GUN LOVE: In what must be a tremendous frustration to Democratic politicians, who continue to lie low on the issue of gun control after seeing how it hurt them in swing states in 2000, the Washington-area sniper killings have not altered Americans’ view of gun laws. Reported a Gallup Poll conducted October 14 to 17 (at the height of sniper hysteria), "Public attitudes today about the strength of gun laws are almost exactly the same as they were a year ago, in October 2001. A bare majority of Americans, 51%, believe the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict. Roughly one-third (36%) say the laws should remain the same, while about one in ten (11%) would like to see them less strict." Thus, by a slim margin of 51% to 47%, Americans favor stricter gun laws as compared to a year ago, when they favored such laws by 53% to 46%. Republicans’ strong victory in this fall’s elections-including the election of 2nd Amendment supporter Bob Ehrlich as governor of supposedly anti-gun Maryland-is further evidence that the anti-gun rights lobby did not benefit from the sniper incident.
EARLY PLANNING: When the Republican National Committee holds its winter meeting in Washington January 29-February 1, there will be considerable discussion of the site of the 2004 Republican National Convention. At this point, only two sites reportedly remain under consideration: Miami and New York. Betting is currently strong that the choice of manager to oversee the party conclave will be Ed Gillespie, longtime aide to House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R.-Tex.) and now a high-powered Washington consultant.
IF CHRISTIAN Commenting on the way the media are reporting about the two men arrested in connection with the sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area that killed ten people, columnist Linda Chavez said: "If the snipers had turned out to be two white guys who were members of some extremist Christian sect and had voiced sympathy for Timothy McVeigh, you can bet we’d be watching endless investigative reports on the evening news about right-wing Christian and militia groups. In fact, after McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, the media spent hundreds of hours dissecting the roots of the militia movement, and some newscasters speculated there might be thousands of would-be McVeighs just waiting for their chance to kill hundreds of innocents to make a political point. But the media are ignoring Muhammad’s political and religious ties in order not to appear anti-Islam. The possibility that Muhammad may have been acting out some fantasy that he was a mujahideen killing infidels when he allegedly shot his victims doesn’t seem to interest the major media in the slightest."
PROTOCOLS AGAIN: The well-worn fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion is making a comeback right here in the United States. Fabricated by the Russian government early in the 20th Century to stir up anti-Semitism by outlining the alleged "plans" for Jewish domination of the world, the tract is now being serialized by the Arabic-language Arab Voice newspaper in Paterson, N.J. After discovering this, Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and contributor to HUMAN EVENTS, wrote: "That a forgery that helped cause the Holocaust is now openly published in New Jersey points to two important realities: Arab and Muslim institutional life in the United States remains as radicalized after 9/11 as it was before. Arab and Muslim institutions are now the primary advocates of anti-Semitism worldwide, including in the West." Pipes noted that the Protocols were proved to be a forgery as early as 1921.
CAVE TO CANADA: After our Canadian allies complained about the federal government’s plan to register all members of certain demographic groups of foreign nationals who enter the United States as part of its anti-terrorism efforts, we backed down. Said Barbara Comstock, director of public affairs at the U.S. Justice Department, on November 1, "In response to concerns previously expressed by the Canadian government about the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), in late September the United States changed the treatment accorded to those individuals who were born in the countries listed in the regulations and who are Canadian citizens. Place of birth, by itself, will not automatically trigger registration. . . . U.S. immigration officials reserve the right to register any aliens, including Canadian, who they believe may pose a threat to the United States."
