Heller: Obama gun plan is the 'camel's nose'

The man whose Supreme Court case affirmed gun rights enshrined in the 2nd Amendment told Human Events President Barack Obama’s Jan. 16 proposals to restrict gun rights will make Americans less free and less safe.

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“Is the phrase ‘Camel’s nose under the tent’ too overly used?” asked Richard “Dick” Heller, the Washington special police officer, who launched the legal challenge to the District of Columbia’s gun ban that ended in the 2008 Heller Supreme Court decision.

“This is one of those camel-nose-moments, where they are trying to eliminate the AR-15 and give us the 10-round magazine,” said the Washington man who was working as an armed guard at the Supreme Court when he filed his complaint. At the end of every shift, he would have to lock up his pistol at the nation’s senior courthouse and return unarmed to a neighborhood roiling with crime.

First it is one gun, and just one magazine size, but if you listen to what is happening in some of the states like New York, there are more restrictions coming, he said. “Some of them want to eliminate everything that is not a bolt-action rifle.”

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After the first gun is banned, it will be easier to ban others, he said.

“It all dwindles down to where you have no military-style guns in the hands of civilians—the standard demand of all dictators. Finally, we’ll be down to sling shots and the criminals will still have guns,” he said.

“Maybe it would be a good idea to ban all guns, and then the Secret Service could throw away their guns, too,” Heller added.

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Sometimes, Obama gets it right, such as when “The president said: ‘There are those who would believe that this is a tyrannical, all-out attack on liberty,’” Heller said.

Despite his celebrity in the gun rights community for being the namesake for the highest court’s first gun ruling in 70 years, Heller was quick to point out that nobody from the White House contacted him about participating with the gun violence task force led by Vice President Joe Biden. “They got all those other heavies, they don’t need me,” he added.

When the president made his remarks detailing his agenda to restrict gun rights, Heller said he heard things that he could agree with.

“There is some merit on both sides, there is a little bit of merit, be it ever so tiny in what the president said, and the ideas that are out there, except when it comes to confiscation or controlling in an overbearing fashion.”

Heller said his Supreme Court case overturned the gun ban in the nation’s capital, but his request for a concealed carry permit was denied.

There is still more to do, he said.

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