'Anti-gunner' OSHA nominee advances without questions
'By fiat could outlaw firearms in workplaces, parking lots
across America'
Posted: November 19, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today approved
without question and without comment the nomination of David Michaels, the chief
of a George-Soros-funded Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy, as
the next head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
As WND reported, Second Amendment advocates sounded an alarm over Michaels,
warning the most significant attack on gun rights in years soon could come in
the form of workplace "safety" regulations.
Obama's nomination of Michaels, a George Washington University professor, drew
reaction from Walter Olson at
Overlawyered.com.
Olson said Michaels' strong views on firearms are "by no means irrelevant to the
agenda of an agency like OSHA, because once you start viewing private gun
ownership as a public health menace, it begins to seem logical to use the powers
of government to urge or even require employers to forbid workers from
possessing guns on company premises, up to and including parking lots,
ostensibly for the protection of co-workers."
According to Examiner gun-rights writer David Codrea, the committee today
approved Michaels' nomination by a voice vote.
"Committee Republicans Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Richard Burr (N.C.) requested they
be recorded as 'no' votes," he reported.
The nomination, which now advances to the full Senate, was accomplished without
"a confirmation hearing to question him and today's vote occurred with no
discussion," according to the website
Point
of Law, despite "serious concerns about Michaels' views on science, law and
business."
"So much for new openness and transparency in government," commented Codrea.
"Next up will be a vote in the full Senate," he continued. "I urge concerned gun
owners to contact your senators and register your objections."
WND has
reported on Obama's czars and has published a Whistleblower magazine issue on
the "shadow government" officials gradually being installed in positions of
power in Washington.
Two already have met problems. Green jobs czar Van Jones quit his post after
reporting, largely by WND, of his self-described communist beliefs and his
contention that the Bush administration was behind the 9/11 attacks. Also, White
House communications director Anita Dunn, who launched a verbal assault on Fox
News as an "arm" of the GOP, reportedly is stepping down.
Now Michaels, although he would need approval by the U.S. Senate, comes with
views that concern Second Amendment advocates.
Two
years ago, Michaels condemned proposals in Georgia and Florida that would
have allowed workers to carry guns to and from their places of work for
protection.
He continued in his 2007 writing to laud the ability of the federal government
to respond by creating new laws to ban activities or behaviors.
David Michaels
"When the toll of preventable and pointless deaths or injuries from any single
event or related events becomes so great, or particular aspects of the story
bring it to the public's attention, our nation invariably demands more and
stronger regulation, not less," Michaels wrote at the time.
"In the U.S., we see an average of one gun-related homicide every 45 minutes, or
32 each day," he wrote. "These are usually treated as isolated incidents, until
a horrific event like the Virginia Tech massacre reawakens the public and
strengthens public health advocates who are attempting to prevent gun violence."
At
RedCounty.com, writer Bryan Myrick noted that the Washington Times has urged
the Senate to reject Michaels' nomination.
"OSHA is an agency that already has a well-earned reputation for abusing its
authority and reaching beyond its stated purpose. Add one zealot and it easily
becomes an oppressive entity with immense power over all American businesses,
large and small. At a time in which America's businesses desperately need the
freedom to responsibly pursue earning profits and put workers back on the
payroll, the chemical potency of combining Obama's left-wing agenda with an
anti-business zealot manager at OSHA could prove toxic," Myrick wrote.
Codrea warned that some "public health" excuse could be used for imposing
draconian restrictions on gun owners.
He cited the comment from a director of the CDC's National Center for Injury
Control and Prevention that, "We need to revolutionize the way we look at guns,
like what we did with cigarettes. Now it [sic] is dirty, deadly, and banned."
Codrea asked: "Does anyone doubt that Michaels will bring a similarly creative
agenda to apply through regulatory measures under the guise of 'occupational
safety and health?'"
The National Gun Rights
organization called him an "anti-gunner."
Columnist Dave Kopel at the Independence Institute in Colorado said, "Plenty
of Obama's administration appointees have a longer record of anti-gun activism
than David Michaels, but perhaps none of them have the ability to make such a
dramatic, instant change in the lives of law-abiding gun owners.
"By its own fiat, OSHA could outlaw the possession of firearms in every
workplace and every employee parking lot in the United States," he wrote.
"That David Michaels is anti-gun is undisputed," he continued.
"The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution means that a valid federal law or
regulation wins in any conflict with a state law. Many states have laws that
protect the rights of employees to store lawful firearms in parking lots at
work. If an OSHA regulation prohibiting such storage existed, the federal
regulation would trump state law," Kopel said.
"Under Michaels, OSHA could write a regulation stating that it is illegal for
any business to allow guns in the workplace or in parking lots. No handgun could
be locked in the trunk of a car, even if the owner has a Right-to-Carry license.
No rifle could be stored in the car, even if there’s no ammunition around and
the gun will be dropped off at the gunsmith after work," he said.
Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, supported Washington, D.C.'s ban on
handguns before it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. And since Obama has
been in office, he's already advocated for a treaty that would require a federal
license for hunters to reload their ammunition, has expressed a desire to ban
"assault" weapons, has seen a plan to require handgun owners to submit to mental
health evaluations and sparked a rush on ammunition purchases with his history
of anti-gun positions.
* * * * *
The obuma government would be well advised to remember what happened at the
last attempt to disarm the American people.
The Shot Heard 'Round the World
by Domenick D'Andrea
Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775
At dawn on April 19, 1775, as 700 elite British soldiers marched toward Concord,
they fought a brief skirmish with militiamen on Lexington Green, leaving eight
colonists dead and nine wounded. The King’s troops marched on, arriving at
Concord two hours later. While some troops searched the town for stores of
gunpowder and arms, three companies guarded the “North Bridge.” As the British
were marching toward Concord, word spread of the fight at Lexington. Alarm bells
rang calling out the militia and Minute Men across Middlesex County. Among the
units to muster was Colonel James Barrett’s Middlesex County Regiment of Minute
Men. Once in formation the regiment moved onto a hill within 500 yards of where
the British stood watch at North Bridge. Colonel Barrett, needing to organize
additional militia companies, left his command to Major John Buttrick. When
smoke appeared in the sky above Concord the Americans wrongly believed the
British were burning the town. In response Buttrick decided to move his men
toward the town. As the Americans advanced the British pickets fell back across
the bridge. The last British unit to cross, the Light Company of the 4th (King’s
Own) Foot, stopped to tear up some of the planks to delay the militia advance.
Leading the American column was Captain Isaac Davis’s Company of Minute Men from
Acton. As they got within 50 yards of the bridge Buttrick shouted at the British
to stop tearing up the planks. Suddenly three British shots were fired, killing
Davis and another man instantly and wounding a third. Buttrick shouted “Fire!
For God’s sake Fire!” and the Minute Men unloosed a ragged but heavy volley.
Four out of eight British officers were hit along with seven enlisted men, two
of whom died. The British immediately fell back toward the town where they
linked up with other Royal troops. Buttrick moved his men across the bridge as
the British column began marching back down the road toward Boston. Militiamen
gathered along their path and soon began firing from behind trees and stone
walls, inflicting an ever-increasing number of casualties. When the exhausted
British troops reached Lexington, scene of the fight earlier that morning, they
were met by a relief force sent to accompany them back to Boston. However, the
Americans did not stop their attacks, inflicting additional losses on the
British column before it reached Boston. In total the British suffered almost
300 dead, wounded or missing. Within days an army of nearly 20,000 militiamen
from all over New England surrounded the city, effectively putting it under
siege. In 1875, on the 100th anniversary of the action at Concord, Daniel
Chester French’s Minuteman statue, the symbol of today’s National Guard, was
dedicated. As part of the ceremony, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem The Concord Hymn
was read honoring the men who “fired the shot heard round the world” which began
the Revolutionary War. Today’s National Guard is the direct descendent of those
militia and Minute Men who stood their ground to protect their homes and
freedoms.
