reasonablenut

This is one the lead editorials in todays edition. To be truthful, there is not much to comment on here, as it is the same tired pap about gun-nuts and Ashcroft (which never makes sense, because you die-hard libertarians think Ashcroft was Satan as well.) Just a choice sampling:

The good news for Americans concerned about post-9/11 preparedness is that 58
potential gun buyers were flagged in a nine-month period last year as positive
matches on a federal watch list of terrorism suspects. The bad news is that 47
of them were cleared to go ahead anyway and buy assault rifles, ammunition or
whatever else was on their firearms shopping list. Federal agents could only
watch as the crazy quilt of loopholes that passes for gun control in this
country enabled dozens of suspects to stock their personal or group armories.

First, the sensationalist claims about people on suspect lists; these are same people who bitch and moan that Mohammed-Whoever happens to have the same name as a hardcore terrorist but the Feds hassle him at the airport. Are we supposed to discriminate against those of Middle-Eastern descent (damn, that hurt to type) when it comes to gun sales?

And the "crazy quilt of loopholes that passes for gun control" is just so idiotic as to prove the author has never bought a firearm. I bought an H&K about 3 weeks ago and it was almost an hour of bullshit before they even started making sure I had the money to pay for it.

Welcome to the new world of homeland security, where all the national resolve to
be alert is clearly butting into the citizenry's near-almighty right to bear
arms.

Well, you condescending prick, it isn't "near-almighty" it is guaranteed. That may stick in your craw a bit, but, frankly, I don't give a shit. I'm beginning to think that people who live in NYC actually like being mugged. And if they want any sympathy from me, they came to the wrong place.

Warnings about terror suspects' easy access to combat rifles grew after 9/11
when it was disclosed that John Ashcroft, a gun rights zealot who was attorney
general at the time, had blocked federal agents from matching gun-purchase
records against the growing list of thousands of terror suspects. The privacy
rights of innocent gun purchasers were deemed paramount in the national
emergency. The policy was theoretically reversed, but federal agents complain
that they are still stymied by laws and by officials dedicated to the most
extreme agenda of the gun lobby.

John Ashcroft, "the gun rights zealot," was despised by the Pro-2A community as much as he was by the left. I think most of the libertarians would agree that abridging individual rights of "innocent gun purchasers" would be a gross violation even in a a time "deemed paramount in the national emergency." If anybody disagrees, let me know, but I think the ATF might be the last holdout when it comes to "the most extreme agenda of the gun lobby."

The alarming ease with which terror suspects can buy high-powered weapons on
Main Street was disclosed by the Government Accountability Office, the
investigative arm of Congress. This is an irony in itself since the
Republican-controlled Congress declined last year to renew the 10-year-old
assault rifle ban, which had helped keep battlefield weapons out of the hands of
mayhem-minded citizens.

This paragraph is so charged with bullshit rhetoric. Your average journalist doesn't know what "Main Street" looks like, nevermind a "high-powered weapon..." I've been waiting awhile, but I still can't purchase an M-16, which is a "battlefield weapon." It also might come as a shock to the editor that I shot a used .30-06, high-power rifle that I purchased through a private transaction (read No Brady) and is a caliber that can readily cut through most body armor, from what I hear. And I tried to shoot the hell out of some steel plates, which might also qualify me as "mayhem-minded." What a load of shit.

The study was requested by Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, who
is proposing to keep the gun-purchase records of terror suspects on hand for at
least 10 years. Currently, purchase records must be destroyed within 24 hours -
another victory for the gun lobby that was obsequiously enacted last year by
Congress.

I'll leave off this issue with this: if Frank Lautenberg started a movement to encourage people to use toilet paper, I'd walk around with a dirty ass for awhile.