Rahm Emanuel and Antonio Villaraigosa Need an Attitude Adjustment

You will recall that in early January, Bank of America froze the bank account of American Spirit Arms, a gun manufacturer in Scottsdale, Arizona, thus threatening the firm's ability to do business.  I wrote about it in a blog for American Thinker and many others chimed in as well. 

I was told that the concerted efforts of Joe Sirochman, the company's owner, and people who came to his defense produced exactly the result that you expect when law-abiding citizens rise up in anger and focus their attention on the culprits in a criminal pursuit.  As I understand it, Bank of America had a change of heart and relented when their customers threatened to do business elsewhere if they didn't cease and desist.

It's amazing what can happen when people work together, and now we have more work to do.  Two big city mayors, Rahm Emanuel of Chicago and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, are using strong arm tactics, some of them illegal, to attack gun manufacturers.  According to Bryan Preston at PJ Media, "Mayor Rahm Emanuel is now pushing mutual funds to divest and blacklist gun manufacturers for the crime of opposing the Obama regime's gun-control efforts."  Preston went on to say,

Last week, Emanuel sent a similar letter to banks, pushing them to strangle gun manufacturers' credit lines until they bow to Obama.

These are deadly serious actions. Emanuel's thrusts are clearly part of the Obama regime's coordinated attack on the Second Amendment. Emanuel was Obama's chief of staff prior to being elected mayor of Chicago. Obama proposes his 23 bullet points, Senate Democrats hold hearings to ramp up the emotional pressure, Feinstein pushes an "assault weapons" ban, and Rahm forms the pincer on the other end of the attack, going after law-abiding companies and their right to exist and disagree with the president's proposals.

If all of this succeeds, we've gone over the tipping point. The Second Amendment was written precisely to keep citizens safe from the likes of these zealots.

Emanuel is not alone. As Jack Dunphy points out in another article for PJ Media, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is closing ranks with his partners in crime:

To the surprise of no one who has followed the man's career, joining President Obama, Vice President Biden, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and so many others in this farcical display is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a lifelong politician who, facing the end of his term in office, seeks to hold aloft his profile - and his prospects for some future position at the public trough - by means of the type of shameless pandering for which he is well known.  Mr. Villaraigosa has called on the managers for the city's three pension funds to divest from any holdings in companies that manufacture so-called assault weapons.  "It's a moral and financial imperative to end our relationship with these companies," said  Mr. Villaraigosa, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, whose story added that it was unclear how much city pension money was invested in companies that make firearms.  "I don't want to make a quarter, not a penny, not a dime off of companies that make those weapons of war," he said.

What we have here is a conspiracy -- a conspiracy to commit a crime against the American people by targeting gun manufacturers in an end-run attempt to abolish our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.  The co-conspirators include the president, Governor Cuomo of New York, at least two big city mayors, and others who are playing behind-the-scenes roles.

Some of the co-conspirators' actions are legal and some of them are strictly illegal.  For instance, it's illegal for a mayor to tell banks to commit crimes against their customers.  That's what Rahm Emanuel did when he urged banks not to extend credit to gun manufacturers.  The mayor has a right to hold any opinion that he wants no matter how idiotic it is, but he doesn't have the right to use the power of his office to force others to commit crimes.  This isn't news to Mr. Emanuel since so many of his fellow politicos in Illinois are in jail for doing just that.

I'll be blunt: we are witnessing organized crime and the key players are elected officials.  Our RICO statutes could be used to put an end to their criminal pursuits if President Obama's Justice Department chose to act, but that's asking too much right now since Attorney General Holder may be one of the co-conspirators.  That doesn't rule out actions by others including states attorneys general, local district attorneys, and private citizens.

It's time for law-abiding citizens take their grievances to the courts.  Articles like this one help to spread the word, but nothing speaks louder than formal corruption charges.  Again, I'll be blunt: some of the players in this nefarious pursuit should be sent to jail.  That will give them the attitude adjustment that they so desperately need.

If you think this isn't a serious matter, I urge you to watch this video: Obama to Top Brass: Will you fire on American Citizens?  I expect that the charges leveled in this video will attract a great deal of attention in the days ahead, and they should be sufficient to light a fire under those of us who demand that our elected officials obey the law.  Is that asking too much?  I don't think so.

Neil Snyder is the Ralph A. Beeton Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia.  His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.