Sen. Tom Coburn: Charlatan or Traitor?

My wife and I recently sent separate e-mails to Sen. Tom Coburn asking him to join Rand Paul’s filibuster of Harry Reid’s latest gun control scheme.  We sent messages on the same day, she from her office and me from our home.  Neither of us knew about the other until that evening when we sat down for dinner and discussed the day’s events.  The responses we received were a day apart, hers on April 9th and mine on April 10^th.

I don’t know why we were surprised when we compared the responses but we were.  We both received the form letter some aide undoubtedly wrote to make it sound like Sen. Coburn actually believes in the 2^nd Amendment and the rights of We the People.  I have included the response I received and have my wife’s available if anyone desires to contest that they are the same.  I also know of two other people who received the same letter.

Letter from Sen. Tom Coburn in response to a request that he join the filibuster started by Sen. Rand Paul:

Dear Mr. Russell,

Thank you for taking the time to write me to express your opinion and concerns about the various gun control proposals. I am encouraged so many Oklahomans are making their voices heard. I have received an overwhelming number of letters, and in order to respond in a timely manner, I am writing a response that encompasses my entire position. If you have additional questions or concerns, please write me again.

  I want to be clear: I remain committed to defending and protecting our Constitution; namely the Second Amendment.  I have long protected the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns. I am opposed to a ban on assault rifles and I oppose limiting magazines. I will not vote for any bill that limits the gun rights of law abiding citizens.  While I support a debate in the Senate on gun related issues—including reaffirming these rights and forcing gun-control advocates to have their votes on record and be held accountable for their votes—I will not only support, but lead a filibuster to prevent the passage of any bill that limits the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.  

The news reports are correct that I have been involved in discussions to write legislation improving the existing background checks to enable private citizens to check a database and ensure the person they seek to sell their gun to is legally allowed to own a firearm.  I believe it is good public policy to make sure that those who are mentally-ill or a felon (both are already prohibited from owning a gun), do not have access to a weapon.  However, I oppose record keeping and will not agree to legislation that expands record keeping to private sales.

The concern I am hearing over and over is not just about people maintaining their right to own firearms—it is a concern about how to preserve liberty.  When our Constitution was adopted, we had just won a war fought largely by Minute Men and localized, or unofficial, militias (Sons of Liberty, etc).  The first shots fired at Concord were, in part, to preserve a local supply of firearms that the British sought to confiscate.  Our founders believed very strongly that the individual right to bear arms would preserve the independence and freedom won in 1781, just as they had enabled our founders to win the revolutionary war.  They feared tyranny and centralized power—which is why our Constitution was established.  In addition to the checks created by balancing power between a legislature and executive—and checked by a judiciary—the Bill of Rights sought to limit the federal government and clearly stated that those powers not enumerated in the Constitution and delegated to the federal government would remain with the states and the people (the 9th and 10th Amendments). 

Yet, our federal government regularly legislates on matters that belong to the states and the people.  Our freedoms are being gradually encroached and choked by ever-increasing regulations, laws, agencies, and overspending.  This concerns me greatly and I fight daily to rein in the size, scope and spending of our federal government.  I believe the greatest threat to our Republic is apathy as our overindulgent federal government, through indebtedness, spends the money of future generations.  James Madison, the architect of our Constitution, said something similar in 1788 in a speech in Virginia when he said, “Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

I am aware of this and I work to push back on all attacks to our Constitution, including those to our Second Amendment. Congress must be careful not to legislate in a way that makes criminals out of law-abiding, gun-owning citizens.

Thank you for being involved and allowing me these last eight years to fight to protect our Constitution.  I daily think about the sacrifices of past generations and I am grateful.  In these last four years, as I finish out my second term, I remain committed to protecting your Second Amendment rights and working to limit our federal government and reduce federal spending. 

Sincerely,

Tom A. Coburn, M.D.

United States Senator

TC: lcp

That isn’t a response, it’s a press release.  And just what is there to debate about the 2^nd Amendment?  I thought it was quite obvious what the founders intended.  They intended for citizens to have the means to defend themselves, first and foremost, against a tyrannical government.  This mental health scam is just a way of abolishing the right to own firearms, thereby rendering We the People defenseless against a dictatorship.  Keep guns out of the hands of criminals???  How did prohibition work out, Senator??  How is Chicago working out???  Try enforcing the laws on the books now before passing more.  See how that works out.  But your answer is to surrender here and fight  ”next time”.  What “next time”???? Which “next time”?  When????????

I have always supported Sen. Coburn because I thought he was a true American patriot who cared deeply about his country and the God-given rights listed in the Constitution.  Coburn just voted to allow a simple majority of Democrats to gut the 2^nd Amendment, and nullify the 4^th and 5^th Amendments; and is telling constituents he supports our right to possess firearms.

This is double-talk if I ever saw double-talk!! And who decides who is mentally ill or not, Diane Feinstein???  Was I wrong all these years or has Coburn just decided that my liberty isn’t worth his effort since he is retiring from Congress at the end of this term?  Frankly, I don’t know what to think about him!!  Gun control, Amnesty, where does Coburn really stand up for America??

It is very apparent that Sen. Coburn, along with the bulk of the Republican Party and every member of the Democrat Party, has betrayed We the People.  They have also betrayed the oath of office they swore, to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America”.  That oath apparently is no longer valid in their minds.  They twist its meaning to justify their treachery as they have assumed the mantle of dictators with the power of life and death over the citizens they consider to be no more than subjects.  You know, kind of like King George!!!

Members of both political parties have gone beyond violating their oaths of office and have reached the point of treason.  It is painfully obvious they have no intention of governing, taking the position that their esteemed positions give them the “right”  to rule over We the People as if we are cattle to be herded at their whim.  When I see the outright arrogance and corruption that pervades government, both political parties and at all levels, it is impossible to come to the conclusion that liberty as established by our founding fathers is the driving force of politicians.  Power, prestige in the media, and personal wealth is all they seek.  The Constitution and the rights of citizens get in the way of their goal of total control of the nation.

Members of both political parties run to the microphones and cameras of their media lapdogs to proclaim their dedication to freedom while doing everything they can to destroy that freedom.  And the lapdog media, desiring favor from those same ruling politicians, report what they are told to report, and spin as they are told to spin.

This isn’t a Democrat vs. Republican power play; it is a political ruling class vs. We the People power play and We the People are losing.  DHS is arming itself to the teeth with billions of rounds of hollow point ammunition, the kind that cannot be used in war; thousands of full automatic rifles, the true “assault rifle”; thousands of armored vehicles called MRAP’s, the mine-proof type used in war by our military; and DHS agents run practice operations with local law enforcement, using machine gun firing helicopters over our cities.  What is all this armament of a “domestic security force” to be used for???  Care to take a guess????  Maybe they are going to start rounding up all the illegal aliens!!!!!!

Sen. Diane Feinstein tells us that ALL veterans are mentally ill, dangerously unstable, and should be banned from owning firearms.  In New York and California local law enforcement is already confiscating guns from those they see as a threat to their dictatorship.  How about that one Sen. Coburn???  Some states are racing to see who can pass the stiffest gun control legislation.  Never mind the 2^nd , 4^th, and 5th Amendments!!!!  They have DHS to back them up.

The Veteran’s Administration is now used as a conduit for imprisoning men and women who served their country honorably and now only desire to have the medical treatment promised to them for their service.  They have put their lives in danger for the freedom of others, protecting the very scumbag politicians that now seek to have them committed to asylums without due process; and to confiscate their guns without any reason other than politicians see them as a threat to their tyranny.

Is this the vision of America seen by our founding fathers; that veterans are now a threat to the very liberty the founders fought and died for?   Are veterans a threat to society because they shared that vision and were willing to risk their lives to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America”?  Is this how the experiment in freedom is to end?

And what of those who berate me and call me a “paranoid fear monger” because I see what is happening and call attention to tyranny?  “It can’t happen here”???? It is happening here, right now, and politicians in both political parties no longer hide behind fancy words and deception.  They come right out and state their intentions to disarm the entire populace, except for the criminals, of course.  New York governor Andrew Cuomo recently pronounced that “you don’t need 10 rounds to kill a deah”!!  Hey there Andy, the 2^nd Amendment isn’t about killing a “deah”, it is about keeping people like you in your place.  It is about protecting We the People from tyranny, from Nazi or Soviet style dictatorships that enslave and murder their people.  Politicians are supposed to be “public servants”, not rulers, but look where we are today.

I hope I live long enough to see these politicians and their bureaucrat minions, charged, arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for treason.  If We the People lose the war we are in right now it will be generations, if ever, before liberty will be restored.  Not one step backwards, Senator!!!

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty god to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell

Claremore, Oklahoma

April 15, 2013