The Special Forces Association forcefully rebuked calls for more gun control from both former CIA director and CENTCOM commander David Petraeus and retired Army general Stanley McChrystal. SFA is a 52 year national organization composed of members who once served in the U.S. Special Forces.
The organization drew up a membership resolution at their annual convention in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, confirming prior statements of continued support of the U.S. “Constitution and all of its amendments, realizing that only the existence of the Second Amendment guarantees the freedom of the American people and that the Bill of Rights was written to delineate and restrict the power of government and not to restrict the powers and rights of the people or states.”
In the wake of the terror attack by an ISIS-inspired gunman at an Orlando gay night club, both Petraeus and McChrystal became vocal supporters of further gun control measures.
“I spent a career carrying typically either an M16 or an M4 Carbine. An M4 Carbine fires a .223 caliber round which is 5.56 mm at about 3000 feet per second. When it hits a human body, the effects are devastating. It’s designed for that,” McChrystal told MSNBC. “That’s what our soldiers ought to carry. I personally don’t think there’s any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America.”
Petraeus announced over a week ago that he and former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly launched a gun control organization called Veterans Coalition for Common Sense. Kelly is also a former Navy combat pilot whose wife, former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, nearly died in 2011 following an attempt on her life by an obsessed gunman.
One source close to SFA told The Daily Caller that members are saying they believe Petraeus became a gun control activist for financial gain.
“Recently, there have been many questions raised on the meaning of the Second Amendment to our Constitution and whether we can trust law abiding Americans to own and carry firearms, “Jack Tobin, President of the Special Forces Association, said in a statement.
“’…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed…’ a rather plain and well worded admonition,” He added.
The membership resolution also suggests the Department of Homeland Security put more effort into targeting radical Islamic terrorists instead law-abiding Americans.
“We have all taken an Oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and we realize that we have never been, nor will ever be, released from that Oath. The Special Forces Association also believes that the Government, and especially the agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, re-prioritize their concerns and actions to Radical Islamic Jihadists and those that support their efforts, rather than focus on veterans, and law abiding Americans.”
Petraeus, now chairman of the private equity firm KKR Global Institute, wrote a Washington Post op-ed critical of “hate speech against Muslims”
He wrote, “The terrorists’ explicit hope has been to try to provoke a clash of civilizations — telling Muslims that the United States is at war with them and their religion. When Western politicians propose blanket discrimination against Islam, they bolster the terrorists’ propaganda.”
Tobin, however, writes in his statement, “While recent tragedies have caused casualties, it seems that for some, it is easier to blame an inanimate object rather that the underlying attitudes that have provoked the tragedy in the first place. In the most recent event, the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, some segments of the political class have chosen to blame the murder of forty nine people on an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, rather than on the Radical Islamic Jihadist who pulled the trigger.”
Tobin later noted that it is “easier” for gun control advocates to blame a “piece of metal” for shootings in cities like Chicago or for a terror attack in Orlando than it is to blame “gangsters” and “terrorists.”
