By: John Gray and Brian Darling
| “Do what I say, not as I do,” should be the motto of Democrats everywhere when it comes to gun control. President Obama and Democrats have been trying for years to strip the right to self-defense granted by the Second Amendment. But perhaps it’s Obama that needs to experience some gun control of his own.
A shocking story published by last weekend by New York Times Magazine, “How Many Guns Did the U.S. Lose Track of in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of Thousands,” highlights the negligent nature this president, and Democrats in general, have when it comes to showering the world with firearms — which all too often end up in the hands of enemy terrorists.
In other words, President Obama has simultaneously promoted a policy of “firearms for all” worldwide, while trying to impede the right to firearms here in America. The federal government does background checks on nearly every American that wishes to buy a firearm — and in general, the federal government has a decent idea of who owns guns and where they might be located. If it were up to Obama, however, that data/knowledge would be a certainty.
Abroad, the government’s policy is far different. President Obama (with the support of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) blindly sent firearms throughout the world. The NYT writes,
Quote:
| “Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States has handed out a vast but persistently uncountable quantity of military firearms to its many battlefield partners in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today the Pentagon has only a partial idea of how many weapons it issued, much less where these weapons are. Meanwhile, the effectively bottomless abundance of black-market weapons from American sources is one reason Iraq will not recover from its post-invasion woes anytime soon.” |
As the NYT explains, the research to determine the expansive nature of these arms transfers was conducted by Ian Overton, a BBC journalist and executive director of Action on Armed Violence, a charity in London. Overton spent years submitting multiple Freedom of Information Act requests to the Pentagon.
The information Overton received suggests that, at minimum, nearly 1.45 million firearms are roaming Afghanistan and Iraq, presumably with various security forces. Of that number, there are 978,000 assault rifles, 266,000 pistols and almost 112,000 machine guns. Still, Overton found the information provided by the Pentagon to be incomplete in some cases; in others, the information was classified or just simply missing. “It could be twice as much, as far as we know,” Overton states.
Remember: While certain assault rifles and pistols are legal in (some) states, machine guns are not. Therefore, we would argue, liberals should take a moment to ponder the data above. Imagine if Obama allowed 112,000 machine guns to (with the government’s assistance) litter the U.S. More so, ask yourself what you would say if a foreign government — an occupier of our country, no less — handed out machine guns certain to end up in the hands of thugs and/or enemies of the state?
Yet, that’s exactly what Obama and Clinton have allowed to materialize in the countries of Afghanistan and Iraq — and certainly elsewhere in the Middle East.
Really, this story is nothing new. In fact, according to the NYT, the Government Accountability Office brought this topic to light well before Obama was even president. The report suggested that at least 110,000 AK-47’s and 80,000 pistols were missing in Iraq. Effectively, there were more missing weapons than there were American servicemen and women in Iraq at any given time.
The public should be outraged. In fact, provided that nearly 4,500 American soldiers have died, and more than 30,000 have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, the true debate over gun control must begin with the president — not the American people.
Maybe Hillary Clinton’s gun control policy has some merit. The Democratic presidential nominee has campaigned on the need for laws to make gun manufacturers and sellers responsible for the chain of custody on firearms. Perhaps that idea should, and must, be applied equally to the commander in chief, too?
It seems that, based on Clinton’s rhetoric and blame, if gun manufacturers should be culpable, then so too should our nation’s leaders that have allowed hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of guns to possibly fall into the hands of those who engage in genocide, encourage global instability, and threaten the freedom of millions of innocent people around the world.
One can only ponder how many guns have fallen into the hands of brutal terrorists, or are being used to carry out atrocities by groups like ISIS. When a few deranged terrorists commit terrible acts of violence at home, the president seems all too interested to challenge our constitutional rights. Yet, when Pres. Obama allows for American firearms to commit grand atrocities overseas, it’s merely a statistic that encourages new wars.
It’s time for America to discuss gun control. But instead of focusing on law-abiding Americans, it’s time to focus on gun control for our reckless leaders.
Last edited by Grumpy; Today at 11:27 AM.
America needs gun control —
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