This article doesn't tell us anything we don't know, but, mirable dictu, it's from the Left of Mao New York Post.
http://www.nypost.com/editorial/596.htm
THE PRESIDENT MISFIRES
President Clinton's threat to launch a nationwide class-action lawsuit against gun makers is no surprise: Coming up with a constitutionally dubious and wholly inappropriate response to a legitimate problem is standard operating procedure at this White House.
To obtain legal standing, the Clintonites say they'll file suit through the Department of Housing and Urban Development on behalf of federally-financed housing projects, where gun violence allegedly remains prevalent. Ironically, however, the announcement comes just weeks after the FBI disclosed that the homicide rate is at its lowest level since the nationwide crime explosion began in 1967 -- and that the drop is attributed to police effectiveness in removing guns from the streets.
According to Clinton and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, the lawsuit is mainly intended to pressure gun makers to settle 29 lawsuits filed by state and local governments. But, as usual, this administration is out to cripple a legal industry that uses perfectly legal methods to sell a legal product.
The president insists he's more interested in forcing a negotiated settlement rather than in waging a courtroom war against gun makers -- but another legal industry that's been bludgeoned by the Clintonite meat ax, tobacco, will tell a far different story.
In fact, the case against the gun industry has far less substance than the White House war on cigarettes. As least it can be argued that tobacco manufacturers tried to hide the dangers of their product; no one has ever been unaware that guns are designed to injure and kill. But they have a legitimate use, as well: self-defense against predators. And survey after survey demonstrates that a perp's worst nightmare is an
armed victim.
But in the wake of the recent rash of school shootings, the Clintonites -- their fingers eternally on their poll results -- feel the need to score political points by very publicly "doing something." No matter if they could do more to address the problem by enforcing laws already on the books that are meant to keep illegal guns out of the wrong hands.
Indeed, the superiority of the enforce-existing-laws approach is manifest in Cuomo's unintentionally revealing justification for this lawsuit threat. "When only 1 percent of the [gun] dealers are selling over 50 percent of the guns used in crimes," he said, "obviously something is wrong and we should be taking action against that 1 percent."
Exactly -- but this administration is not doing that. When 50 percent of the guns used in crimes can be traced to just 389 federally licensed dealers out of more than 100,000 nationwide, it means only a tiny segment is causing the problem. Just how does that justify a class-action suit against the entire industry?
And as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms admitted last summer, this administration simply has turned a blind eye to violators of the Brady Bill, a gun-control law the Clintonites fought hard to pass. Of the more than 400,000 felons and other barred from buying guns under that law, fewer than 1,000 have been prosecuted for lying on their applications; in fact, federal gun-law prosecutions are down 25 percent under this supposedly "get tough on guns" administration.
There are legitimate ways to make guns safer and to keep them out of the hands of criminals and mentally diseased people. As usual, however, Bill Clinton would rather look good than do good.
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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.