Bonnie Erbe

Bush's Pardons: Guns Out of Control

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December 1, 2008 RSS Feed Print
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By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

On the way out the door, presidents have been known to inflict a mountain of damage on the American public with the pardon power. Since President Bush has funneled more garbage into the American political system than just about any president in history, why should we be surprised when he leaves a trail of garbage as he waltzes out the door?

Last week, Mr. Bush pardoned 14 Americans for a variety of crimes. Half of them, according to the Wall Street Journal, shared one characteristic: a love of firearms and a citation of that as the reason why they wanted pardons. Convicted felons regain the right to own weapons (with the exception of certain antique guns) only by presidential pardon.

The most widely publicized pardon recipient (and in my opinion, the most noxious among them) is one Leslie Collier, a Missouri corn and soybean farmer. His crime: poisoning two bald eagles and killing them. The poisoning wasn't purposeful. He meant instead to kill another American icon—coyotes that he feared would kill wild turkeys that had reappeared on property he farms.

Instead of finding some way to build up the wild turkey population on the property he farmed (so he could again drive them into extinction by hunting them down), he decided he would poison the coyotes to eliminate the turkeys' natural predator.

...he laid a trap of ground beef laced with the pesticide Furadan, which, under federal law, may not be used as animal poison. Seven coyotes died after eating the beef. But several other animals fed on their carcasses and died as well, including the bald eagles.

Maybe there's a natural link between Bush's pardons and everything else that is making his presidency and his way of life seem so retro and out of sync with the social sea change that brought President-elect Obama into office. Let's all wave President Bush and his antiquated views a not-so-fond farewell.

  • Click here to read more by Bonnie Erbe.
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Tags:
animal cruelty,
George W. Bush,
Bush administration,
crime,
gun control and gun rights,
animals

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Dear Bonnie, My name is Megan and I am in eighth grade and go to a middle school, in my social studies class yesterday we talked about your article on bush’s pardon: guns out of control. You have a very strong opinion and you made me think I read your article over and over again thinking about it and writing stuff down. I have done some research and would like to say I think your article was incomplete and to short to establish any information to back yourself up. One issue I would like to address is your comment about bush being the worst to leave us with a heap of garbage but no where in your article does it state what garbage was left behind to me that says that already you don’t have enofe information to back yourself up. I would really like to know what trash he has left behind. I also would like to point out your comment about Barrack Obama truly he is not yet in charge of us so no one really knows if he will be a good president or not but giving somebody a chance can prove many things. You also say in this article about bush parding 14 people with a variety of crime no where in your article do you say what crimes and any of the names. you did not give me enofe information as a reader on the pardons for me to believe what you are saying is true plus I think your 14 pardons was a little bit far fetched. I have read many letters written by people and notice they leave with the satisfaction of enofe information to back them selves up. Please comment back I would love to know some more information about your article so as a reader I can judge your article on if I as a reader had enofe information to believe what you are saying. One other thing is this is nothing against you but as reader and don’t wont to hear the writer saying we will bid him a not so fond farewell to me that is a matter of opinion not something that should be put in a paper seen by a lot of Americans. Your opinion should be kept to yourself unless dangerous or harmful to your health or another’s.

Signed, Megan

Megan of OR 8:59PM December 09, 2008

I know, you know, we all know how truly terrible guns are. I mean, holy cow, saving millions of lives a year, protecting children and women. The horror!

I know, people are also killed by guns, but let's face it, the benefits of guns outweight the cons of guns. Also, let's face the fact that this article isn't really about the environment, it's really about your elitist view of firearms and their "evil."

I'm not going to say much more, except, what is the first things oppresive dictatorships do upon coming into power? Take away people's guns...I wonder why. Oh yeah, because they know what they're doing and how to run a country!

Collin Dow of OR 11:01PM December 06, 2008

please refer to comments at " sprawl is killing hunting " by john the hunter.

john the hunter of FL 12:08PM December 05, 2008

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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