Every once in awhile two films greet the public around the same time concerning the same subject matter.

Wyatt Earp and Tombstone were two such films. The former prepared by a fairly liberal Democrat; Kevin Costner. The latter prepared by Kurt Russell, a fairly conservative libertine. Check Wiki for historical inaccuracies in both films; frankly I love them both. Compare them to prior films of Earp and they all stink with the exception of My Darling Clementine, of course.

Both films dealt with the issue concerning cowboys arriving in town with their guns a-blazin.  Even in those 'olden days', many saw the necessity for gun control; at least in urban areas.

There were no discussions of constitutional rights in those days. The Earp brothers just made it clear that if you did not deposit your guns at the place prescribed before entering town, they would blow your frickin head off.

Recently the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there are Second Amendment protections that go beyond musketry. The case applied to Federal Law only but will most probably be seen as extending to the laws of the States. District of Columbia v. Heller, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZO.html

Even while Warren Burger proselytized that there were no Second Amendment guarantees, I saw how the gun lobby was making progress in its war against gun control in states across the country. In Minnesota, a law was actually passed leaving many gun issues up to the individual counties and municipalities. 

As much as I despise the gun lobby, I gave up on this issue. Oh the fight will continue of course. Some political factions in this country do believe that surface to air missiles go a bit to far in extending any constitutional right to shoot your neighbor; however felonious he may be.

So why am I bringing this up now?

Gun Owners of America is a lobby group dedicated to the proposition that the National Rifle Association is a bunch of accommodationist sissies. Since June it has been campaigning energetically against the health care reform bill ("TeddyCare"). What does health reform have to do with gun control? Absolutely nothing. But when you're a wingnut and right-wing rage is in the air, the sidelines can seem awfully lonesome.

This is a good article from Slate and it goes on to explain that the gun control lobby, or at least a good part of it, are worried about 'data bases' that will end up somehow as tools to take away the right to bear arms from citizens with mental issues.

Even GOA's own legal counsel, though, must have grasped the absurdity of this argument; buying food leaves you less money for buying firearms and ammunition, too, but that hardly makes supermarkets violators of the Second Amendment. And so a third front was opened, this time against health reform's provisions encouraging insurers to charge higher premiums to those engaged in unhealthy behavior. In the House bill, for instance, the Health and Human Services Department would award "wellness grants" to small businesses that promote preventive care, in part through "prevention and support for employee populations at risk of poor health outcomes." The activities cited as creating such a risk are tobacco use, obesity, stress, lack of physical fitness, poor nutrition, drug use, and poor mental health. But, GOA insisted, "nothing within the bill would prohibit rabidly anti-gun HHS Secretary Sebelius from decreeing that 'no guns' is somehow healthier.http://www.slate.com/id/2236704/

As part of its campaign against the proposed healtchcare legislation, the GOA sent this letter to all our senators:

On behalf of over 300,000 law-abiding American gun owners, I am writing to ask you to vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to health care. 

As a result of the mandates in the legislation, this bill will most likely dump Americans' gun-related health data into a government database that was created in section 13001 of the stimulus bill.  This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned . . . or any determination of PTSD, or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms.  http://gunowners.org/vote-no-on-anti-gun-obamacare.htm

Our White House, you know the one that is lambasted from time to time for failing to react to spurious claims, responded to this campaign.

But apparently the Gun Owners of America, the same group that propagated that ridiculous claim, had simply gone back to the drawing board.  Today they sent out an alert misleading their members again, raising the specter of some massive government database of  "gun-related health data" despite the fact that there is no mention "gun-related health data" or anything like it anywhere in either the Senate or the House bills. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/11/23/reality-check-health-insurance-reform-not-a-guns-bill

Of course these dangerous idiots responded:

First of all, the fact that the bills do not mention the words "gun related health data" is meaningless. 

 ...For example, within the past year, the federal district court for the District of Columbia used the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to overturn Bush regulations involving guns in parks. NEPA did not purport to apply to guns.

Increasingly, zoning ordinances are being used to put gun ranges and gun dealers out of business. These ordinances do not mention guns.

...And, over the last decade, veterans suffering from PTSD have been denied the right to purchase a gun.  This was not supposed to happen when the Brady Law was enacted in 1994, but that did not keep Clinton's Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from using the law to disarm thousands upon thousands of veterans, without any due process.  http://capwiz.com/gunowners/home/

Folks, there are real issues of privacy. I know this.

There are so many holes in the old confidential relationships that were once honored in this country:

Priest and Penitent.

Husband and Wife.

Lying journalists and confidential sources.

The first two are troublesome indeed. And there is less and less of a confidential relationship between the doctor and her patient. That is another issue that is really not part of the subject matter here except to say that the gun lobbyists have a point. But:

I do not wish to allow convicted felons access to guns. We need a national data base to prevent this problem.

I do not wish to allow people who are a danger to themselves and others access to firearms. In my mind that includes all gun lobbyists, but I digress.

There are real issues here. I do not deny this fact. We have little by way of privacy anymore. And our pasts follow us forever. So many police and attorney dramas these days point out that sealed and even expunged criminal records end up being reopened upon motions, motions claiming probable cause of some sort. Probable cause will be the death of us all since prosecutorial discretion defines it as a concept; making the DA's God Almighty.

But my real point here is that gun lobbyists will always be with us and they will lobby for many other causes. And they will always be on the side of conservative fascist corporate America.

GUN LOBBYISTS REMAIN MY MORTAL ENEMIES.