That was fast.

Back on September 5th, 2008, Obama promised voters in Duryea, PA, “I’m not going to take your guns away.” Now, not even six months later, his Attorney General, Eric Holder is telling people, ”As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons.”

According to ABC News:

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

The talking point memo has been issued, and is now being parroted by Mayor Daley in Chicago (video) and the New York Times. Shortly, this same line about “guns from the U.S. are being used by drug cartels in Mexico” will appear on the evening news, Time, Newsweek, the L.A. Times, and other news organizations. All of them will call for a renewed — and permanent — “assault weapons” ban to curb the violence in Mexico and our border towns.

We find this line of thinking abhorrent for two reasons:

1. The administration expects us to give up our liberties due to failures of, and corruption in, Mexican government and law enforcement.
2. The administration expects us to give up our liberties due to the failure of U.S. law enforcement and border security policies for the last 20 years to secure our own borders.

Mr. Obama, Mr. Holder, et al: You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Nowhere in your oath did it say anything about changing, modifying, winnowing down, or determining “sensible restrictions” upon the rights that the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Amendments 11-27 protect. Instead of passing new laws that restrict the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Americans, how about enforcing the laws we already have that deal with border security and arms & drug trafficking?

See also: H.R. 45 – Licensing freedom