Ask just about any conservative about hypocrisy on the part of liberals and it is a pretty sure bet that he or she could provide you with many examples. Just this week, we saw the brouhaha that resulted when Al Gore sold his Current TV network to the Arab news organization Al Jazeera. Gore’s sale to a group with ties to Middle Eastern oil is laughable when taken in the context of his years-long vendetta against American oil interests over the burning of fossil fuels.
With the recent news over the nation’s debt ceiling, I like to point out then-Senator Barack Obama’s words from 2008 calling George Bush’s attempts to raise the debt limit “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic”. Hypocrisy on parade. After the horrific murders at Sandy Hook last month, the news media began almost non-stop reporting on efforts nationwide to curtail the rights of lawful gun owners. Since the shootings in Connecticut, dozens of liberal politicians and celebrities have spoken out against gun ownership, specifically with respect to so-called “assault weapons” and semi-automatic firearms with magazine capacities greater than some arbitrarily-chosen number of rounds. One need not look too deeply into the ranks of the liberal elite to find blatant hypocrisy. It is probably no more evident than in the case of actor Kevin Bacon who has repeatedly spoken out against guns. Bacon put on quite a display of prowess with a firearm in the 1994 movie “The River Wild” in which his character murdered a US Forest Service ranger (one of Native American heritage no less) in cold blood using a large-caliber handgun.
While looking into liberal hypocrisy with respect to Second Amendment rights, it occurred to me that I had not heard anything at all from the American Civil Liberties Union pertaining to their stance on proposed gun control legislation. I decided to look over the national group's web site: aclu.org. I was amazed at the number of activities by the organization pertaining to a wide variety of issues as gay & lesbian rights, the rights of prisoners (both in the US and on foreign soil), the rights of immigrants, racial justice, reproductive rights, and women's rights, among others. But, surprisingly, nowhere on their site was I able to find a single word about the rights of gun owners.
Given that the media have been rife with stories about the Obama administration's efforts to impinge upon the rights of gun owners, one would think that the ACLU’s web site would give the subject at least some sort of mention. However, on their web site’s page "This Week in Civil Liberties (1/11/2013)", there is not a single word about guns, gun owners, or the Second Amendment.
There is one article on their web site commemorating the tenth anniversary of the prison camp at Guantanamo. Of course, when allegations surfaced in 2003 over prisoner abuse at the prison in Cuba, the ACLU was all over it. Apparently, the ACLU is more concerned with the rights of non-citizen potential terrorists being housed in a foreign country than they are about the Constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens living within the borders of the United States.
We have seen the ACLU take legal action on behalf of atheists who find themselves offended by the display of religious symbols on public property (i.e., the Veterans' Cross in the Mojave Desert). But is it not odd that the ACLU’s web site does not even mention the government's attempts to trample upon the Constitutional rights of America's gun owners? It seems that the organization likes to pick and choose issues that IT deems important, especially if these issues appeal to its liberal base. But, in the case of the Second Amendment, a blatant assault on the rights of firearms enthusiasts does not even merit cursory mention.
I e-mailed my home state’s (Florida) chapter and asked them to comment. I have furthermore encouraged all of my conservative friends, relatives, and business associates to do the same. The gun control issue is providing conservatives and gun owners the perfect opportunity to expose the ACLU for what it is – a group of left-wing hacks with little real interest in protecting the rights of ALL Americans.
In other words, liberal hypocrites.
James Sharp is a middle-aged, middle-class, middle-management salesman who believes in secure borders and fighting our enemies with a strong military. He also believes in limited government, free markets, and unlimited opportunity and personal liberties for all citizens of the U.S.
