The FBI on Gun Control

Surely he's kidding, right?
The "he" being the FBI director Robert Mueller. We're all used to hearing inane statements from our government employees, but if this doesn't take the cake, it can sure taste it from here. You can read the story for yourself, but here are some highlights.

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Monday criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, saying it may harm efforts to deter violent crime.

The primary problem with Mr. Mueller's position here is his fundamentally flawed view of the Supreme Court and the Constitution. The Supreme Court did not grant or bestow rights upon anyone. The Court recognized an existing right and struck down an illegal restriction of that right in a specific place (Washington D.C.). I might add that the area in which Constitutionally protected gun rights were so restricted has the highest rate of violent crime in the country. I'm not really sure how recognizing the right of citizens to self defense hurts the FBI's efforts to deter violent crime. Especially since he goes on to say that deterring crime is not a priority of the FBI.

Mueller said communities will have to determine their own license programs. As a former Marine who served in Vietnam, he said "I tend to believe weapons harm people and more often than not they harm the people carrying them."

With his grandchildren going to college, Mueller said he hopes "those campuses will be weapons free."

He tends to believe weapons harm people? What?!? Of course they do, that's one of their primary purposes. I would assume a former soldier would understand that. Speaking of, I fail to see what Mueller's service in Vietnam has to do with his expertise in Constitutional law.

As far as colleges go, most (if not all) campuses are already "gun free zones." (Funny story on that here.) Not to be crass, but ask the folks at Virginia Tech how their "gun free" campus worked out for them. I happen to think the opposite, I want my children to have the ability to legally carry a gun for their own protection when they are old enough to do so responsibly. However, the Supreme Court didn't rule on either of our positions, so I'm not really sure why he brings it up at all.

Mueller said the FBI's top priority remains counterterrorism, counter-intelligence and protecting the secrets of the United States.

Well that's good. What else would it be? Keeping tabs on law abiding gun owners?

He said college campuses and small communities could be "potential incubators of terrorism" even while major cities such as New York and Los Angeles remain primary targets for terrorists.

WHAT?!? Ok, I really am not an all-caps kind of guy, but seriously... Is he trying to suggest that gun owners are terrorists? If that's the case, then apparently the founding fathers envisioned a nation of terrorists. "Small communities" aren't really affected by this ruling as most of them have not attempted to restrict the right of citizens to own firearms to begin with.

I really am taken aback that the director of the FBI can be this ignorant of our Constitution, our structure of government and basic logical fallacies. It's disturbing that someone charged with, in his words, "counterterrorism, counter-intelligence and protecting the secrets of the United States," seems to see American citizens with firearms as the terrorists. When he swore to to protect the Constitution, had he even read it?

~ Gabriel