The 112th Congress is in the process of another shove, another push in its effort to convert the rights of American citizens into a licensed privilege. Senate bill 176, entitled the ‘‘Common Sense Concealed Firearms Permit Act of 2011,” not only flies in the face of individual rights but stomps all over states powers as well.

With the passage of the Veterans Disarmament Act in 2008, Congress granted the Veterans Administration (VA) the authority to computerize the medical records of veterans and ship them to the FBI. Any diagnosis that could be interpreted as “might be a danger to self or others” results in the vet being denied his right to keep and bear arms. People with concealed carry permits are denied renewals. Customers at gun stores are turned down. In one recent case, a GOA member visited a VA hospital for a couple of days and soon after returning home, state authorities knocked on the door and confiscated his guns.

But what exactly qualifies as “common sense gun laws” or “reasonable gun measures?” A recent paper answered this question by noting certain correlations for states considered the “best” by Brady in terms of how many “common sense gun laws” they have passed: Brady’s highest-rated states have the highest average violent crime and murder rates. These states also have the lowest levels of gun ownership. Brady’s “failed” states (not enough “reasonable gun measures”) have the lowest violent crime and murder rates, and the highest levels of gun ownership.

"Obama has called for a 'civilian national security force' as powerful as the US military, comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but compared by conservatives to the Nazi Hitler Youth," warns Baker.

The American Legion – the nation's largest veterans organization -- is calling on Congress to reject proposed legislation that would grant "fast track" citizenship or amnesty...