at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a Connecticut-based trade association, said his organization runs a program that helps gun dealers identify and stop illegal ''straw purchasers," people who buy guns legally with the intention of selling them illegally. Keane said his group asked to attend the gun summit and was turned away, which he found especially disturbing because the mayors invited gun control advocate Joshua Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
    ''There doesn't appear to have been any attempt to have a mature and balanced discussion," Keane said.

Menino, like Bloomberg, is doing his best to assure that guns...pretty much all guns...are "illegal".

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino recently announced plans to sue gun manufacturers for making a dangerous product.  According to Peter Welsh, an aide to Menino, “We want to hold  handgun manufacturers responsible the way car manufacturers and tobacco companies are held responsible. We want to push the envelope on this.” And national anti-gun groups are excited by the leading role that Boston is playing in restricting citizens’ legal access to guns.  According to Kristen Rand, of the Washington D.C. based Violence Policy Center, “It's very significant that a major city like Boston [files] suit because it could mean serious financial problems for the industry.” 
    It is not just in the City of Boston that gun manufacturers are under attack.  State Attorney General Thomas Reilly recently told The Boston Globe, “The mayor called and said that he was contemplating taking this action and asked for our help.”  Reilly continued,  “I said if there was anything we could do, we would.  I, too, have a problem with guns and if we can assist in this action, we'll do it.” 

 See, the "support" for Second Amendment rights of Bloomberg and Menino is faux-support; they are only APPEARING to support an individual's right to bear arms, while attacking any source to realize that right.  This is tantamount to pretending to support freedom of the press, while attacking the production of presses and any ability to buy a press.  A "right" to do something is useless without the tools to realize that right.

And, of course, we all know that New York and Massachusetts state gun laws are some of the most restrictive in the U.S., making most guns in private hands "illegal".

If you want a view into the mind of Mayor Menino, and his approach to crimes involving guns, go to this fisk-fest.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns trumpets each new member.  They don't publicize those who leave, and there are some:

Guarding Second Amendment rights was not a part of mayors' coalition

This is in response to some recent questions about my involvement in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition. I recently withdrew my name from the coalition after initially agreeing to sign on.

I do support the efforts to strengthen laws and prosecute individuals who dispense or use illegal guns, and getting them out of the hands of criminals. However, upon further review of the coalition, it appears they may have a different agenda than I anticipated.

I am concerned the coalition is working on issues that conflict with the beliefs we share in Alaska about legal gun ownership, and I'm also concerned gun ownership advocates are not part of the full discussion within the coalition. We cannot afford to risk protecting our Bill of Rights and the rights of legal gun owners.

Because of these conflicts, I have written to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chair of the coalition, and have asked him to remove me as a supporter of the coalition.

We do have a problem in Anchorage with youth violence, gangs and their use of illegal guns. We are working with our gang task force, the Police Department and other means to eliminate the violence.

We'll continue to fight that problem without infringing on the rights of legal gun owners.

---- Mayor Mark Begich

Mayor Begich isn't alone.  But one guy who didn't quit is Bill White. 

 All of this leaves me TOTALLY UNCONVINCED that Bill White and I share the same views...or anything SIMILAR...on legal gun ownership, use, and possession in Texas.  Sorry, Bill...but you're known by the company you keep.