Free Republic

With virtually no mention in the mainstream media, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez convened on June 15, the first meeting of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an apparently extra-constitutional advisory group organized by the Department of Commerce (DOC) under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). A March 31 press release on the White House website, under the title “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America: Progress,” announced the formation of the NACC. The press release noted that the NACC would meet annually “with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an...

Protecting the wrong peopleNRA proposal could hamper police, help criminalsSarasota Herald-Tribune editorial 12/29/2003 The National Rifle Association is so obsessed with slippery-slope, Second Amendment theories that it's pushing for a change in state policy that inadvertently could assist criminals. Unfortunately, the NRA has the clout in Florida to get the policy change proposed as legislation. State Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit police departments from keeping permanent records of gun owners who sell or pawn their weapons at pawnshops. Police have long maintained databases of pawned items to make it easier to locate stolen...