Here's a memo to FOX News and all those afraid President Obama will take away their guns: It ain't happening. Watch AG Eric Holder be as evasive as he can as he responds to questions by Couric on the CBS Evening News over putting a tighter clamp on guns being sold through gun shows and assault weapons.
KATIE COURIC: What about reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole? Do you think that will stop the flow of weapons to the U.S?
ERIC HOLDER: Well, I think the thing we need to do is come up with those things we can do right away. And we're gonna be moving 100 ATF agents to the border. About 26 DEA agents to the border. And that will happen over the next 30 days or so. And I think that will have a pretty dramatic impact on reducing the flow of weapons into Mexico.
(TRACK) But the guns being purchased and used in the US has also become front and center, given that a recent series of mass shootings from southern Alabama sound up to upstate New York have killed 57 people. While The Attorney General said he supported reinstating the assault weapons ban during his confirmation hearing, he's been silent on the subject since.
KATIE COURIC: Did someone tell you to back off?
ERIC HOLDER: No one's told me to back off. I understand the Second Amendment. I respect the Second Amendment.
KATIE COURIC: It's been reported that Democrats on Capitol Hill are getting increasingly chummy with the NRA and receiving more campaign contributions from that organization than in previous years. And nobody wants to get the NRA riled up. Has this become political at all?
ERIC HOLDER: No, I don't think it has. In fact, I look forward to working with the NRA to come up with ways in which we can use common-sense approaches to reduce the level of violence that we see…in our streets and make the American people as safe as they can possibly be.
KATIE COURIC: What about gun shows? In over 30 states, people can simply walk into gun shows and buy a gun, sometimes, from unlicensed dealers without a background check. Would you support closing the gun show loophole?
ERIC HOLDER: Well, again, these are issues that we'll have to discuss. The president will be the one who will ultimately set policy. Things that are politically saleable and things that will ultimately be effective.
KATIE COURIC: Does the closing the gun show loophole fall into those categories?
ERIC HOLDER: Well, that'll be one of the things I'll talk about with the president.
Riiiight, the NRA will work with the president and the AG to figure out new ways to slow down gun sales in America and help this country battle a very pressing problem. Did they already legalize marijuana and I missed it? Yes, if he said he was going to shut down the gun shows, then the NRA would flip out and so would potentially thousands of militia members, so maybe this was the best we could hope for. But mainstream America doesn't even know that you can buy a gun at a show without a background check. How about educating Americans a little better on this subject?
Here's a famous Rolling Stone article from 1999 called:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which issues Federal Firearms Licenses, is forbidden from inspecting the 104,000 licensed gun dealers more than once a year. Notorious gun-law violators, known as dirty dealers, are well-protected by this rule. The ATF is also specifically prohibited from compiling a registry of gun owners or gun data. Congress, under pressure from the gun lobby, annually reminds the beleaguered agency in the appropriations bill that it cannot keep detailed records. Lack of manpower further hampers the bureau's investigations. "The ATF is smaller than a lot of municipal police departments — it desperately needs more personnel," says David Kennedy, a senior researcher at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Meanwhile, licensed dealers conduct only sixty percent of all gun transfers in their stores (gun sales total $2 billion to $3 billioÈ a year). Most private transfers occur through inheritance or take place in the wild kingdom known as gun shows, where Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and serial killer Thomas Lee Dillon all felt at home, where swastika flags may not raise an eyebrow and where all of the guns used in the Littleton massacre were purchased...read on
