Cheney Opposes D.C. Gun Ban

Vice President Cheney Joins Congress In Opposing D.C. Gun Ban, And Opposes Bush Administration’s Own Solicitor General















For those just catching up...



the Bush administration's own Solicitor General, Paul D. Clement, submitted a brief to the Supreme Court just hours before the deadline, asserting that the D.C. Appellate Court used the "wrong standard when it struck down the District's ban on private handgun ownership, and it urged the Supreme Court to return the case to the lower court for review", according to the Washington Post on Jan. 20th.

We said in response to the Post's story on Jan. 20th:

Gun proponents are livid and believe that the Bush administration just sold them out. But the truth is that if the Supreme Court upholds the Appellate Court's decision and takes away the D.C. handgun ban, then the Justice Department would be overloaded from every gun nut seeking to overturn every conviction relating to guns and challenge every gun law on the books.

But now we see that the Bush administration is fighting an internal war led by.... you guessed it, Dick Cheney!

An article from the Washington Post on Feb. 9th stated:

Vice President Cheney signed on to a brief filed by a majority of Congress yesterday that urged the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling that the District of Columbia's handgun ban is unconstitutional, breaking with his own administration's official position.

Cheney joined 55 senators and 250 House members in asking the court to find that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess firearms and to uphold a lower court's ruling that the D.C. ban violates that right. That position is at odds with the one put forward by the administration, which angered gun rights advocates when it suggested that the justices return the case to lower courts for further review.

In order to make his dramatic break with the administration, Cheney invoked his rarely used status as part of Congress, joining the brief as "President of the United States Senate, Richard B. Cheney." It is a position he has used at times to make the point that he is sometimes part of the legislative branch and sometimes part of the executive.

"That is one of his titles," Cheney press secretary Megan Mitchell said when asked whether it was significant that he had joined the brief in that capacity rather than as vice president.

The position puts Cheney at odds with a brief filed by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, who represents the government and the Bush administration before the Supreme Court. Clement said that the court should recognize the individual right but that the lower court's ruling was so broad it could endanger federal gun-control measures, such as a ban on possession of new machine guns.

Clement urged the court to send the D.C. law, the strictest in the nation, back to lower courts for further review.

It's unclear why the Vice President is subverting his own President over the D.C. handgun ban case before the Supreme Court. Considering the appalling level of support and respect the American people have for the Bush administration, it's possible that Cheney is trying to "make nice" with his diminishing right-wing base and trying to play both sides.

It could also be that (Darth) Cheney is as conniving as people believe and the Vice President sincerely believes that even a ban on owning machine guns violates the Second Amendment.

Mind you, this is the same Dick Cheney that believes we're fighting a "war against terror". Apparently allowing widespread ownership of fully automatic machine guns -- a military weapon designed to slaughter other human beings -- doesn't fit into our national and homeland security strategy since the extremists in the gun lobby think there is "no" connection between guns and terrorism.

The Post continued:

Clement's brief said that was dubious but also said the appeals court was wrong to rule that just because handguns are "arms" as defined by the Second Amendment, government cannot ban them.

"If adopted by this court, such an analysis could cast doubt on the constitutionality of existing federal legislation prohibiting the possession of certain firearms, including machineguns."

This is what happens when radical ideologues such as Dick Cheney use their power not in the interest of protecting the American people, but instead to advance the extremist agenda of the gun lobby.

But of course, this issue extends beyond the craziness of the Vice President. The fact of the matter is Cheney joined 55 senators and 250 House members in the brief to the Supreme Court. What's clear is that the gun lobby has nearly a total monopoly on firearm policy in the United States government.

The D.C. handgun ban case extends beyond the "individual versus collective right" debate over guns, and now appears to be about something more fundamental: whether "conservative pragmatists" will win over "right-wing and radical ideologues".

How sad that the debate about the Second Amendment has been reduced to the lowest common denominator while Americans continue to die in an epidemic of gun violence.