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Jewish World Review May 23, 2002 / 12 Sivan, 5762

Laura Ingraham

Laura Ingraham
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Consumer Reports


The press gunning for Ashcroft


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Columnist Mary McGrory (The Washington Post) is now running neck-in-neck with Helen Thomas (Hearst Newspapers) to win our permanent "Bingo Moment of the Day Award." Like the dino-lib Thomas, McGrory oozes contempt for all things Republican, while passing herself off as the ever-independent, ever-skeptical journalist. Despite their ossified views, these ossified figures are treated as the "grand dames" of the Washington media. (Even Ari Fleischer feels compelled to call on Helen Thomas at EVERY press briefing.)

The Washington Post editorial page has never come across a new gun restriction it didn't like. So it provides the perfect platform for septuagenarian McGrory to unload on the Bush Administration. And if the facts aren't on your side--no problem! Make them up! Here's a sampling of some of the most outrageous lies McGrory served up in Sunday's anti-gun, anti-Ashcroft, anti-NRA column:

  • "Various people have various ideas about what the country needs most...But our attorney general John Ashcroft has the most novel: He thinks what this country needs is more guns."

  • "The attorney general thinks that any American who wants a gun should have one."

  • "It is somewhat embarrassing that the chief law enforcement officer of our country is a gun nut...."

This McGrory bile and venom cocktail was inspired by the Justice Department's recently stated view that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual's right to keep and bear arms (not merely that of a "militia"). The Solicitor General's office, in two separate briefs filed with the Supreme Court, indicated that the Bush Administration believed that the right to gun ownership extended to the people of the United States as part of the Bill of Rights. McGrory incorrectly asserts that "60 years of court opinion (sic) have held that the Founders intended to extend a collective privilege for militias." In fact, the Supreme Court's Miller case (1939) dealt only with a narrow class of short-barrelled shot guns, and the Court made no sweeping pronouncement of the Second Amendment that would foreclose the individual rights interpretation that the Bush Administration and most serious Second Amendment scholars hold.

McGrory, too busy with her character assassination of Mr. Ashcroft, fails to mention that this "gun nut" urged the Court NOT to take the cases challenging the two gun laws. The government correctly contends the restrictions are constitutional (narrowly tailored for a compelling government interest).

McGrory's column is important because it demonstrates how desperate the Left has become about guns. Gun control fanatics simply cannot comprehend why most Americans aren't buying the view that guns cause crime, and so they'll do and say just about anything to scare them into enlightenment. One highly-acclaimed antigun scholar, Michael Bellesiles, has already seen his book Arming America (Random House) debunked as fraudulent. When other scholars questioned his data on gun ownership in early America, he claimed his supporting documentation was lost in a flood.

The Bush Administration took a first step toward bringing some clarity to the current gun debate. Eventually, the Supreme Court will have to settle the Second Amendment question. Until then, brace yourself for more McGrory-like attacks.


JWR contributor Laura Ingraham is the host of a radio show syndicated nationally by Westwood One Radio Network. Comment by clicking here.

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05/07/02: Ozzy deified, many mortified, drugs glorified?
05/01/02: Bush: "California here I come ... sort of"
04/27/02: The good news about conservatives versus Bush
04/17/02: While the cat's away....
04/09/02: Preview of 2004: See how Dick runs!
01/29/02: A kinder, gentler human-rights violator?
11/27/01: Military tribunals provide streamlined justice
09/07/01: Scariest animal wears pants
08/17/01: Depressed after seeing uncut version of Apocalypse Now --- and for good reason
07/20/01: The other, maybe more important, news
06/22/01: Washington's pro-Bono worship is unnerving
06/01/01: Burying conservatism
05/17/01: Ashcroft's abuse of power

© 2002, Laura Ingraham