5/07 Political Leaders Deserve Scrutiny

Political Leaders, Not Gun Owners, Deserve Scrutiny
Carl E. Hass

Virtually every time some deranged nut misuses a firearm such as occurred at Virginia Tech the politicians, who have forgotten the Constitution they swore to uphold, start frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs. They propose all sorts of new laws to restrict access to firearms such as fingerprinting purchasers of ammunition, additional restrictions on gun purchases, limiting the amount of ammunition one can purchase and otherwise inflicting more punishment and abuse on the 99.9 percent of law-abiding citizens who elected them to office.

Why don’t they devote the same high level of focus on requiring potential candidates for public office to prove their fitness to serve with tests for common sense, ability to reason out issues logically, illegal drugs, ability to operate a motor vehicle safely, examinations to determine their comprehension of the Constitution, reference checks to ascertain honesty, and an evaluation to determine if they will deal with taxpayers’ “contributions” as a fiduciary would.

If these tests were in place Ted Kennedy would either be a bartender or ship’s captain, Barbara Boxer would be an employee in a Brooklyn dress shop, Chuckie Schumer would be chasing ambulances as an insurance adjuster, Harry Reid would be a federal prison inmate and Robert Byrd would be a West Virginia hog farmer. Mark Twain was the first to observe the biggest criminal class in America could be found in congress. Unfortunately, this has only gotten worse over the last century.