Month: September 2011

Uncategorized

ATF And FBI I Can Understand But The FDA?

September 27, 2011 by

When it comes to investigating illegal sales of firearms, the Federal agencies that you usually think would be involved are the ATF or the FBI. In a case from Indiana another Federal agency has gotten involved – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to a story from WBEZ – Chicago Public Radio, three police officers in the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department are facing Federal indictment for selling full-auto firearms and laser aiming devices on the Internet. Some of these have been traced to crime scenes in Canada and Mississippi.

Lake County is situated in the northwest corner of Indiana and includes the cities of Gary and Hammond.

The three indicted officers are Edward Kabella, a patrol officer; Ronald Slusser, SWAT officer and firearms instructor; and former Deputy Chief Joseph Kumstar. They are alleged to have bought 74 full-auto firearms and 92 laser devices and then resold them.

(WBEZ/Michael Puente)

The three officers purchased the H&K machine guns in the name of the sheriff’s department, since these types of guns can only be purchased by law enforcement agencies, according to the indictment.

The guns were shipped to the sheriff’s department in Crown Point and then removed to Slusser’s home. The barrels and additional parts from the machine guns were then removed and sold on the Internet.

The men are also facing charges that they understated their income from the sale of the guns and parts. The purchases all took place during the administration of then-Sheriff Roy Dominguez. He says he had no knowledge of it but that he knew that his chief deputy Joseph Kumstar had a side business selling firearms as an FFL.

One of the more interesting aspects of this story is not that crooked cops were selling firearms but who did the investigation into the case. It was the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s unfortunate when persons in positions of trust allow their greed to cause them to disregard their oath to enforce the law and subsequently betray and endanger the public they serve,” said Dan Hensen, Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Investigation’s Unit for the Food and Drug Administration’s office in Chicago. The FDA is involved in the investigation because laser devices fall under its jurisdiction.

As the picture above shows, the lasers in question appear to be higher-power military-grade lasers.

Uncategorized

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

September 26, 2011 by

The picture above is a screen cap of The Drudge Report from this afternoon. It links to this Fox News story which is based upon work by David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh.

Maybe now the so-called elite media will pay attention given that it is the lead headline in The Drudge Report.

What the headline refers to is a letter signed by Phoenix AFT Group VII supervisor David Voth authorizing an FFL to transfer firearms to ATF Senior Agent John Dodson without requiring a Form 4473 and paid for with government funds. Read the Fox story but more importantly read both Mike and David. They have the proof in the form of the letter signed by Voth with the handwritten note from the dealer who filled the order.

Botched sting operation, my foot.

Uncategorized

A Safety Masquerade

September 26, 2011 by 2 Comments

As I’ve mentioned more than once on this blog, I teach financial and retirement planning as an Adjunct Instructor for undergraduates majoring in Financial Planning at a local university. This year all campus employees including adjuncts are required to take a mandatory safety class. If it were CPR or how to respond to a medical emergency, I think it would be valuable. However, it is a “class” on how to deal with “violent situations.”

Western Carolina University is committed to creating and maintaining a culture of safety. As part of the university’s on-going safety initiative, all employees will attend a Campus Safety Training presented by the WCU Police Department and Emergency Management in conjunction with representatives from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and the Office of Human Resources. This training is mandatory for all campus employees and will be held on numerous dates over the coming months.

The goal of this training is to increase campus community awareness to methods utilized and action steps to be taken if confronted with a violent situation; individual and departmental response; preparedness and prevention. A UNC sanctioned video entitled “Shots Fired” is included in the training program. Objectives of this training include but are not limited to: learning to recognize a potentially unsafe situation; learning the university systems and processes for handling a violent situation; learning about on-line websites/linkages to access policies, procedures, and presentations; and identifying campus consultants, referral contacts, and crisis teams/committees.

I’m afraid that this so-called class will be nothing more than a safety masquerade, a sham, a Potemkin village, required in an effort to cover the University administrators’ rear-ends so that they can say they are “doing something”.

The reality of the matter is that I am precluded by both North Carolina law and university regulations from doing the one thing that might actually increase my own personal safety as well as that of the students in my class. That is, of course, to carry a firearm concealed.

Uncategorized

And There Was An Attorney And A Plaintiff

September 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

Alan Gura and Rhonda Ezell were both at the opening reception of the Gun Rights Policy Conference tonight. Ms. Ezell is the lead plaintiff in Ezell v. Chicago. While I don’t think you can see it in the photo, she was wearing a pair of silver 1911 earrings which were really cool.

I wonder if wearing a pair of 1911 earrings is considered open carry in Chicago.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Uncategorized

There Were Bloggers

September 24, 2011 by

Among the bloggers that I met at tonight at the opening reception of the 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference were Thirdpower (right ) of Days of Our Trailers blog and David E. Young (left) of On Second Opinion. David is one of the foremost authorities on the original documents concerning the Second Amendment.

I also ran into David Codrea of Gun Rights Examiner, Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars, and Dave Workman of Gun Week and the Seattle Gun Rights Examiner.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Uncategorized

There Were Podcasters

September 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

Among the podcasters I met at the opening reception for the 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference were Eric Shelton (left) of the Handgun Podcast and Mark Vanderberg (right) of the Gun Rights Advocates Podcast and the organizer and head of the Gun Rights Radio Network. I also spoke with Rev. Kenn Blanchard of the Black Man with a Gun podcast.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Uncategorized

Possible Closure Of 480,000 Or More Acres To Shooting In Arizona

September 23, 2011 by 1 Comment

The Arizona Citizens Defense League sent out the following alert last night. I didn’t have time to blog it then but anytime there is a government proposal that could declare 486,000 acres of desert land off-limits to shooting, it is important.

While I live clear across the country from Arizona, what the Federal government does there impacts me just as much as if I lived in Phoenix or Tucson. I am surrounded by Federally-owned land in western North Carolina. Haywood County is approximately 50% Federal land and there are counties west of me where that proportion is even greater. Federal land managers talk to other Federal land managers at conference while eating their $16 muffins.

Here is the alert from AZCDL:

President 0bama promised that he was going to implement efforts to erase your right to bear arms “under the radar.” Now, he’s brought the fight to Arizona.

Using the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the 0bama administration has proposed banning recreational shooting in the half-million acres of Sonoran Desert National Monument.

BLM has released proposed plans for the future management of nearly 1.4 million acres located southwest of Phoenix, in parts of Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, Gila and Yuma Counties. Of that total, over 486,000 acres are within the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The proposals can be found at: http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html .

Two of the possible alternatives (“D” and “E”) propose closing the area to recreational shooters. Presently, some 63 sites in the national monument are used by recreational shooters. The proposed plans also address other issues of importance to shooters and hunters, including the designation of roads and trails for motorized vehicles and areas that could be managed as wilderness.

If you ride, hike, hunt or shoot in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, you need to get involved in this planning process!

The public comment period is open through November 25.
Instructions for making comments can be found at: http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html .
Comments can be faxed or mailed to BLM, Phoenix District Office.

At the BLM website (http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/planning/son_des.html) you will also find a series of public BLM meetings, being held in October, to discuss the proposal to ban recreational shooting in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. Meetings will be held in Phoenix, Mesa, Casa Grande, Buckeye, Gila Bend and Ajo. We urge you to attend as many of these meetings as possible.

This is not the first time that the BLM has attempted to close an entire national monument to shooters, making no attempt to provide places for and access to shooting sites. The Ironwood National Monument shooting ban was defeated because of the outcry from concerned citizens (you!).

Together, we can defeat the 0bama administration’s proposed Sonoran Desert National Monument shooting ban!

These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization: http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html .

AzCDL – Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html .

Copyright © 2011 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Uncategorized

Chicago Here I Come

September 23, 2011 by 3 Comments

I’m getting ready to leave for the airport for the flight to Chicago by way of Detroit. I get to go to all the best cities!

It is hard to believe that after all these months the Gun Rights Policy Conference begins in less than 12 hours. I will try and post some pictures from the opening reception tonight on the blog.

I plan to Twitter and blog throughout the conference so stay tuned.

Uncategorized

Linoge – More Guns Do Not Equal More “Gun Violence”

September 23, 2011 by

Linoge of Walls of the City blog has followed up his earlier post on CDC data showing a negative correlation between the number of firearms and gun-related deaths with one using recently released FBI data. In this examination, Linoge looked at the correlation between the number of firearms and crimes.

Used by permission of Linoge.

Like with his earlier study, he found a negative correlation between the number of firearms and crime.

2. When comparing raw numbers, there is a weak, negative correlation between the number of firearms in America and the number of crimes committed with firearms, and this negative correlation seems to grow stronger the more data we have.

3. When comparing rates, there is a strong, negative correlation between the number of firearms per person in America and the number of crimes committed with firearms per person, and this negative correlation also seems to grow stronger the more data we have.

As I said about his first study, this is important research. It gives those of us who are pro-rights the quantitative ammunition with which to counter the flimsy arguments of the anti-rights bigots in the gun prohibitionist camp. These studies are ones that you should bookmark, print out, or share with like-minded friends.