Tag Archives: Holder

The Knox Update

The NRA Board: Where Is Your Voice?

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

 The NRA Board:  Where is Your Voice?

By Chris Knox

(February 11, 2009) If some mythical “conservative” President were to appoint James Dobson of Focus on the Family to head the Federal Communications Commission, can you imagine the stink that would arise from the American Civil Liberties Union?   Likewise, if some hypothetical “liberal” President were to appoint Planned Parenthood Vice President Dr. Vanessa Cullins to be Surgeon General, the protests from pro-life activist organizations would rattle the walls.

So why is it that when this President appoints a virulently anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment activist to be the chief enforcer of the nation’s gun laws (and defender of the Constitution), the largest and most powerful organization tasked with preserving, protecting and defending the Second Amendment confines its opposition to a nicely written letter to the Judiciary Committee that closes with a meek request to “consider our concerns carefully?” 

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The Knox Update

Holder Reminiscent of Mikva

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

 

Who’s Haunted now?

 

By Jeff Knox

 

(January 29, 2009) When Barack Obama announced that he intended to nominate Eric Holder to be his Attorney General, we at The Firearms Coalition launched an aggressive campaign to block the appointment and urged all other Second Amendment organizations to do likewise.  Holder was Janet Reno’s top deputy in the Clinton administration and has proven himself to be a radical opponent to the rights of firearms owners.  Holder has not only testified before Congress in support of expanded restrictions on firearms ownership, he signed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in DC v. Heller in which he espoused the theory that the Second Amendment’s “right of the people to keep and bear arms” is actually a right of the states to organize militias.  Someone with such twisted opinions about the Constitution should not even be considered for the position of Attorney General.

 

 

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Chris's Blog

Reason’s Brian Doherty on Obama and the Second

Reason's Brian Doherty has taken a similar position to ours — that Obama, while definitely hostile to the Second Amendment, also remembers 1994 and is treading warily around the issue.  I responded with the following.  

I can't completely agree with Brian Doherty — I wouldn't say that our Second Amendment rights are "safe" under Obama. Doherty mentions Obama's choice of Eric Holder for Attorney General. The Attorney General can do plenty of damage to your gun rights without the help of Congress.

Yet the trend seems to be moving firmly in both directions. Hillary's Senate seat has been filled by the NRA A-rated, pro-choice, pro-gay rights Kirsten Gillibrand. Her mix of opinions, while jarring in the mainstream, sounds familiar to Reason readers. Could Senator Gillibrand be part of a new trend? Or will her position on guns "evolve?"

At The Firearms Coalition, we've taken a similar position to Doherty's. Get ready and wait. The Democrats have truly painful memories related to gun rights going back to the 1994 election. It's possible they've learned. If the Republicans are counting on another mass political suicide among the Democrats, they just might have a long wait.

Link to Doherty's post.

Link to my reply.

 

Chris's Blog

A Setback on Holder: Hatch Endorses

Orrin Hatch, the senior Senator from Utah and long-time member of the Judiciary Committee stuck a stinger in us today.  According to The Hill, a capital newspaper,

Hatch said that Republicans should try to strike a cooperative tone with President-elect Obama during the first days of his administration.

“I start with the premise that the president deserves the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think politics should be played with the attorney general,” he said.

“I like Barack Obama and want to help him if I can.”

Read the entire article here. If nothing else it's troubling that Senator Hatch would announce a position without even listening to the facts, or even a discussion.  If you're in Utah, Senator Hatch needs to hear from you.

 

 

Jeff's Blog

More on Holder

Keep Spreading the Word!

As Chris noted, the active opposition to the appointment of Eric Holder to the office of Attorney General continues to build.  Our friends Alan Korwin and David Codrea have recently commented on the subject and their thoughts are worth reading if you haven't already done so.

Here is Alan's analysis of the current "Assault Weapons" ban legislation which has been languishing in the House for the past couple of years and where the anti-rights folks are going from here:

Gun Ban List Details

Be sure to take particular note of the section discussing the AG's powers under the proposed legislation and be aware that the AG currently has much of that power.

Now World Net Daily has picked up the story.  Read the article by clicking here.

David Codrea addresses the issue directly in a three-part series for The Examiner news group here:

Holder: To be or Not to be…

You can click on the "Next" button at the end of the article to go to the next installment or click on the titles below.

How to Hold Holder without Using Guns

How You can Help Hold Holder

I agree with David's suggestion to keep guns out of the discussion when writing to harshly anti-gun Senators, but if the Senator is just mildly anti-gun or better, be sure to at least mention that Holder's record on the Second Amendment is a serious concern to you.  We need to be sure that these folks know it's us.

If you know people who are involved in other issues mentioned: Privacy, Givernment Restrictions on the Internet, Medical Marijuana, Cuban Ex-patriots, etc. be sure to share Codrea's information with them and encourage them to get involved in the fight to block his confirmation.

Together we can win this!

Jeff

 *** THIS JUST IN: The Heritage Foundation is reporting that Holder Authored a memo in 1999 which has led to the serious erosion of Sixth Amendment rights.  This could actually get the ACLU into this on our side.  Read all about it by clicking here.

 

Chris's Blog

Opposition Growing to Holder Nomination

I love it when a plan comes together.  We're far too modest (not to mention realistic) to claim that the opposition to the Holder nomination started here, but Brother Jeff saw an opening early and it now appears that no less a political operator than Karl Rove is stepping in.  Jeff started talking about opposing Holder during the first week of December.  Speaking on Chris Mathews' show, Washington Post writer Ceci Connolly passed along gossip that Rove would be leading the opposition to Holder in the middle of December.  The Huffington Post covered Ms. Connolly's tidbit and included a YouTube link here.  Gist of the story: 

"Word on the street is that Karl Rove is going to be helping lead the fight against Eric Holder when his nomination for Attorney General heads up to the Senate," she said.

Two days earlier, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy accused Rove of the same behind-the-scenes shenanigans when his office released a lengthy statement decrying the hypocrisy of the GOP's Holder criticisms.

Jeff has been agitating against the Holder nomination since the rumors of a Holder nomination started flying, back around Thanksgiving, as a way to demonstrate to the Obama Administration — and to the squishy Republicans, for that matter — that gun owners have not hung it up.  At the time I thought it was a great idea, but I feared the Republicans were so demoralized that they'd fall on their sword rather than fight.  Now it appears that there's some fight left in the Republicans after all.

Hopefully, the NRA will also weigh in to oppose the Holder nomination.  We'll be following this one closely.

The Knox Update

Block Holder

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

 

Block Holder

 

By Jeff Knox

 

(December 18, 2008)  Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder to be the Attorney General demands an immediate and unequivocal response from gunowners and rights advocates and that response should be “Absolutely Not!”

Holder’s appointment to be AG must be approved by the Senate.  While it is highly unlikely that opponents could muster the 51 votes needed to reject Holder’s appointment, a single Senator can place a “hold” on the confirmation and effectively lock up the system just as Democrats did with a number of President Bush’s judicial appointments and the appointment of John Bolton to be Ambassador to the UN.  Once a “Hold” has been placed, a supermajority of 60 votes is required to break the hold.  With enough vocal opposition to Holder’s confirmation, Obama could be forced to withdraw the nomination and select someone else to be his AG.  Even if opponents cannot successfully block Holder’s appointment, a strong and concerted effort to do so will go far toward warning the Obama administration and the new Congress against trying to interfere with the rights of Americans to own guns.

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