Rick Santorum’s foolish analogy about the German conquest of Paris, which Master Conspirator Volokh recently denounced, was an early favorite for the Most Ridiculous Statement by a Congressperson for the Week for May 15-22. However, Senator Santorum must now take a distant second place to D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton. Opposing a NRA-backed bill to restore Second Amendment rights to the citizens of the District of Columbia, Norton claimed that the intended purpose of the bill was to kill children. Stop the Bleating supplies the citations, and notes the difference between the claim that the bill would have the unintended consequence of causing innocent deaths (a type of legitimate argument which is made in the context of many different legislative debates on different issues) and Rep. Norton’s vicious claim that the bill’s sponsors are deliberately trying to cause the deaths of innocents. Eleanor Holmes Norton should apologize for her despicable slander.
UPDATE: The weblog No Quarters contacted Rep. Norton’s press secretary on Friday, and received a response on Monday. The secretary told No Quarters that Rep. Norton believes is was “not the intention of the sponsors” to kill children. It appears that either: 1. The Washington Times made a mistake about a brief Q&A with Rep. Norton (as her office claims), or Rep. Norton made an incideniary remark to a reporter, and upon reflection Rep. Norton does not want to be associated with that remark. In any case, it is good to know that, even though some gun prohibition lobbyists assert that Second Amendment advocates do not value the lives of children, Representative Norton does not make such a mean-spirited assertion.
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