Fox News’s O’Reilly Factor host Bill O’Reilly praised President Obama’s executive actions to expand background checks.
Earlier in the day, Obama announced executive orders to expand background checks to cover more private sellers and expanded background checks to family and corporate trusts. O’Reilly said, “The FBI should background check anyone buying a firearm in America. That just makes sense.”
According to RawStory, O’Reilly added, “If you are paranoid and believe the government is stockpiling information so they can come to your house and take your guns, that’s your problem, your problem. But the government has an obligation to enhance public safety.”
O’Reilly did not say whether background checks should be performed on citizens before they exercise their First Amendment rights of free speech or free religion, nor did he say whether background checks should be performed before exercising the Third and Fourth Amendment rights to private property and security in that property. But since all the amendments in the Bill of Rights are of a cloth, to perform special checks on one before it can be exercised, is to reduce all to a position of government oversight.
Moreover, O’Reilly did not mention that every mass shooter and/or high-profile shooter of recent memory passed a background check to acquire his guns. So not only do background checks interfere with the exercise of a God-given right under the guise of delivering safety, but they do so without delivering the safety their proponents promise.
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