U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., is leading a “sit-in” on the House floor that he hopes will force a vote to restrict gun sales but conservatives say he has betrayed his own ideals of civil rights and liberties for all Americans.
Lewis, 76, was one of the original black civil-rights leaders who marched in Birmingham, Atlanta and cities across the South with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, fighting for equal access to public facilities for black Americans.
When an NBC News reporter asked Lewis what rights he was fighting for now, he responded: “We are fighting for the rights of people to live without fear.”
The reference was to mass shootings, the latest of which was carried out June 12 in Orlando by Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old Muslim born in New York to immigrants from Afghanistan.
But gun owners say Lewis is being less than honest and fails to see the irony of his actions. What he’s really doing is fighting to take away the civil rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns and protect themselves from jihadists like Mateen, a right enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Among the measures Lewis and the Democrats are seeking is a ban on gun sales to Americans who are placed on the federal government’s terrorist “watch list.”
Jerry Henry, executive director of GeorgiaCarry.org, said that’s a bad idea because the watch list is arbitrary and secretive.
A constitutional republic doesn’t add citizens to a “secret list” thereby banning them from enjoying the rights of others without a jury trial.
There have been babies and self-proclaimed pacifists added to the FBI watch list by mistake, Henry said. And once you are on it, it’s often a lengthy appeal process to try to get your name removed.
“In this country you don’t get to take someone’s rights away without due process,” Henry said.
While Capitol Hill Democrats staged their symbolic “sit-in” to demand action on new gun restrictions, the Bellevue, Washington-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement saying these lawmakers demonstrate by their actions how far their party has strayed from the ideals of liberty their predecessors stood for.
“Democrats in the 1960s used sit-ins to expand constitutional rights,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said. “But today, they are using a sit-in to restrict those same civil rights.”
Blogger's note: Sorry John, maybe it is your mind going in the later stages of your life, but the rights of the Bill of Rights are not granted by the Government. These rights are basic inalienable rights of man. Where is the rule of law, and due process in both the "no fly" and "no buy". Maybe next it will be that if you are on the "no fly" and "no buy" list you may then be put on the "no vote" list. Think of that if you still can. Oh, by the way where are you on the weapons that you in congress supply to Mexican drug dealers, ISIS, Saudis, Israel, Ukraine, ete., etc.. Should not other people of the world be able to live without the fear of a Rep. John Lewis supported drone strike with hellfire missiles? Why not a sit-in for that for far more people die each day.
Then why before you jump to conclusions do you not investigate the event at Orlando? Perhaps if you did some research on Sandy Hook/Sandy Hoax you might find out the NOBODY died at Sandy Hook. But alas you would not want to put another person of darker complexion and a co-member of the so-called Democratic Party to shame.
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