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NRA Drops Federal Case Against NY AG

June 5, 2021 by 1 Comment

The National Rifle Association voluntarily dismissed its case against NY Attorney General Letitia James in US District Court for the Northern District of New York. This case was filed virtually immediately after James filed for dissolution of the NRA in state court. The suit had accused James of violating the NRA’s First and 14th Amendment rights to free speech.

William Brewer III had this to say in a statement regarding the move to voluntarily dismiss the case.

Dropping the Albany case “will ensure that the NRA’s claims proceed promptly to discovery and a full vindication of its members’ rights,” NRA lawyer William Brewer said in a statement.

It didn’t take long for James to respond with a public statement.

“The NRA dropping its countersuit today in federal court is an implicit admission that their strategy would never prevail. The truth is that Wayne LaPierre and his lieutenants used the NRA as a breeding ground for personal gain and a lavish lifestyle. We were victorious against the organization’s attempt to declare bankruptcy, and our fight for transparency and accountability will continue because no one is above the law.”

Given that Brewer and his firm were the architects of this legal strategy which they are now abandoning, it would be nice if they returned the money spent on legal fees for this case to the NRA.

We all know that will never happen. What it does underscore is how much money the NRA has wasted on legal fees paid to Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, with nothing to show for it. Whether it was the suit against San Francisco, the bankruptcy case, and now this, the only winner was Brewer.

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Quote Of The Day

June 4, 2021 by

Today is the 19th anniversary of Marvin Heemeyer’s one-man war against an oppressive bureaucracy in Granby, Colorado. The name may not ring a bell but a picture of his weapon of choice will.

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Yes, that heavily “modified” Komatsu D355A is what became known as “Killdozer”. It was the instrument he used to destroy 13 buildings in Granby including the town hall. You may disagree with what he did and you may disagree on the details of the story. You might even thing he was an anti-government deluded lunatic who inspires “right wing preppers.”

However, Mr. Heemeyer did leave us with a great quote in notes that were found after his self-inflicted death.

I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.

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My, My, My! Isn’t This An Interesting Coincidence

June 3, 2021 by 2 Comments

After I posted about David Chipman attending one of the inaugural balls with his then fiancee’ Tara, I had a comment on the post saying they met while she was a secretary at BATFE’s Washington headquarters. With a little research, I find this isn’t totally accurate. While I don’t know how Chipman met his current wife, I do know she had worked at the BATFE since 1995 in one job or another.

According to her LinkedIn page, she started as a receptionist, became a writer-editor with them, moved over to the Treasury’s Trade and Tax Bureau’s Congressional Office, back to BATFE as a program manager, and finally advanced to Division Chief, Executive Secretariat Division where she currently works.

The Executive Secretariat Division does such things a publish the internal newsletter, handle correspondence, write speeches, and handle the archives of BATFE. They are also responsible for the BATFE’s historical program. Indeed, Mrs. Chipman served as the acting historian for at least a period of time according to this BATFE Facebook post. She is pictured along with then Columbus SAC Trevor Velinor.

Beyond the obvious nepotism issue that Mrs. Chipman faces if, god forbid, her husband is confirmed as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, there is the little issue of conflicts of interest. Ideally, BATFE employees would be scrupulously neutral when it comes to gun politics. However, we know this is an ideal and not reality.

Mrs. Chipman has jumped on-board with the Demanding Moms’ “Wear Orange” for gun violence (sic) program as seen in this picture.

Not surprisingly, she has also donated to the Cult of Personality Known as Giffords and has publicized it on her Facebook page. Her Facebook page has plenty of other progressive issues that she virtue signals about as well.

She is, of course, free to make donations to whom she wishes and to let the world know it in an unofficial manner. That said, it just reemphasizes the importance of making sure her husband is never confirmed to head BATFE. Even if she resigned if her husband was confirmed, she would still have his ear and use that to reinforce her progressive and anti-gun views.

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Trophy Hunting Helps African Animal Populations

June 2, 2021 by 1 Comment

The British publication The Economist just produced a very interesting video on trophy hunting in Namibia. It makes the point that hunters and their money pays for conservation, provides meat to local communities, and provides an economic incentive to stop poaching and overgrazing.

You may not agree with trophy hunting and that is your right. However, bans on trophy imports, public shaming of hunters, and calls for banning it outright will eventually lead to the extinction of many species. Putting an economic value on wild animals, regulated hunting, and hunter-funded anti-poaching efforts have been shown to work.

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Do ATF Special Agents Go To Inaugural Balls?

June 1, 2021 by 4 Comments

The headline poses an interesting question. One would assume or just maybe hope that special agents working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives would be non-political or even apolitical. They are considered “Further Restricted Employees” under the Hatch Act.

In the case of Biden’s nominee to head BATFE, that would be a wrong assumption.

Below you can see David Chipman with his fiancee’ Tara at a presidential inaugural ball in 2009 for President Barrack Obama. While probably not a violation of the Hatch Act, it is a bit unseemly.

In January 2009, Chipman was still the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Division. A couple of months later he got a promotion to a SAC position in the Washington headquarters. I’m sure it is just a coincidence.

Would it surprise anyone to know that Chipman is such a non-believer in OpSec that I was able to find his home address, its Zillow value of $874,000, Facebook pages for him, his now-wife Tara, his ex-wife Micki, and his two kids.

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Bloomberg’s Pet “Gun Violence” Researcher

May 28, 2021 by 6 Comments

You may have heard of Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins University. He is the Bloomberg Professor of American Health and heads Johns Hopkin’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy. It is a research center within the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The name Bloomberg in all of this is because Michael Bloomberg has donated big time and continues to donate big time to the school and Webster’s research.

As you would suspect, Webster is no friend of gun owners, constitutional carry, or the Second Amendment.

The Complementary Spouse caught a story on NPR regarding the passage of permitless carry in Texas this past Wednesday. What caught her ear on the All Things Considered story was a comment by Webster that said, in essence, before violent armed criminals committed their acts of violence, most had been legal gun owners at one time. He blamed the loosening of gun laws for prodding them

Listen for yourself. The intro to Webster’s comments begin at the 1:15 mark in this short clip and it goes on from there.

By Webster’s reasoning, every criminal was a good kid at one time and every porn star was a virgin. If only those pesky gun rights advocates hadn’t convinced the evil Republicans into loosening the law then those formerly law abiding gun owners probably would not have committed their acts of violence.

That this argument is given any public forum makes me shake my head.

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10 Potential Replacements For Wayne LaPierre

May 28, 2021 by 1 Comment

First off, this is satire. That said, some of them would be more likely to do a better job than Wayne LaPierre in running the NRA.

This suggested list comes from the Gun Cranks. They are Tom McHale, editor of American Handgunner, Brent Wheat, editor of Guns Magazine, and Roy Huntington, the retired publisher of both publications. They are gun guys who have had it with Wayne LaPierre’s grifter ways.

I have edited their discussion down to just their 10 potential replacement for Wayne.

Enjoy!

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Liar! Liar! Pants On Fire!

May 28, 2021 by

Shannon Watts and Moms Demand Action tweeted out the following statement from David Chipman made before the Senate Judiciary Committee in their effort to have him confirmed.

Chipman’s main passion after leaving BATFE was to make as much money as possible and he didn’t care if he had to prostitute himself to do it. If he had to tell bald-faced lies in his testimony in various places, he didn’t care so long as the money kept rolling in.

As to fire, he knows a bit about that from his experiences in Waco.

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Nilo Farms

May 28, 2021 by

Ducks Unlimited has produced a short film on the history of Nilo Farms which John Olin established outside of St. Louis. The film features his Labrador Retriever King Buck who not only won back to back national retriever field trial championships but was the only dog ever featured on a Federal Duck Stamp.

My first Lab was named Sam Spade after the detective and came from field trial stock. His grandfather Dude’s Double Or Nothin’ was the 1981 National Amateur Field Champion and his father was Snake Eyes Double Or Nothin’. Both are in the Retriever Hall of Fame. Sam was never field trialed but he was a damn good dog and I had him for 13 good years. I still miss him.

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Twenty AGs Say No To Chipman

May 26, 2021 by 5 Comments

Attorneys general from 19 states have signed on to a letter from Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen opposing the confirmation of David Chipman to be Director of BATFE.

They call the possible confirmation of Chipman an “an attack” on the Second Amendment and say their oath to uphold the Constitution makes it impossible for them to support someone like him.

They go on to write:

The ATF has an important role to play in upholding the public safety of
communities around the country. Its agents deserve a director who will inspire
confidence from the people they serve. Given Mr. Chipman’s history of anti-gun
lobbying and political activism, Americans cannot be reasonably expected to believe
he will be an unbiased enforcer of current laws. As chief law enforcement or legal
officers in our respective states, we are concerned that Mr. Chipman will make
Americans less safe by diverting ATF resources to attack the rights of law-abiding
gun owners instead of cracking down on violent criminals and criminal
organizations.

I think it is rare to see attorneys general take such a stand against a nominee for a law enforcement position like this. I think if the nominee were someone like a former DA or former US Attorney who, while still probably anti-gun, had not made a small fortune by shilling for the gun control industry you would not have seen this.

You can read the letter in its entirety below.

05.25.2021 State Attorneys General Letter to US Senate Leadership by jpr9954 on Scribd