Congressman Moran and the Two Minutes Hate

In expressing his support for H.R. 2640, the McCarthy/NRA Gun Control Act (and in expressing his concerns that it doesn't go far enough to reduce freedom), Congressman James Moran (D-VA) managed to cram more anti-Second Amendment foulness into two minutes of speech than I had believed was possible. Say what you want about the man, you can't deny that he's efficient. From this page of yesterday's Congressional record:

U.S. House of Representatives - June 13, 2007

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 2 minutes.

Mr. MORAN of Virginia. I thank the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee for yielding.

I will vote for this. I was a co-sponsor of this. And certainly Mrs. McCarthy deserves credit for bringing it to the floor.

But I do have concerns as the chairman does. That this needs to be very tightly regulated because it is quite liable to allow thousands of people who should not have access to guns to be able to do so by dropping their mental health treatment.

There are 190,000 veterans who because of their experience in combat have had serious mental illness problems. But it appears that if they drop the treatment that they have been in, they can become eligible to purchase guns. Again much of this is going to be in the regulation and the good judgment of states to make it work properly.

It is not a gun control measure as Mrs. McCarthy stated. It does nothing about the fact that we have hundreds of millions of guns in circulation and tens of thousands of people dying of by those guns, the vast majority are innocent victims every year. More so than in any civilized nation.

It doesn't address issues with regard to the Second Amendment where the Supreme Court has made it clear there is really not a right for individuals to own guns but rather for states to have well regulated militias. These are issues that need to be addressed at some point by our country.

But this bill hopefully will address the very egregious situation where a person, a court had determined to be mentally deranged was allowed access to firearms that he never should have gotten. There are other problems in other states that could have allowed such a thing to happen. Hopefully this bill will clean up this record keeping system with the sufficient resources made available.

Again, Mr. Speaker, this Congress ought not be allowing people to buy assault weapons, 50 caliber sniper rifles, and weapons that clearly are used for military purposes not for purposes of recreational hunting.

Mr. Chairman, this bill will pass unanimously and at this point it should. Thank you.

Covered just about everything, didn't he? From his unhappiness with the idea of restoring rights to military veterans, to his (increasingly discredited) view that the Second Amendment exists to protect some mythical "collective right," to his fatuous hysteria about .50 caliber rifles and so-called "assault weapons," I am left wondering if he had been given three minutes, if he would have gotten around to condemning BB guns, as well.

The Two Minutes Hate lives. Big Brother would be proud.