Seems that with all the training and certifications some people can just never figure out some of the simplest things. It might just be yet another case of being stuck on stupid. Then again, technically? It could also be treason...
Posts Tagged ‘Gun Control’
Obama appoints rogue to head rogue agency
November 18, 2010Nearly two years into his term, President Obama on Monday chose a director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Mr. Obama will submit the name of Andrew Traver, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Chicago field division, to the Senate for consideration, the White House said.
Read About It: The New York Times
Statement from Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action
The National Rifle Association of America strongly opposes President Obama’s nomination of Andrew Traver as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Traver has been deeply aligned with gun control advocates and anti-gun activities. This makes him the wrong choice to lead an enforcement agency that has almost exclusive oversight and control over the firearms industry, its retailers and consumers. Further, an important nomination such as BATFE director should not be made as a “recess appointment,” in order to circumvent consent by the American people through their duly-elected U.S. Senators.
Traver served as an advisor to the International Association for Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) “Gun Violence Reduction Project,” a “partnership” with the Joyce Foundation. Both IACP and the Joyce Foundation are names synonymous with promoting a variety of gun control schemes at the federal and state levels. Most of the individuals involved in this project were prominent gun control activists and lobbyists.
The IACP report, generated with Traver’s help, called on Congress to ban thousands of commonly owned firearms by misrepresenting them as “assault weapons,” as well as calling for bans on .50 caliber rifles and widely used types of ammunition. The report also suggests that Congress should regulate gun shows out of existence and should repeal the privacy protections of the Tiahrt Amendment — all efforts strongly opposed by the NRA and its members.
Traver also participated in an extremely deceptive NBC Chicago report (http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Assault-Weapons-Surge-in-City-69620227.html) in which he referred to “the growing frequency of gang members and drug dealers using heavy caliber military-type weapons” and described them as if they were machine guns: “Pull the trigger and you can mow people down.” Traver and his agents provided the reporter with a fully automatic AK-47, with which she was unable to hit the target. He then said that stray bullets are “one of the main problems with having stuff like this available to the gangs.”
As the Agent-in-Charge of Chicago’s BATFE office, Traver knows that fully automatic firearms are not available through normal retail channels — the opposite of what was implied in the report.
An agency involved in the regulation of a fundamental, individual right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution should not be led by an individual with a demonstrated hostility to that freedom. For that reason, the NRA strongly opposes Andrew Traver to head the BATFE and urges President Obama to withdraw this ill-advised nomination.
DOJ Inspector General Proposes Multiple Sales Reports On Long Guns
November 17, 2010More waste for pure political correctness and infringement of the rights of Americans.
As we noted in the Sept. 24, 2010 Grassroots Alert, a draft report prepared by the Justice Department Inspector General had called into question the BATFE’s mega-million-dollar Project Gunrunner program. Established in 2007, this program sought to expand the agency’s firearm tracing operation, relative to the still uncertain amount of smuggling of firearms from the United States to Mexico. This week, the report appeared in final form.
Like the draft, the final report notes that despite Project Gunrunner’s lavish funding, the program suffers because the BATFE fails to coordinate with its own people, with those of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and with Mexican officials.
“We also found no routine sharing of firearms trafficking-related information and techniques between ATF intelligence personnel in Southwest border locations and in the ATF Mexico Country Office,” the report says. “ATF and ICE do not work together effectively on investigations of firearms trafficking to Mexico. . . . ATF does not systematically and consistently exchange intelligence with its Mexican and some U.S. partner agencies.”
D.C. Smackdown: Heller II, and more…
November 10, 2010
Coming off some huge Election Day victories in the Congress, Gun Owners of America is now setting its sights on the courts.
A big battle will be taking place next week on Monday, November 15, at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Both Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation are involved in challenging an extremely restrictive gun control law in a case known as Heller II.
After the District of Columbia lost its 2008 case in Heller I, the city council enacted a firearms registration scheme that was nearly as draconian as the original law, which the Supreme Court had struck down.
The Heller I decision in 2008 was monumental, as it paved the way for the Chicago verdict earlier this year — which made clear that our Second Amendment rights apply throughout the entire country (not just in Washington, DC).
Gun Owners was also actively involved in the Chicago case, known as McDonald v. Chicago. This case is paying dividends, as recently as last month when a Wisconsin judge used the McDonald case to rule their ban on concealed carry unconstitutional!
The court said it “agrees with Justice Clarence Thomas’s McDonald concurrence and application of the Fourteenth Amendment to this matter. In essence, no State shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States. As Justice Thomas demonstrates, the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right, not created by the Second Amendment, but secured or recognized by it.”
This appeal to the “privileges and immunities” of American citizens is exactly the argument that Gun Owners made in its amicus brief before the McDonald court.
It was worth every penny that was spent on the Heller I and McDonald cases.
In Heller II, we are challenging the new DC gun law. After all, what good does it do if the Court says you have an “individual right” to own a gun, but the city in which you live is still allowed to impose draconian restrictions which will cost you hundreds of dollars just so you can exercise that right.’/
That’s why GOA is helping to challenge the DC law… and why we are so excited about the oral arguments that will be delivered to the court on November 15, almost two weeks after the election.
Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation are submitting an amicus brief in this case. This is an effort that you can help us with — and it’s a lot easier than you might think.
In many federal offices, there are subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) pressures to give to the Combined Federal Campaign. Your boss may think his prestige depends upon getting everyone to kick in. The same thing happens in all too many corporations during the United Way fundraising drive.
You may have wanted to give but couldn”t find a group that wasn’t attacking your rights, let alone defending them, on the list of participating organizations. But that has all changed!
Federal employees now are able to designate Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) as the recipient of their gifts to the Combined Federal Campaign.
Use Agency Number 10042 for Gun Owners Foundation when you make your Combined Federal Campaign pledge or donation. Your gifts will go toward helping us win cases like the Heller II case which is coming just around the corner.
Also, if you work for a company that participates in the United Way, you too may be able to designate that your gift be to Gun Owners Foundation. Many local United Way Campaigns allow Gun Owners Foundation to participate through their Donor Choice Programs. Some, however, do not. Check with your local United Way Agency. You will not only be helping people and protecting your rights, but you will also get a tax deduction.
One additional note. If you are employed by a corporation or organization which has a Matching Gift Program, please keep GOF in mind when making your donation. Contributions to GOF are tax-deductible.
Your support for Gun Owners Foundation helps us to offer quality briefs in defense of gun owners’ rights. (You can read previous amicus briefs on the GOF site at gunowners.com.)
So please help the Second Amendment — while making a tax-deductible contribution either through the CFC or the United Way. Of course, you can always donate online at the Gun Owners Foundation site: http://www.gunowners.com/donate.htm
Thank you very much.
GOA Offering Arguments in Heller II Case
— You can help by giving to the CFC (Agency Number10042 ) or a similar private campaign
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.com/donate.htm
“seventy-five percent of BATFE prosecutions were constitutionally improper.”
November 9, 2010What follows is a little dated, but at the time it didn’t get the coverage needed. This is just one of the things that the new Congress takes immediate definitive action on.
The Obama Administration and dozens of politicians are pretending that they are worried that America’s loose gun laws have allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico for use in the drug wars that are plaguing that country.
President Obama is using this nonsense as an excuse to double the number of BATFE agents so he can blanket the border with agents to stop the flow of guns into Mexico.
What nonsense! As if the drug cartels that have their own armies, huge fleet of airplanes, submarines and rocket launchers need to rely on smugglers to get guns from the U.S.!
Clearly, this is nothing other than the latest tactic from this antigun administration to add some muscle to the most reckless and corrupt branch of our government – the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
A couple of decades ago, Congress passed the FOPA (Firearm Owners Protection Act) to reign in this renegade agency after a Congressional investigation officially concluded that “seventy-five percent of BATFE prosecutions were constitutionally improper.”
Today, twenty-four years later, the BATFE is just as bad, if not worse, than it was back then. Only now the White house and the Congress are filled with people who want to give them more power, more authority and more boots on the ground to continue their unconstitutional attack on gun owners.
From using paid “informants” to provide false testimony, to physically tampering with firearms to turn them into “machine guns,” to abusing and harassing mom and pop gun shops who cannot afford to legally defend themselves, this agency appears not only to have little or no regards for the rights of citizens, but is clearly willing even to ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court.
As you know, over the years, Gun Owners has helped dozens of victims of BATFE abuse. Some of these victims were literally framed by BATFE agents who actually converted semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons – and then charged them with selling unregistered machine guns!
In one case that we were involved with, the Olofson Case, we discovered that the alleged “machine gun” was, in reality, one of thousands of ordinary semi-automatic rifles made by Olympic Arms. We learned that it only became a machine gun when the BATFE, behind closed doors, mechanically tampered with the rifle to the extent that it would misfire a burst of several rounds before it jammed.
Getting guns to malfunction is a favorite technique of the BATFE as it gives them a great opportunity to rack up convictions on the possession or selling of “machine guns,” which requires a special type of license.
For some time, Gun Owners has lobbied to require the BATFE to videotape their test firings of alleged machines. We knew that if juries could see the outrageous, even bizarre, efforts the agency uses to get a gun to fire off an extra round or two, they would throw all of these cases out of court and Congress would have the evidence it needs to take action and clean house at this agency.
Unlike all other agencies, the BATFE has no sets of standards or rules for conducting their business. They have no manuals that set out procedures for the work they do. This gives them the latitude to do whatever they wish with total impunity.
And this is what enables them to make the rules up as they go along. This allows them to conduct repeated “test firings” until they get the results they are looking for.
Clearly, when a test firing fails to prove that a weapon is a machine gun that should be the end
of any debate as to whether a person is selling “machine guns.” But because the BATFE has no rules, they simply do it again and again, until they are able to force a gun to misfire.
As you can see, with a renegade agency like this trampling our gun rights, nobody is safe. Not you, not me and not our favorite semi-automatic firearm.
That is why we are really encouraged about the Fairness in Firearms Testing Act (H.R. 1923). Introduced by Congressman Phil Gingrey, this bill will require that an unedited video be recorded during the testing of a firearm to determine if it is a machine gun.
Had such a law been in place when David Olofson’s rifle was being “tested,” his case would have been thrown out immediately and he would be home today with his wife and three children.
Had such a law been in place, jurors, the media and the Congress would have seen the extent to which the BATFE is capable of and willing to trample the rights of citizens in their frenzy to put innocent gun owners behind bars.
Sadly, H.R. 1923 is not yet the law of the land. And, until it is passed, there will be more innocent Americans victimized by this out-of-control agency that acts more like a subsidiary of the anti-gun lobby than an agency under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
The Fairness in Firearms Testing Act ought to be an easy bill to pass. Who can defend an agency that tampers with evidence to make their case or who pays thugs to entrap ordinary law-abiding citizens?
But with folks like Chuck Schumer and Caroline McCarthy running the Congress, it may be a lot tougher to pass such a sensible bill than you might imagine. That is why I am looking for all all-out effort from you and all the other members of GOA.
Over the years, GOA has fought for a wide variety of gun rights issues. Our yardstick for which issues we choose to prioritize is based on securing the liberty of ordinary citizens. To me, the Olofson case is a clear example of what happens to our freedoms if we let our government abuse the law for its own purposes.
David Olofson has been robbed of all his freedom, not just his right to keep and bear arms. He has lost his liberty, his family, and his life outside of prison.
It is just a turn of fate that it is David Olofson, not you or me that is rotting away in prison. Please think about that when I ask you to sign the postcards I have enclosed. The first postcard is addressed to David. I have left the message side blank so you can choose your own words to let him know that there are a lot of gun owners out there praying for his release or whatever you wish to say to him.
Of the remaining postcards, one is for you and one for a friend or neighbor. These postcards express our outrage at the lack of oversight this out-of-control agency receives and demands that H.R. 1923 be passed immediately so that no more innocent American citizens are framed and sentenced to prison so that the BATFE can rack up big numbers in their arrest column.
I also need you to try to make a generous contribution to Gun Owners so we can ramp up our efforts to find more cosponsors for H.R. 1923; call for an investigation into BATFE abuses; and continue our efforts to get David Olofson released and returned to his family.
Please try to be as generous as you can because every day this innocent gun owner remains in jail is not just a personal tragedy for the Olofson family, it remains a threat to all law-abiding gun owners.
I know that money is tight right now. I feel it the same as you do and, at Gun Owners, we are doing everything we can to stretch every dollar for maximum effect.
So please, even if you cannot afford to send as much as you have done in the past, please try to send what you can safely afford.
Thank you again for your loyalty and your continued support for our work.
Sincerely,
Larry Pratt
Executive Director
Personal independence and the citizen authority to act
November 9, 2010By way of Gun Owners of America I was introduced to yet another Gun Rights Examiner. Be sure too read his newsletter often, as well as his Examiner page!
by John Lngenecker
My core message to non-gun owners is that the health of the second amendment is the primary indicator of the overall health of the nation.
Understanding of how the two are related is going to be the key to smaller government, where everyone benefits.
With a changing of the guard in Washington and across many state governorships, some on the road back home to smaller government are bracing us once more
for sacrifice and some pain. There is no question that the people will have to participate in how we get smaller government, but not in the way we were told.
The time for compromise and sacrifice are actually over because most of the boondoggles are about to be over. With them gone, there is lesser need for compromise on a lot of things. From now on, our only sacrifice will be the time and trouble of supervising our public servants. For some, it is this supervision instead of being supervised that unsettles, but we are the sovereign, and we put the self in self-rule, making suprervision of officials a duty of all.
Whether some are comfortable or uncomfortable with self-rule is immaterial: it is our way of life for the good of the country. The repeal of gun laws is integral to smooth running governments who operate within budget, respond to constituents and who are free from scandal.
When the republicans take office in 2011, a lot of us expect the incoming Congress to repeal a chunk of gun laws as unjust and unconstitutional.
But there is more. Republicans and the officials and constituents who share republicanism values – those who understand that we are a republic and not a democracy, for instance – will know that an armed citizenry deters and fights crime best. Get a much better handle on violent crime and you have found the unlock block to uncontrolled spending. They key to smaller government is to withdraw the keystone of nearly all boondoggles, gun control.
With conservatives in office, Americans can likely see one vital thing: that personal independence works best when the target of violence has a free hand in being their own first line of defense.
If republicans stand for this kind of independence, they will be able to reduce the size of government by unfunding tons of anti-violence programs which attempt to take the place of the armed citizen and the citizen’s authority to act. Note that where the crime is the highest – and funding is the most wasteful – is in major cities with major gun control. With no force to resist violence, crime thrives. Don’t forget that gun control and gun laws are an absentee concept in how crime is cultivated. Anti-violence programs do little when every single crime is yet another failure of the program.
The sunlight on this reveals what gun control has been hiding: personal independence and the citizen authority to act. The best evidence, of course, is in how successful that independent authority to act is elsewhere in states which do not have severe gun laws.
The correctness and the dignity of the repeal of all gun laws is in the republicanism value that not only do the officials obey the constituents and respect their rights in this republic, but that they trust them because they believe in the system of republicanism.
Hurry, 2011, hurry.
— LA Gun Rights Examiner John Longenecker publishes the Safer Streets Newsletter.
A great night for the Second Amendment: Or was it really?
November 5, 2010The Second Amendment had a great night on Tuesday. Across the nation, the right to arms is stronger than ever, and the stage has been set for constructive reforms in 2011.
U.S. Senate: The net result of Tuesday was a gain of +6 votes on Second Amendment issues.
In not a single U.S. Senate seat did the gun control lobby gain ground. Three open seats switched from anti-gun to pro-gun: Ohio (Rob Portman replacing George Voinovich), West Virginia (Joe Manchin taking the seat of the late Robert Byrd), North Dakota (John Hoeven replacing Byron Dorgan). In Arkansas, John Boozman’s victory over Blanche Lincoln is a significant gain.
It just so happens that I agree with Dave Kopel about 99% of the time. Now, having said that..? Just how many of these new kids on the block will take on Lautenberg and Schumer. Two men devoted to the destruction of the Constitution and Bill of Rights? How many will put forth legislation doing away with GCA 1968? Or the ex post facto law portion, if not the entire Lautenberg Domestic Violence Act? The abortion known as obamacare? With it’s hidden as well as blatant un Constitutional mandates..? I myself, am sick of hearing how this or that “D” is pro Second Amendment then all they do is pay lip service… Unless it’s election time, and that goes for RINO’s like McCain as well!
HERE is another good read that, especially if you read the comments. Shows to what extremes some people will go to for the sole purpose of “Lording it over” you and I.
Will the hoplophobia continue on. It is, after all, politically correct mental illness.
President of Wyoming Family Coalition lies to gun owners about Matt Mead
November 2, 2010Reprinted, with permission.
Director of Wyoming Gun Owners asks for Maureen Emrich to step down.
Maureen Emrich, President of Wyoming Family Coalition, has apparently become a mouthpiece for the Mead Campaign. But not on the issues one would expect. To the contrary Emrich has decided to act as if she is an expert on gun rights. To read Emrich’s letter click here
These are the same kind of insider politics that have become the norm with ineffective lobby groups, including the NRA. Instead of standing for principles, they opt to sell-out and compromise, only leading to furthering the opposition’s agenda. We call this the proverbial seat at the table.
Being a Wyoming Gun Rights Advocate, I expect attacks on my character from career politicians, but not from a conservative advocacy group’s leader. Like me, you should find it disturbing that Emrich left out the most important part – THE TRUTH. As usual I pride myself in delivering factual information, so please listen to the following conversation with Maureen Emrich. click here
Emrich’s letter is strikingly similar to the Mead Campaigns rhetoric, however Bill Novotny from the Mead Campaign denies that they had anything to do with Emrich’s letter. My hunch is that a lower level campaign aid was involved and Maureen Emrich was foolish to take the bait!
Since she threw gun rights under the bus for political gain, it reveals that Emrich is calling plays right out of “the book of compromise”. Following are the facts that Emrich was so eager to overlook:
1. It is an undeniable fact that Matt Mead fought against gun rights and States Rights in Wyoming vs. BATF. For Brady Campaign link click here
2. Matt Mead stated he was just doing his job, but I contend he ignored the oath he took to uphold the Constitution.
3. Mead admitted that as a U.S. Attorney he had the ability to recues himself from a case, but he chose not to do so in Wyoming vs. BATF.
4. Mead has been disingenuous by reporting he never had contact with me, the truth is Mead spoke with me by phone, not just once, but twice. Mead said about Wyoming vs. BATF – quote – “I was just doing my job” and “you should see my gun collection”.
5. Mead is misleading in telling his supporters that he knows me as “some blogger from California”. Mead is fully aware of my position as a gun rights advocate in Wyoming.
MORE REVEALING INFORMATION–
6. Mead supports the Patriot Act, in his own words he stated and I quote – “You’re not going to like my answer, I support the Patriot Act”. If you don’t know what the Patriot Act is click here
By writing an editorial without verifying facts, Maureen Emrich, President of a group that says it stands for conservative principles, has seemingly become nothing more than a marionette puppet with politicians pulling her strings. Look out – Emrich’s nose might start growing!
To put this more directly, Emrich has no business sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong!
Clearly, if Emrich can so easily attack those who have consistently defended Gun Rights, it will call into question her ability to lead a “conservative” organization in Wyoming, PERIOD.
Wyoming Conservatives, especially the “gun bearing” types, should contact the Wyoming Family Coalition and ask that Maureen Emrich immediately submits her resignation. Not only is their credibility at stake. But it is apparent that under her leadership their organization has only become part of the problem in Wyoming politics.
For Wyoming Family Coalition contact info click here
Anthony Bouchard
Director – WyGO
Bloomberg follies Redux
October 30, 2010In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court indicated that a limited number of gun control restrictions are permissible under the Second Amendment — provisions such as “prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.” In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the Court said that its Heller ruling applied not just to Congress and federal enclaves, such as Washington, D.C., but nationwide as well.
Nevertheless, earlier this year, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Ray Kelly, proposed new regulations designed to give the NYPD the power to deny a firearm license to anyone, for reasons that most Americans would consider not nearly serious enough to warrant the suppression of a fundamental individual right.
These reasons — grouped under the heading “lack of good moral character or other good cause” — include an applicant’s “poor driving history,” termination from employment due to “lack of good judgment or lack of good moral character,” failure to pay debts, or having ever been arrested for anything more serious than a traffic offense, even if no charges had been filed, charges had been dropped, or the applicant had been found not guilty in court. For individuals whose license applications cannot be denied for those reasons, the proposal would also allow the police to deny a license to anyone about whom “information demonstrates an unwillingness to abide by the law [or] a lack of candor toward lawful authorities,” or when there is “other good cause.”
Insulting the intelligence of anyone who can read the proposal, the mayor and commissioner announced it in a press release which focused on how their plan would streamline the gun license application process and reduce license fees — all of which will be meaningless to people whose license applications will be denied. Only in the next to last paragraph did the release note that “NYPD will add to its regulations to offer more detailed examples of eligibility standards for a permit,” without giving examples of what those “examples” might be.
With the public comment period on the proposed regulations having ended in mid-September, and city bureaucrats working out the new regulations’ final language, on October 19th Bloomberg appeared on CNN’s “American Morning” program, saying that it is the NRA that is “totally unreasonable.”
Bloomberg’s statement is absurd; probably the kind of thing the NYPD should take into account, if he ever applies for a license to possess a gun.
Bad driver? In debt? Proposed NYC law would ban you from owning a gun…
October 27, 2010This makes about as much sense as basing auto insurance ratings on your credit rating. Simply an agenda…
New York City residents who want to own a gun may soon be denied permits if they are litterbugs, if they are bad drivers, or if they have fallen behind on a few bills. Under proposed revisions to the police department’s handgun, rifle and shotgun permit procedures, the NYPD can reject gun license applicants for a number of reasons.
Read About It: Fox News
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 