Tennessee Fred Thompson Defends Black Market in Guns

The presidential campaign of Fred Thompson is getting desperate. Once hailed as the natural frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination, Fred Thompson is now limping in a struggle even to get to the starting line.

So, Fred Thompson is doing what comes naturally to Republicans who are in political trouble. He’s lashing out at other Republicans for not being extremist enough.

Specifically, Thompson is blasting Rudolph Giuliani for a supposed connection to a effort to stand up to criminal gun dealers who sell firearms illegally.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution ensures the right to bear arms, in the context of a well-regulated milita. The Second Amendment does not, however, guarantee unregulated sales of guns and other weapons. For that reason, there are common-sense laws regulating the sales of firearms.

One of those laws makes it illegal for one person to buy a gun on behalf of another person who is not elligible to buy a gun – because they’ve been convicted violent felonies, for example. That kind of indirect sale is called a straw purchase. Straw purchases are an important means through which criminal organizations obtain guns that cannot be traced to any of their members, and are also a means of getting guns onto the black market.

When New York City found out that black market guns were being pumped into its neighborhoods through straw purchases, a criminal investigation was begun. Investigators went out to gun shops and posed as people interested in making straw purchases. When the gun shops agreed to make the illegal gun sales, the New York City government sued.

Fred Thompson says that acting to stop the black market in gun sales was a bad idea. He says that when New York City tries to stop illegal gun sales designed to funnel firearms to convicted violent criminals, it’s a “bizarre” effort by New York State “to force its ways on the rest of us”, and interfere with “free commerce”.

Fred Thompson just can’t see the value in stopping convicted violent criminals from buying guns that cannot be traced to them. He says of New York City’s lawsuit against the gun shops, “Obviously, New York won’t get much cash out of the few dozen shops being sued in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia; so the purpose can only be political.”

Actually, Fred Thompson’s conclusion is not obvious at all. New York City is not suing gun shops that are sending weapons to criminals in New York City in order to gain money for its city budget, but that doesn’t mean that the object of the suit is a political effort to stop legitimate sales of hunting rifles to peaceful citizens elsewhere in the country. The obvious purpose of New York City’s lawsuit is to stop the illegal sale of black market weapons to criminals within its borders. What Fred Thompson cannot conceive of is that the government of New York City is trying to protect its citizens.

For all that, Fred Thompson’s weird defense of black market gun sales as “free commerce” is not primarily intended to help organized criminal organizations arm themselves. No, Thompson only made this argument in order to try to take out one of his rivals, Rudolph Giuliani.

What’s the Giuliani connection to the New York City lawsuit? It’s the connection that only an NRA-addled gun nut could grab onto. The lawsuit is being made under the direction of New York City’s current mayor, former Republican Michael Bloomberg. Rudy Giuliani’s connection to the lawsuit to stop black market gun sales is that he was once the mayor of New York City too. That’s it.

I’m no fan of Rudolph Giuliani, who is just plain wrong on a huge number of important issues, like the war in Iraq, the environment, and constitutional rights. However, my opposition to Giuliani doesn’t stop me from seeing that Fred Thompson’s attempt to link Giuliani to a New York City lawsuit that Giuliani has nothing to do with is outrageous. By Fred Thompson’s logic, George H. W. Bush could be accused of having sex with Monica Lewinski, because Bill Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinski, and George H. W. Bush once held the position of President of the United States too.

It’s a cheap shot, a desperate attack that will not bring Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign out of the ditch. To all but the FredHeads, the most die-hard followers in Fred Thompson, this incident reveals that Fred Thompson is incapable of rational evaluation of public policy, and is not suited for public office.

(Source: Fred File, August 21st, 2007)