“Assault weapons have one purpose and one purpose only, to kill a lot of people quickly, no other purpose. I don’t think anybody hunts deer, quail, geese, in Maryland with an assault rifle. And if they do, they shouldn’t be,” he said, though conceded that there is not enough support in Congress to revive the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Perhaps one reason Mr. Hoyer doesn’t know anyone hunting ducks and geese with an AR-15 is because it is against Maryland hunting regulations. The only firearms allowed for hunting migratory game birds in Maryland are shotguns. Moreover, much of Maryland – and it seems all of Hoyer’s district – restricts the use of rifles in hunting deer and only allow shotguns. In those place that do allow centerfire rifles, it must have a cartridge that generates 1,200 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. Many 5.56 or .223 rounds fall short of this requirement.
Now if Mr. Hoyer knew any woodchuck or coyote hunters he’d know that an AR-15 is not only suitable but ideal for hunting them. Frankly, I think that even if Steny Hoyer was confronted with the facts about the use of ARs in hunting, he’d still make the same stupid and outrageous comments.
Now Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors has gotten into the act with a full page ad in USA Today, a brand new website, and a petition demanding “a plan” to stop “gun violence” (sic). They are using some of the survivors of the Tucson shooting to push the message. Moreover, the gun prohibitionists from VPC and CSGV are going full tilt on Twitter pushing Bloomberg’s new efforts.
Interestingly enough, Bloomberg’s call to have the police strike may violate New York State’s Taylor law which says “no public employee or employee organization shall cause, instigate, encourage, or condone a strike.” Hmm, isn’t the mayor of New York City a public employee? Unfortunately, just like with his efforts at gun shows in Arizona where he hired private investigators to make straw purchases, he’ll probably skate on this as well.
In response to Mayor Bloomberg’s incredibly stupid remarks suggesting that police nationwide should go on strike in the name of more gun control laws, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had this response:
BELLEVUE, WA – Anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s call for American police officers to “go on strike” in an effort to force Congress and state legislatures to push his gun prohibition agenda is “a new low in demagoguery,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
“Mayor Bloomberg has gone from bluster to blackmail with his extremist gun ban campaign,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “He would have police officers quit their posts and abandon their public safety missions in what would amount to an exercise of national extortion.
“Perhaps he believes it would be better,” he noted, “for cops to walk off the job than to engage in illegal gun and drug transactions, as some of his own New York City police have done lately.”
Bloomberg was on CNN Monday speaking to Piers Morgan when he encouraged police officers stage this strike. Gottlieb noted that by even making the suggestion, Bloomberg might be close to violating a New York statute known as the Taylor Law. Under that 1967 law – officially titled the Public Employees Fair Employment Act – public employees and employers are prohibited from encouraging strikes by public employees.
“If Bloomberg is violating the law, it would not be a first for a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the anti-gun organization he founded,” Gottlieb added. “At least 18 members of that group have been prosecuted for various crimes, which is not a track record I’d be proud of.
“Obviously,” he observed, “Mayor Bloomberg did not think things through before he suggested this preposterous course of action. If the nation’s police were to walk off the job today, by tomorrow, American citizens would be flocking to gun stores to purchase firearms for personal protection. All his stupid statement will do is increase gun sales.
“Maybe Bloomberg wants to replace Barack Obama as the unofficial gun salesman of the year,” Gottlieb concluded.
The first is for the Virtual Stepdaughter who is going back to grad school to get her masters in education. Her current Dell laptop is a 2005 vintage from her freshman year in college. It is more than a bit outdated.
Her non-negotiables are built-in DVD/CD-Rom, Intel (or AMD) based, and decent battery life. She will need to carry it to class sometimes so weight is a major secondary consideration. While her classes will meet only one day a week in person, she’ll have additional work to do through Blackboard and/or WebCT.
My consideration on this laptop is that it not cost more than $600 or so.
The second laptop is for me. I’m in the market for an ultrabook or something light, thin, and MacBook Air-like. I’m torn between the MacBook Air and an Intel Windows 7 based ultrabook. I plan to use it for blogging from the road and the like. Battery-life and weight are my major considerations. I’d like it to be under 4 pounds. I don’t have any preference between a solid-state drive vs. a more traditional harddrive.
I can get employee discounts on HP and Dell through work and because I’m adjunct faculty at a local university I’m eligible for higher ed pricing.
My goal is to purchase these during North Carolina’s tax-free weekend of August 3-5.
What she is referring to is the website for KSL-TV and KSL-Radio in Salt Lake City. The stations are owned by the Deseret Media. This company is a for-profit enterprise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints aka the Mormons. On the site, a large and active classified section where individuals are selling everything from cars to livestock and everything in between. Among the categories is firearms. This is just like many newspapers and trading post type newspapers also do on a daily basis. Locally here in the mountains, we have Iwanna which does the exact same thing.
Ms. Spencer doesn’t even have the decency to accurately quote the source for her story. That source is none other than gun prohibitionist Mayor Michael Bloomberg who, by the way, was one of the first to start dancing in the blood of the Aurora shootings. Bloomberg’s office issued a “report” which was featured in the British newspaper The Telegraph back in February. Bloomberg criticized KSL.com for allowing firearms classifieds and said that the Mormon Church “owns (a) unregulated gun sale website”.
That is a far cry from saying the Mormons are selling “unregulated” guns.
Most Americans and probably most Michiganders think of Mitt Romney nowadays when they hear the words “Mormon Church”. With his presidential run, Romney has become the most prominent Mormon in America. This, in my opinion, is why Ms. Spencer ran with the headline she did. She wanted to tar Romney with her absurd claims about private gun sales in the aftermath of the Aurora, Colorado shooting. Mind you, the shooter there legally purchased all of his firearms at big box sporting good stores and underwent a FBI NICS background check.
As I said in the headline, this is yellow journalism at its worst.
In a column for PJ Media, Mike McDaniel examined the killing of two home owners when their homes were invaded by SWAT teams. In both cases, neither home owner had broken the law and no evidence of any wrongdoing on their part was found. Their only “crime” was to be armed in the presence of overzealous SWAT teams. In the case of Jose Guerena, the police had a warrant but no probable cause for its issue. In the case of Andrew Lee Scott, they had the wrong guy and the wrong apartment when they knocked on the door.
McDaniel is a former police officer, detective, and SWAT team officer so I think he knows of what he speaks.
In a free society, a society with a fundamental right to keep and bear arms, police officers believing they may shoot a citizen in his own home simply because he is carrying a firearm cannot be tolerated. Officers must absolutely avoid putting citizens in situations where they might be armed, or even pointing firearms in the direction of police officers banging on or breaking down their front doors. If such misconduct is tolerated, as in the cases of Jose Guerena and Andrew Scott, the next knock on any citizen’s door may be the last they ever answer.
ABC News is not just satisfied with sensationalism and bad reporting a’la Brian Ross. After watching the video below with the ABC news show 20/20’s Deborah Roberts, I’ve come to the conclusion that they want you to roll over and become the victim as well.
In the episode aired last night – the evening after the shooting in Aurora, Colorado – 20/20 reported on clerks and store owners who stood up to armed robbers and fought back. Chris Cuomo introduced it as “Vigilante Video”. I think that set the tone for the episode.
In the episode, Deborah Roberts interviewed a jewelry store owner who fought back as well as a convenience store customer who attacked the gun wielding robber with bottles of beer. Neither the owner nor the customer, who by the way was shot four times, regretted their actions. While I don’t necessarily think it was the wisest thing for the customer to have gotten involved, I don’t condemn him either.
To provide a tut-tutting counter-point to people refusing to be a victim, Deborah Roberts brought in a “security expert”. Rosemary Erickson, Ph.D., is a forensic sociologist and the president of Athena Research Corporation. From her vita, it appears she specializes in working as a consultant with convenience stores, restaurants, hotels, and similar such businesses. She serves as an expert witness in civil premises liability cases and testifies on business security.
When asked if it was “heroic” to challenge a robber, Erickson responded, “I think it’s suicide.” She continued, “Because the odds are you’re the one who is going to be injured or killed.” She goes on to say that, in general, robbers just want to get the money and get out. Roberts then asks Erickson about the odds of being killed or injured if one resists based upon research. To which, Erickson responded, “They found that 82% of the deaths are when people resisted.” From that statement, you are being led to believe that being passive and not resisting is the smart thing to do in virtually all cases. In other words, you are a victim once, don’t make it worse by becoming a double-victim by resisting the robber and becoming injured as a result.
The majority of the cases appeared to be gratuitous and senseless in nature with no signs of resistance….There was evidence of resistance in only 16% of these cases.
In her later research on Teenage Robbers, she found them to be more violent than adult robbers and were twice as likely to hurt or kill their victims. In cases where people were hurt or killed, her survey of teenage inmates found:
The juvenile robbers were asked whether in those robberies in which someone was hurt or killed they had planned to use the weapon in advance. Over half said they did plan to use it before they went in to do the robbery
I’m not sure who at ABC News decided that this episode was the right one to air on the evening after the Aurora shooting but I really do question their motives. To encourage non-resistance in the face of armed criminals ignores just how many compliant persons have been murdered because they were a witness or because it gave the perpetrator a thrill. The media should not be encouraging people to be like sheep before the slaughter.
To say I was disgusted is enough. I don’t want to even get started on so-called gun free zones which, as Massad Ayoob once noted, are nothing but hunting preserves for psychopaths.
Like every other event for the past decade, the media seems to focus on being First rather than being Right. You’ll notice I didn’t qualify the media with “Main Stream” or “Legacy”, or “Dinosaur”. All media. Blogs, Tweets, forums, even chat rooms. Heck, my wife and I were talking about it this morning. I realized we were discussing things as if the information we had was pristine, accurate, and complete.
It’s not. And it won’t be for quite some time.
I don’t have that need to be first so I won’t be commenting on the how, the why, the who, etc. of the shooting in Aurora, CO other than to say that I’ll be keeping the victims and their families in my prayers.
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) is not your average Chicagoland congressman. He is actually pro-gun and pro-Second Amendment unlike many of others. Walsh spoke at the 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference held in Chicago and gave a very pro-gun speech.
This past December he introduced HR 3594, the Second Amendment Protection Act, which hits directly at proposed the Arms Trade Treaty. It would cut off all funding to the United Nations unless the president certified that the UN had not taken actions that would infringe on the rights of Americans to possess firearms and ammunition.
(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the United States may not provide any funding to the United Nations for a fiscal year unless, before the last day of the preceding fiscal year, the President makes the certification described in subsection (b).
(b) Certification- The certification described in this subsection is a certification submitted to the Congress by the President, that states that the United Nations has not taken action to restrict, attempt to restrict, or otherwise adversely infringe on the rights of individuals in the United States to possess a firearm or ammunition, including by imposing burdens on international commerce, or abridge any of the other constitutionally protected rights of citizens of the United States.
The bill currently has 60 co-sponsors including 26 just added recently. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms released the statement below on HR 3594 and the new sponsors.
26 NEW CO-SPONSORS TO 2A PROTECTION ACT IS ‘GOOD NEWS,’ SAYS CCRKBA
BELLEVUE, WA – Twenty-six more members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors to the Second Amendment Protection Act, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms announced today.
“This is good news,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb. “With a vote looming on the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, this sends a clear message to the Obama administration that the president will face real trouble if he or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signs any document that threatens our constitutionally-protected individual right to keep and bear arms.”
Sponsored by Illinois Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, H.R. 3594 was written with help from CCRKBA staff, Gottlieb noted. It now has 60 co-sponsors, and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. CCRKBA has been urging members and supporters to contact Congress and demand action on this bill.
“The U.N. is scheduled to vote on the proposed treaty next week,” Gottlieb said. “Right now they are pushing to include small arms and ammunition, and because the Devil is always in the details, when they finally hammer out a document that the Obama administration has already indicated it will sign, this could be extremely bad for American gun owners.
“Fortunately, Congressman Walsh had the foresight to understand this,” he continued, “so he introduced this legislation to protect Second Amendment sovereignty. We want the United Nations gun grabbers, and the Obama administration to understand that they are treading in perilous waters if they adopt a treaty that even remotely threatens the firearms freedoms of our citizens.
“We are coming down to the wire on this treaty,” Gottlieb stated. “Our constitutional rights far outweigh the administration’s desire to push its ‘citizen-of-the-world’ philosophy down the throats of American gun owners. We want to see action on the Second Amendment Protection Act, and with 26 new co-sponsors, we are one step closer to achieving that goal.”
US Attorney for Minnesota and Acting Director of BATFE, B. Todd Jones, has been distributing a number of videos called “Changecasts” to BATFE agents and employees telling how he plans to run the agency. His Changecast #8: Choices and Consequences sent out July 9th is below.
“Choices and consequences means simply that if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences,” Acting Director B. Todd Jones told the employees in a video distributed July 9 by email and closed-circuit TV and obtained by the Washington Guardian.
The 3 minute, 22 second videotape was the last of eight “Changecasts” that Jones distributed to ATF employees in recent weeks to describe how he planned to run the agency, improve morale and instill a new culture in the aftermath of one of the agency’s worst scandals.
ATF officials in Washington and rank-and-file agents told the Washington Guardian that the tape was interpreted by many as a warning not to pursue the path of the Arizona agents who went outside the agency in 2011 and reported concerns to Congress about the bungled Fast and Furious gun probe that let semiautomatic weapons flow to Mexican drug gangs.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reacted strongly to reports of this video and the implied message. They are demanding that Jones provide them a clarification of the intent of his statements by July 25th.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa today urged the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify his remarks to employees about reporting concerns within the agency. Grassley and Issa expressed concern that the remarks are likely to chill whistleblowers from reporting legitimate problems and undermine a necessary function for making improvements. The concern is significant because whistleblowers recently put their careers on the line to expose the operational tactics in Operation Fast and Furious that might have led to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
In a video message released to ATF staff on July 9, 2012, ATF Acting Director Todd Jones says, “… if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences. …”
Grassley and Issa wrote to Jones, stating that the essence of whistleblowing is reporting problems outside of an employee’s chain of command, and whistleblowers were instrumental in exposing the shortcomings of the government’s botched gun-walking operation, Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa wrote to Jones, “Your ominous message – which could be interpreted as a threat – is likely to have a major chilling effect on ATF employees exercising their rights to contact Congress. Therefore, it needs to be clarified.”
Grassley and Issa also wrote, “On numerous occasions, we have stressed to ATF and the Department of Justice the importance of protecting whistleblower disclosures and preventing retaliation against whistleblowers.”
Jones has been doing a dog and pony show along with the Changecasts at various BATFE offices around the country. Agents have been strongly encouraged to attend and to submit questions in advance. Originally they were told that everything would be on the table. A post by whistle-blower Vince Cefalu at CleanUpATF.org puts the lie to the “everything on the table” discussions.
As you may know, our new Acting Director Mr. Jones and select staff are traveling the country holding Town Hall meetings for what they have said is an effort to encourage and improve communication, as well as get input from all of us. And as some of you know, I have had a public presence in questioning and pointing out significant and dangerous practices by management of ATF, and have been used as a public face for other ATF personnel who wanted to remain anonymous involving cases and initiatives which have gone horribly wrong and in more than one instance cost innocent lives. We all know we cannot stand by and let ATF disintegrate, and Congress apparently now knows it too.
You need to know that when the Town Hall was scheduled to come to the San Francisco Field Office, I contacted San Francisco Management staff to advise I would like to participate. We had all been advised in writing by one of the ASAC’s that “All active employees (which I am) are encouraged to attend.” I was also advised that all questions and concerns must be submitted in writing ahead of time, so that ATF would have the questions or concerns by close of business one week in advance. So I submitted my questions. I drove (on my own dime) over 200 miles to attend. At close of business on July 10, (the night before) I was advised I would not be allowed to attend. You may want to know about this action by ATF against one of ATF’s so-called “whistleblowers.” I have said nothing publicly.
As to the theme of the Changecast – Choices and Consequences – it has provoked some discussion on CUATF as well. You may remember that a BATFE confidential informant with a history of violence against women in the Seattle area was arrested for raping and abusing an 18-year old girl. That informant had been ultimately approved by Seattle SAC Kelvin Crenshaw. While the first-level supervisor resigned, Crenshaw is still on the job.
“Choices and consequences” my ass Mr. Jones. Do you have any idea how disingenuous you sound given that YOU BROUGHT KELVIN BACK TO WORK AS A SAC????? Or weren’t Kelvin’s choices deserving of any consequences? I cannot wait to see you attempt to explain that one while at the same time trying to justify letting your managers suspend every agent who sneezes. Especially those agents involved in exposing your regime’s nasty antics. And by the way Mr. Jones, you may want to ask Julie Torres what comments she has made about going after the CleanUp posters. I’m thinking that’s probably not going to look too good in the light of day either. Bummer huh Jones?
Finally, Agent Jay Dobyns who became a whistle-blower after he was hung out to dry, his home burned, and his family threatened by the Hells Angels with no protection whatsoever from BATFE, had this to say, in part, about the Changecast and the disfunctional management culture at BATFE.
I saw the Changecast from Acting Director Jones when it was posted. Perception is reality and the perception is that if you don’t play by the rules they are coming after you. I agree with that. Trust me, I fully understand ATF consequences. I have suffered under both justified and unjusitified consequences in my 25 years. When I had it coming I took it like a man and didn’t make excuses or perjure myself to avoid them. When they weren’t justified I didn’t roll over and play coward like they wanted me to.
The problem is the whistleblowers I know have all played by the rules and presented complaints to first, second and third level supervisors, the Ombudsmans office, Internal Affiars, the EEOC, the OIG and OSC, Congress and finally the media. None that I am personally aware of immediately jumped tough and put themselves in front of a reporter or camera. What Acting Director Jones does not discuss is the utter lack of interest when whistleblowers follow the rules. He talks as if the process is balanced but the truth is it is a one-way street. You get NO attention or concern until an executive is embarrassed in the media. Not even an acknowlegement of a complaint beyond a boilerplate email – thank you for your interest; we are very concerned; blah, etc.
Lump the Changecast message with the institutional history of ATF retaliations (still ongoing). Then add in guys like Thomasson who openly state their intent to trainwreck whistleblowers (when interviewed on his statement claimed that he “did not know and does not care”). Take the managers in Phoenix who attacked and derailed the lives of honest agents like Forcelli and Canino and have not been held accountable (Thomasson’s plan being enacted). And then top it off with a “no oversight” policy for the Office of Chief Counsel who has an undeniable track record of whistleblower ambushes. What does that leave you?
An agency where the fear of speaking the truth will leave you in such a demolished state of career, reputation, family and finance that any agent with a brain cell is going to shut up, keep their heads down, let someone else get their head chopped off, and continue to work on (more like survive) in a culture where no one of influence is willing to hear the truth. ATF’s acomplishments have historically been made in spite of our executives, not because of them. Is every executive bad? No. Come on. No one is saying that. But the ones who are, they’re out of control bad and the good ones don’t do a damn thing to reign in their peers for fear that someday the dirty boss could be their boss and the retaliation could come down on them. ATF executives are masters of playing it safe.
While B. Todd Jones will deny that he intended for his Changecast to be seen as a threat to whistle-blowers at BATFE, the message to the field and to management has come across loud and clear – shut-up. As David Codrea’s National Gun Rights Examiner column from Monday makes clear, it is working as other potential whistle-blowers have refused to come out due to fear of retaliation.
by 