Boise, ID/(April 23,2007) The Constitution Party (www.constitutionparty.com) the country’s third largest political party based on voter registrations (www.ballot-access.org) adopted a number of resolutions at its Boise, Idaho National Committee Meeting (April 21-22) . Issues addressed include the recent murders at Virginia Tech, the imprisoned United States Border Patrol agents and the growing revolt against the Real ID Act.
The first resolution adopted unanimously by party members concerns the recent murder of 32 people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).While expressing its condolences to the family and friends of those killed in the brutal attack, the Constitution Party called on the Virginia legislature to acknowledge that “the right to bear arms is inherent in the right to self-defense and strongly recommends the recall and passage of a bill (Virginia HB 1572) that safeguards the right of students and faculty to carry firearms on campus”.
Virginia Tech vice president Larry Hincker wrote an eerily prescient editorial titled “Imagine if Students Were Armed” (http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/81277) just seven months before the deadly shootings on his campus. Hincker refused to acknowledge past incidents that made the law-abiding students easy targets turning classrooms into gruesome shooting galleries. Hincker wrote: "Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same." Quoted in the same paper (http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658), Hincker said when the Virginia legislature shot down the life-saving pro-self-defense bill: "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
Constitution Party National Committee Chairman Jim Clymer asked:
“Does Virginia Tech’s vice president sleep with a clear conscience knowing he cheered the death of a bill that would have permitted students and faculty members to defend themselves and stop a madman before he took 32 lives?”
“It’s no coincidence that the ‘gun-free zones’ we’ve made schools and college campuses are so often the scenes of bloody massacres… There’s a reason why such crimes don’t occur at police stations, military bases or other locations where people are carrying guns. The bumper sticker adage that ‘when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns’ has been tragically proven true,” Clymer added.
The Constitution Party also adopted a resolution calling for the immediate pardon of imprisoned Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, who have been imprisoned since January 18, 2007, prosecuted for actions in the course of performing their duties in seeking to arrest an illegal Mexican drug smuggler. “This is insane; two Americans with distinguished military and Border Patrol service together face more than 20 years in prison. Their families have lost their homes because of legal expenses, they’ve been threatened by members of a drug cartel and Ramos has been viciously attacked by other prisoners while wardens look the other way” said Constitution Party National Veterans Coalition Brigadier General Charles Jones (USAF, Retired).
“All the while, Mexican drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila is free, has been given free medical care and is being allowed by US officials to sue the U.S. Border Patrol for $5 million for violating his “civil rights’” Jones added.
The Constitution Party also passed a resolution calling for the repeal of the Real ID Act of 2005 stating “…the national ID card (REAL ID) is repressive, invasive, and unconstitutionally violates the Fourth Amendment right of the people to be secure.”
The Constitution Party joins in supporting the efforts of 30 states which, to date, have passed or are considering legislation condemning the federal license standards.
Montana, home of Constitution Party House Representative Rick Jore, just days ago became the very first state with signed legislation enacting a law which flat-out rejects the state’s cooperation with any federally- imposed licensing scheme. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer said: "I don't think bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. ought to tell us that if we're going to get on a plane we have to carry their card, so when it's scanned… they know where you went, when you got there and when you came back”.(http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2007/billhtml/HB0287.htm) Schweitzer summed up his determination to keep the federal government from forcing a national ID on his state saying simply: “No, nope, no way, hell, no.” (http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/04/18/legislative/misc_today/22_01.txt)
Montana joined Idaho, Washington and Arkansas in enacting laws that refuse to comply with the federal law.
Through its new resolutions, the Constitution Party commends liberty-minded legislators and condemns the power brokers in both the Republican and Democratic parties for attempting to usurp the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of Americans.