By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “President-elect Donald Trump met with retired General David Petraeus Monday, as a senior official with the transition said the former CIA director is being considered for secretary of state amid open infighting among Trump’s advisers about who to pick for the post,” Bloomberg News reported Monday.
If Trump does not listen to those advising against that pick, that fighting is going to spread, with gun owners taking a lead. That’s because Petraeus broke his oath to the Constitution and joined with retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal and other veterans to form the Second Amendment-infringing Veterans Coalition for Common Sense. The group is part of retired Captain Mark Kelly’s and Gabby Gifford’s Americans for Responsible Solutions.
As with all things Opposite Day “progressive,” there’s nothing “common sense” or “responsible” about it.
Petraeus is nothing if not a creature of the establishment. You don’t get included at the Bilderberg meeting unless the masters have big plans for you. And again in true Opposite Day fashion, as his own scandal demonstrated, we’re dealing with an intelligence chief who wouldn’t control his intelligence and a control freak who won’t control himself.
The Gungrabby Gabby Group posted a list of all the military “luminaries” who are lending their names to the effort. By doing so, they’re disregarding the paramount importance of civilian control of the military, and presuming to overturn the Founders’ judgment about what was and is “necessary to the security of a free State.”
“As Secretary of State, Petraeus would play a key role in deciding whether to remove the U.S. from the UN Arms Trade Treaty (UN ATT),” Gun Owners of America warned in a member alert. “This agreement would mandate gun registration, and would authorize comprehensive gun bans — all goals supported by Petraeus’ colleagues Kelly and Giffords.
“Petraeus would effectively decide whether to push for ratification of the anti-gun UN Small Arms Treaty. Finally, Petraeus would have jurisdiction over the international trade (ITAR) regulations,” GOA continued. “Under Clinton/Kerry ‘guidance,’ these regulations have been expanded to outlaw gunsmithing. In addition, a gun technician who communicates ‘how-to’ information about guns on the Internet (without purchasing a $2,250 State Department license) could be prosecuted and imprisoned.
“You can read GOA’s comments against these anti-gun State Department regulations here,” the alert elaborated. “If anti-gun Petraeus is nominated and confirmed, we can expect these policies to be continued and expanded.”
That’s vital information for informed gun owners to understand. But being informed without taking action doesn’t do much good, so GOA is urging supporters to contact Trump to express unequivocal opposition to David Petraeus being part of his cabinet, let alone Secretary of State. To that end, they have developed a pre-written letter and included a contact email address that will get to Trump’s team:
I urge you to make this today’s Five-Minute Activism project. Use GOA’s letter or craft a message of your own. And don’t forget there are other ways to reach the president-elect, including by leaving comments on his Facebook page or sending him a Twitter “tweet” with the #NoPetraeus hashtag, and sending him a link to the GOA Alert and/or to this column promoting it.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.