Jackson said the Second Amendment provides these domestic terrorists
with the ability to “do something about how they feel” in their effort
to “fight the government.”
The phrase “Confederate ideology” is shorthand for a political
philosophy that stresses states’ rights (including nullification) and
adherence to the Constitution.
New York Rep. Charlie Rangel
said in January that Southern culture – a specific reference to gun
culture prevalent in the South – is something that Democrats must work
to overcome. “New York is a little different and more progressive in a
lot of areas than some other states and some of the southern areas have
cultures that we have to overcome,” Rangel told MSNBC.
Jackson, a former Democrat presidential contender and the founder of the Rainbow Coalition, said in August that the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle is the preferred weapon “for domestic, homegrown terrorism.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center
has also linked Second Amendment activists to terrorists. The
organization argues the “radical right” is exploiting the gun rights
issue to push a white supremacist political ideology. The SPLC has worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security. In 2009, a leaked DHS document revealed the agency’s obsession with “Rightwing Extremists.”
In early December, sports columnist Jason Whitlock likened the NRA to the Ku Klux Klan, the racist organization established during Reconstruction by former Confederate soldiers.
“You know, I did not go as far as I’d like to go because my thoughts
on the NRA and America’s gun culture — I believe the NRA is the new
KKK,” Whitlock told CNN’s Roland Martin.
Whitlock’s comments inspired a widely-covered Bob Costas’ anti-Second
Amendment halftime screed during a Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles
game broadcast live on NBC television.
Jackson’s comments underscore an ongoing effort by Democrats and
other so-called progressives to characterize Second Amendment activists
as domestic terrorists.
Jackson Calls for DHS on Streets of Chicago
Jackson has also called for the federal government to put the
Department of Homeland Security on the streets on Chicago, according to Reuters.
He made the comment prior to a march on the city’s violence-wracked
South Side. Jackson said Chicago mayor Rahmn Emanuel and city police are
unable to address the problem and the federal government needs to
intervene.
Chicago had 500 homicides in 2012 and more than 40 so far this year.
The Obama administration and the establishment media exploited the
murder of Hadiya Pendleton in Chicago after the 15-year-old girl
performed at an event celebrating the inauguration of Obama last month.
“The details of her death shook Chicago and gave fuel to gun-control advocates in the running debate over firearms,” the New York Times
reported last week. Jay Carney, Obama’s press secretary, said the
tragedy is “another example of the problem that we need to deal with.”
Jackson did not elaborate on his comment demanding the Department of Homeland Security patrol the streets of Chicago.
“Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and Rainbow PUSH Coalition call for
immediate Federal Intervention and Homeland Security in Chicago as
January homicide totals exceeded 45,” a press release issued on Friday
by Rainbow PUSH states. “Reverend Jesse Jackson reaffirms that gun control reform is critical and the ban on assault weapons paramount.”
The Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet-level department of
the federal government. It was allegedly established in response to the
September 11, 2001, attacks and describes its mission as protecting the
United States from terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural
disasters. It was not originally mandated to work with local police.
The 2005 USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act
passed by Congress, however, established a “permanent police force”
subject to the “supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security.”
According to the legislation, this new federal police force is empowered
to “make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United
States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.”
“The language conveys enormous discretionary and arbitrary powers,” former Reagan Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts,
wrote in 2006. “Like every law in the US, this law also will be
expansively interpreted and abused… Who is going to hold accountable a
federal police protected by Homeland Security and the president?”
The Obama administration has yet to respond to Jackson’s demand.
However, as gang-related violence in Obama’s hometown and elsewhere
continues to claim lives and dominate headlines, it is entirely possible
the federal government may directly intervene in Chicago as part of its
effort to attack the Second Amendment and further meddle in local law
enforcement duties under the hysterical cover of putting an end to “gun
violence.”
