Gun Hypocrites

by Robert A. Waters

To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, politicians are different from you and me. If you don't believe it, take this test. Ask your next door neighbor what he thinks about a particular issue, say affirmative action. Chances are you'll get a firm, unequivocal answer.

Then ask your local politician. Here's betting that after he responds you still won't know where he stands.

Politicians are different in other ways.

They designed a Ponzi-type Social Security scheme for the masses, and a top-of-the-line pension system for themselves. We're forced to pay our hard-earned money into Social Security for fifty years, then retire on peanuts just before we die. They pay nothing into their system, can retire young, and can receive millions in retirement.

And many politicians think you and I shouldn't be allowed to protect ourselves from robbers, home invaders, rapists, and other assorted thugs. But, as usual, the same rule doesn't apply to them.

One of the most notorious practitioners of this double-standard is California Senator Diane Feinstein. The woman who would ban all guns for all Americans except the police and military has carried a concealed weapon for many years. Her reason? She was threatened.

Two recent incidents shine the light on the hypocrisy of it all.

On October 27, 1999, anti-gunner Hillary Clinton was staying at the Fairmont Hotel while visiting Chicago. That evening, one of Mrs. Clinton's bodyguards met with several other Secret Service agents in the hotel bar. While the group was "having dinner," Kenneth Blake, a heroin addict and two-bit thief, filched Drury's purse.

The Special Agent's gun happened to be in her purse.

Blake was later arrested after an informant told Chicago police that he was bragging about the gun being his "insurance policy" if he ever got caught committing another crime. Police recovered the agent's gun, and returned it to the Secret Service.

It's interesting to note that even though Drury broke numerous agency rules while at the bar, she was never reprimanded. It seemed to many that the cover-up was designed to keep the public from finding out about yet another anti-gunner's reliance on handguns for protection.

As bizarre as this case is, it's not unusual.

Andrew Cuomo, President Clinton's Secretary of Housing, has been a major player in the Federal government's lawsuits against gun manufacturers. He has banned guns from housing projects, where citizens need them most. Yet Clarence Day, his personal bodyguard and a former Metropolitan police officer, recently left a loaded .38-caliber revolver in the cafeteria of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The gun was found by a patron and turned over to HUD's security office.

According to an article in the Washington Times, Cuomo pressured security employees to "bury the [incident] report" of the lost-and-found gun. Why? To shield a man known to be his friend? Or to keep the public from learning that while Cuomo works to take firearms from you and me, he is protected by a gun-toting bodyguard?

It's difficult to put into words the contempt these people must feel for the average American.

They are the elite, so they deserve the best protection money can buy. But we're peons, so our lives are expendable.

A recent report shows that nearly two-thirds of murders in Washington, D.C. go unsolved. Detectives in the murder capital of America, where only the cops and robbers have guns, can't solve even the simplest murders.

One reason is that many witnesses are afraid to testify. Why are they afraid? Because the criminals have guns and the witnesses (presumably law-abiding citizens) are not allowed to defend themselves from violent intimidation. The blood of DC's murder victims washes at the feet of politicians who refuse to allow individuals to own guns.

I'd like to see American citizens rise up and demand that Congress pass a law denying Secret Service protection to politicians unless they take an oath to protect the Second Amendment.

Bet that'd change their minds.

Mr. Waters is the author of The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a Firearm. Read other articles from him at http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Waters.