What I find interesting from a political/policy/gun standpoint is the age old game of inappropriate comparisons (or in a book I'm currently writing, The Lie of False Associations). The loosely correlated tidbits in the government's report include:
"Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." It is an odd abstraction to lump single issue activist with secessionists and bigots. But they go further in this peculiar combining of unrelated people: "Proposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans likely would attract new members into the ranks of rightwing extremist groups, as well as potentially spur some of them to begin planning and training for violence against the government. The high volume of purchases and stockpiling of weapons and ammunition by rightwing extremists in anticipation of restrictions and bans in some parts of the country continue to be a primary concern to law enforcement." It would be helpful if they documented what law enforcement personnel are concerned, though I suspect outside of Ed Rendell's bodyguards there are not many. They continue the canard a bit with this tidbit: "A recent example of the potential violence associated with a rise in rightwing extremism may be found in the shooting deaths of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 4 April 2009. The alleged gunman's reaction reportedly was influenced by his racist ideology and belief in antigovernment conspiracy theories related to gun confiscations, citizen detention camps, and a Jewish-controlled 'one world government.'" If I recall the press reports correctly, the shooter was more than a bit unbalanced, having dropped out of high school, been ejected from the Marine Corp, had difficulty holding a job, and finally blew his lid over a dog. DHS places the blame on his ideology and not his dementia. Aside from a request for reporting unusual activity (which for all I know might include this email), there seems to be no action items. But from a policy and enforcement standpoint, and given the interesting linguistic games the current administration plays, this may be prelude to pushing some legislation by 'documenting' the crisis du jour before proposing a remedy. Guy Smith www.GunFacts.info <http://www.gunfacts.info/>
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
