SITREP: MAY 2004

by Dan Shea

The Assault Weapon and High Capacity Magazine Ban is sunsetting this September? It might happen, it might not. This is a big issue for the liberals, and they used it to destroy the Republican centerpiece bill ending unjustified lawsuits against firearms manufacturers. We won’t know until September 13, 2004. I don’t personally see it sunsetting, it is a huge issue for some and they will attach it to every bill they can. President Bush indicates he won’t sign it, but if it is on a bill he politically has to sign it might be done. If the Democrats managed to get enough Republicans to vote for keeping the ban so that it was put on this bill, what would make anyone think that the Republican senators, who caved this time, won’t cave again? This is how the political system works today. I knew that the initial bill wouldn’t pass, due to the amendments that would be forced onto it. It was all strategically planned. That is how it works in the Beltway. Expect more votes just like this one, and expect that the losers will always be the citizens. I am keeping enough high capacity magazines for each gun I have.

There is also the issue of John Kerry and his service in Vietnam hanging over the coming election. John Kerry and his supporters in general are casting webs of deceit and disrespect on the service that our current President, George W. Bush, provided to his country. Bush was in the National Guard as a fighter pilot and did not go to Vietnam.

Neither did millions of other active duty service members in that fifteen-year period of time. Neither did tens of millions of eligible young men whose numbers weren’t called up in the draft. Even if you were drafted, Vietnam service wasn’t a certainty, but we all considered it in every decision we made. Certain service branches and MOS’s were prone to going, though. John Kerry chose one when he enlisted and he went to Vietnam in the brown water US Navy. George W. Bush chose another – but wasn’t sent over. The fact that Bush chose National Guard service does not diminish the fact that he served. Did that National Guard service lessen his chances of going to Vietnam? Possibly. That Kerry volunteered and went is to his betterment in my opinion, but what he did with it afterward is entirely disingenuous. That means I am calling him dishonest.

1965. The gun bunnies in a National Guard Artillery unit in New Hampshire were given thirty days and a wakeup to say goodbye to Mary Jane, grab clean underwear and a toothbrush then report for service in Vietnam, the Republic of. Thirteen months and a day until they were short enough to go on the Freedom Bird, and they lost men in combat.

Their story is not unique in any way. There are millions of men and women in our National Guard and Reserves who have served in every conflict in recent memory, and are over in the sandbox today. They are doing it, they are paying the price, and Kerry might be forgiven for talking trash only because he paid that price by putting on the uniform and going where his Uncle Sam sent him, but the jerks around him never did the time. I would like to offer them a nice big cup of shut the F%^# up.

John Kerry: if you know one thing about George W. Bush that shows cowardice, then put up or shut up. You are an embarrassment to all of us who served, fought, and are fighting today. There are websites springing up naming the guys who served with you, quoting them as putting big question marks on the events that got you your medals.

Damn. We should not be questioning his medals. Service to country is a private thing. Your government having you point a weapon at another human being is a private thing. This whole dragging around “who did what” and questioning their service can serve no good end for John Kerry, or for everyone his trashing of the National Guard casts disrespect on. Everybody who loves someone in uniform should call John Kerry and tell him to drop this subject. Vote for him if you want, but for the memory of the names on that Wall in DC and the loved ones they left behind, and the people serving our country all over the world today, ask him to stop trashing those who put it on the line, whether active, guard, or reserve. -Dan