By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Enter OFA’s new contest and you could be meeting James Taylor at his show in Chicago,” en email from the Organizing for Action (originally “Obama for America”) promises. “Enter now.”
OFA, which unconvincingly bills itself as “nonpartisan,” is the online community organizing tool for “the most anti-gun president in modern times.” And James Taylor is on record advocating “We need to make some sacrifice[s] to our freedoms … in order to safeguard our children.”
“Our” establishes a claim by the collective on your children. How they’ll be “safeguarded” by making it harder for their parents to protect them is left unexplained. But enough looking a gift horse in the mouth — after all, the email promises a free flight to Chicago, a free hotel room and free VIP passes for the lucky winner. Per OFA, the prize will include “you and a friend.”
The problem is, in order to enter, contest rules contradict Obama’s immigration and voter ID policies.
Promotion open to all U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent U.S. residents who are legal residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia and 18 or older (or of majority under applicable law).
If untold millions of illegal aliens have “earned the right to be citizens,” why haven’t they also earned the right to win OFA’s James Taylor contest? Perhaps the administration takes concert security more seriously than it does the nation’s?
And there’s a huge Catch-22: In order to use the airline tickets in compliance with TSA rules, plus to redeem prizes, the winners will need a government-issued ID. But Obama’s Justice Department tells us requiring one of those “effectively disenfranchises” minorities. They’re so sure on that score that Obama’s former head of the Civil Rights Division warned state attorneys general in Texas and South Carolina to watch their step when it comes to requiring voter ID.
In other words, OFA believes it should be way easier to vote than to win James Taylor tickets.
And if requiring IDs disenfranchises minorities from claiming their rights, why does the government require them when buying a gun? If it’s a right — and of course it is — why isn’t that discriminatory?
Like all “progressives,” OFA isn’t done with rules:
Sponsor may, at its option, conduct a background check on each potential winner. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any potential winner from receiving any prize based on such background check if Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion, that awarding any prize to such potential winner could result in a safety or security risk to any person or persons or could result in the disruption of any event associated with the Promotion. Sponsor will, in its sole discretion, then select one Grand Prize winner and five second prize winners from the list of eligible potential winners on the basis of criteria determined and applied by Sponsor to provide for an appropriate range of views, backgrounds, and interests among the winners selected.
Do we now risk getting put on a secret and arbitrary “No James List”? Does this also mean the winner and friend will need to pass an ideological purity test? And what do you think the chances are, after those background checks, that those of us with track records as GUN EXTREMISTS!!! won’t fit into the “could result in disruption” category (at a minimum)?
Will OFA share exactly what “criteria” it uses?
Come to think of it, with his background as a heroin addict and as a psychiatric patient who was “prescribed the anti-psychotic drug Thorazine” (who would have been prohibited from owning a gun), it’s fair to ask why they’re letting James in.
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.
He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and also posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.