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Jaime Zapata – 10 Years On

February 16, 2021 by

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the ambush and murder of ICE-HSI Special Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico. He was killed by narcoterrorists with the drug cartel Los Zetas and his partner Victor Avila was seriously wounded. Some of the weapons used by the narcoterrorists were walked to Mexico as part of the Obama-Biden Administration’s Operation Fast and Furious.

Victor Avila was our guest tonight on the Polite Society Podcast. He spoke about the ambush and the aftermath.

His interview starts at the 10 minute mark and runs to about the 40 minute mark. We had some audio difficulty towards the end due to winter storm-related power issues in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.

Last year, the US Office of Special Counsel issued a report that stated Agents Zapata and Avila received insufficient support for their mission in Mexico.

The investigation, conducted by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, substantiated that ICE officials failed to provide the agents additional support for their mission from either U.S. personnel or Mexican law enforcement. The agency also failed to properly brief and prepare the agents in advance of the assignment to discuss the cargo, security measures, and any other relevant information. The report confirmed that there was “a known lack of diligence with regard to the maintenance of the ICE armored vehicles.”  For example, it was known prior to the incident that the agents’ armored vehicle did not have properly functioning tracking equipment.

The investigation revealed that, at the time of the attack, management lacked specific policies and procedures for the execution of the agency mission in Mexico. For example, the agency lacked formalized policies with respect to travel; did not provide counter threat training to those stationed in Mexico; and did not provide armored vehicle training to employees in Mexico. Additionally, the Mexico City office suffered from weak operational security, which was evident in the lack of planning and execution for the trip taken by Agent Avila and Agent Zapata.

One thing that stood out in our interview with Victor was that some of the records from the Department of Justice regarding Operation Fast and Furious are still locked up. They were initially kept sealed under the Obama Administration’s claim of executive privilege. Despite President Trump’s pledge to the Terry family to release them, they still have never been released and I’m sure President Biden will make sure they never see the light of day.

Victor has written a book on his efforts to get the truth released among other things. It is called Agent Under Fire: A Murder and a Manfesto. I just ordered my copy tonight.

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The Next Battle Has Begun – Salvo Three

February 15, 2021 by

You didn’t think Nancy Pelosi would ignore a chance to burnish her progressive credentials with a statement on gun control, did you? If you did, you were living in a dream world.

Of course, Pelosi had to weigh in on gun control on the anniversary of the Parkland murders.

“Three years ago, our nation watched in horror and heartbreak as 17 beautiful souls were stolen in an act of unspeakable terror and gun violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.  Today, we continue to grieve and work with the Parkland families and survivors who have turned their pain into courageous action, inspiring a movement across the country to say, ‘Enough is enough!’

“Last Congress, moved by the daily epidemic of gun violence and guided by the millions of young people marching for their lives, House Democrats took bold action to save lives and end the bloodshed by passing H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act.  Now, working with the Democratic Senate and Biden-Harris Administration, we will enact these and other life-saving bills and deliver the progress that the Parkland community and the American people deserve and demand.

“On this solemn remembrance, Democrats join the American people to renew our commitment to our unfinished work to ensure that no family or community is forced to endure the pain of gun violence.  We will not rest until all Americans, in schools, in the workplace, in places of worship and throughout our communities are safe, once and for all.”

If she were serious about “gun violence” (sic), she would be battling the scourge of drug gangs in minority neighborhoods, she would overturning Obama era policies that allowed the Parkland killer to avoid coming to the notice of police, and she would be getting rid of gun free zones that are nothing but hunting preserves for psychopaths to quote Massad Ayoob.

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The Next Battle Has Begun – Salvo Two

February 15, 2021 by

The next salvo in this battle came yesterday from Joe Biden. After bemoaning the lives lost to “gun violence” (sic), he lists a number of “commonsense” items that will solve the issue and “make us safer.”

Three years ago today, a lone gunman took the lives of 14 students and three educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In seconds, the lives of dozens of families, and the life of an American community, were changed forever.

For three years now, the Parkland families have spent birthdays and holidays without their loved ones. They’ve missed out on the experience of sending their children off to college or seeing them on their first job after high school. Like far too many families, they’ve had to bury pieces of their soul deep within the Earth. Like far too many families — and, indeed, like our nation — they’ve been left to wonder whether things would ever be okay.

These families are not alone. In big cities and small towns. In schools and shopping malls. In churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples. In movie theaters and concert halls. On city street corners that will never get a mention on the evening news. All across our nation, parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends have known the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence. And in this season of so much loss, last year’s historic increase in homicides across America, including the gun violence disproportionately devastating Black and Brown individuals in our cities, has added to the number of empty seats at our kitchen tables. Today, as we mourn with the Parkland community, we mourn for all who have lost loved ones to gun violence.

Over these three years, the Parkland families have taught all of us something profound. Time and again, they have showed us how we can turn our grief into purpose – to march, organize, and build a strong, inclusive, and durable movement for change.

The Parkland students and so many other young people across the country who have experienced gun violence are carrying forward the history of the American journey. It is a history written by young people in each generation who challenged prevailing dogma to demand a simple truth: we can do better. And we will.

This Administration will not wait for the next mass shooting to heed that call. We will take action to end our epidemic of gun violence and make our schools and communities safer. Today, I am calling on Congress to enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets. We owe it to all those we’ve lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change. The time to act is now.

Here is an inconvenient truth that Mr. Biden will never acknowledge. It was the policies of the Obama-Biden Administration that created the circumstances that allowed a troubled, angry, and violent young man to stay off the radar and pass a NICS check.

And since we are talking about the deaths of those with brown skin, it was also the policies of the Obama-Biden Administration with Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker that sent thousands of weapons south of the border which led to the deaths of at least 300 Mexican nationals.

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The Next Battle Has Begun – Salvo One

February 15, 2021 by

The war for our gun rights began in 1934 with the National Firearms Act if not earlier. Battles that were fought along the way include the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 (with the Hughes Amendment), the Brady Bill, and the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban.

The first shots in the next battle have been fired. We knew it was coming the moment the Democrats essentially won control of the Senate.

Last week, Bide policy advisors Susan Rice and Cedric Richmond had all the major gun control groups to the White House to discuss strategy. Here is the White House’s release on it:

Today, Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice and White House Public Engagement Director and Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond hosted a virtual discussion with leaders of gun violence prevention advocacy groups – Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action, Giffords, and Brady. They discussed the ongoing public health crisis of gun violence in America, the historic increase in homicides across American cities last year, and commonsense steps that can be taken to make our communities safer such as closing background check loopholes, stopping the proliferation of unregulated and untraceable “ghost” guns, and expanding community-based violence intervention programs.

Ambassador Rice and Congressman Richmond expressed gratitude for the leaders’ ideas, persistent advocacy efforts over the years, and commitment to working together to tackle the gun violence epidemic. Ambassador Rice and Congressman Richmond also underscored President Biden’s longstanding record of fighting for families impacted by gun violence, his full support for taking commonsense actions to reduce gun violence, and his unwavering commitment to pushing ahead further steps to make our communities safer.

The Bloomberg groups had this comment on the event:

“This meeting provided more evidence that the Biden Administration is committed to being the strongest we’ve ever seen on gun safety,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “With Covid making gun violence worse and armed extremists literally holding our democracy at gunpoint, the time for action is now –– and we fully expect to see it soon.”

“Gun safety was a cornerstone of President Biden’s campaign, and this meeting confirmed that gun safety is a top priority for the Biden administration as well,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “We look forward to working with the administration to save lives and stop gun violence, and we’re confident that we will see executive and legislative action in the near future.”

Remember, it is not about the criminal misuse of a firearm with these people. It is about power and they need a disarmed populace to achieve it.

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Old NFO Has Another Winner

February 15, 2021 by 1 Comment

Jim Curtis aka Old NFO, gun blogger and author, has written another winner.

Released last week, Showdown on the River: The Bell Chronicles, follows Rio Bell and his compadres as they make their way up from Texas moving a herd of cattle in the early 1870s. Along the way to Fort Laramie, they run into hostile Indians, rustlers, and stampedes.

After delivering the herd to the buyer and selling the excess to the U.S. Army, Rio makes his way up in the Rockies outside of Fort Collins to check on his Uncle Ethan Bell. As he searches for his uncle, he stumbles into a range war. The Kidds, led by patriarch Roger Kidd, are seeking to expand their spread by taking over other claims by force.

What the Kidds didn’t know was that Rio was also known as Rio Kid, a legendary gunman, who would “fight for the brand” against all comers.

Western stories are not usually my preference. However, this book kept “a’holt” of me from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

Available in Kindle format, you can get it here. It is $4.99 well spent.

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An Inconvenient Truth

February 15, 2021 by 7 Comments

The Cult of Personality Known as Giffords sent out an email this morning. As might be expected on the anniversary of the murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, they called for more gun control.

We took it upon ourselves to fight for change by electing a gun safety majority in the House. They passed H.R. 8, the background checks bill, but it sat on Mitch McConnell’s desk every day since.

But that’s about to change. With a newly elected gun safety president and gun safety majorities in both the House and Senate, it’s finally time to make universal background checks the law of the land. And today’s a great day to say you’re still in the fight.

The inconvenient truth is that the killer obtained his firearm after passing a FBI background check. In other words, a universal background check or mandated checks on private firearm sales would not have made one bit of difference.

The killer had no criminal record because of an arrangement between the Broward County school system and the sheriff’s office. This despite being expelled for bringing a weapon to school along with other run-ins that should have resulted in a criminal record.

As noted at the time by Max Eden in the City-Journal:

But the explicit aim of Broward’s new approach to school safety was to keep students like <killer> off the police’s radar. If the Sheriff’s department didn’t know about his deeply troubling behavior, perhaps it was because they were no longer supposed to know about it.

So instead of dealing with the inconvenient truths and the deeper issues at play, the Cult of Personality Known as Giffords and their like-minded brethren including President Biden will just call for more gun control – even though none of it will stop the next mass casualty event.

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Every Picture Tells A Story, Part IX

February 15, 2021 by 5 Comments

Every Picture Tells A Story is the longest running feature on this blog. It first ran on October 6, 2011. As of today, it has now hit its ninth iteration.

It started out as a way of showing the transition from restricted or no carry rights to shall-issue carry rights. When the feature started, there were states like Illinois that did not allow any concealed carry. It is still very hard to obtain a permit in states like New Jersey, Hawaii, Maryland, etc.

The graphics were created by my reader Rob Vance who has been updating it for the last 10 years.

The graphic plots the percentage of the United States population over time that had no-issue, may-issue, shall-issue, and constitutional carry with regard to concealed carry of firearms.

I said at the time:

If I may add a couple of other things, I’d say that shall-issue is the new norm in 2011 as opposed to no-issue or severely restricted may-issue back in 1986. The other thing I would add is that the experience with shall-issue concealed carry in the early adopting states like Florida paved the way for its adoption elsewhere. That is, people applying for concealed carry licenses are law-abiding citizens who have taken the responsibility seriously. Unlike what the Violence Policy Center would have you believe, the streets are not running with blood nor have they.

With Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) signing Utah’s constitutional carry bill on Friday, there are now 17 states that no longer demand a permit to carry concealed. The Utah law goes into effect on May 5th. As might be expected, the Utah media is aghast. Even the LDS-owned Deseret News was all a-twitter. They are worried that people won’t get training anymore. The permit itself is not going away and people who want to carry in other states under reciprocity would still need it. As Clark Aposhian of the Utah Shooting Sports Council noted, open carry was already legal without a permit in Utah and all the new law does is allow you to put a coat over the gun.

Tennessee and Montana could be added to the list later this year. Montana already allows permitless carry outside of the city limits and the bill pending in their legislature expands it to cities as well.

I may have to rethink what I said in 2011 about shall-issue becoming the new normal. In “free” states, I think constitutional or permitless carry is fast becoming the new normal.

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“A Personal Agenda”?

February 10, 2021 by 4 Comments

Judge Phillip Journey hit a nerve with his motion for appointment of an examiner in the NRA’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. So much so that the powers that be felt compelled to send an email to all members of the Board of Directors after 9pm Monday night.

The email was by NRA President Carolyn Meadows. Let me correct that last statement. The email was from Carolyn Meadows but it was so lawyerly crafted that I have immense doubts that she herself composed it.

She starts off by mentioning the court filing and then asserts the Judge Journey misunderstands the NRA’s bylaws. She says he is mistaken in his belief that the formation of the Sea Girt LLC vehicle and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing required special board approval. She asserts that the revised employment contract of Wayne LaPierre which was approved by the entire board provided that authority.

I am not a lawyer nor am I an expert in bankruptcy law. However, from everything I’ve read elsewhere from real experts in bankruptcy law, the formation of special entities and especially the filing of a bankruptcy requires an expressed approval from a board. In other words, it is not a power that can be delegated to the hired staff like Wayne.

The Complementary Spouse read over the email as well. Her take was that this email actually, for the most part, did not dispute Judge Journey’s motion so much as dance around it.

Then there was this line: “I find it disgraceful anyone would suggest otherwise to advance a personal agenda.” That was in reference to the line in the motion of how at least one board member was told to sit down and shut up. The Complementary Spouse noted the irony of accusing a board member of having a personal agenda when no one has a bigger personal agenda than Wayne LaPierre.

The email ends by saying if any board members have questions to please direct them to the board’s attorney Wit Davis. I should point out that he was hired by Wayne LaPierre to replace Steve Hart who LaPierre fired.

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Safari Club Convention And Other Events Too? What A Great Week!

February 9, 2021 by 1 Comment

I received a press release announcing the 2022 Safari Club Convention has opened registration. It is to be held in Las Vegas on January 19th to the 22nd at the Mandalay Bay. Those dates got me to thinking about what else just might be happening at that same time.

I found this! The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is being held the 20th to the 23rd at the Hard Rock Casino.

And this as well – the World of Concrete! Tools, trucks, mixers, oh, my!

Just kidding. I mean they are being held in Las Vegas at the same time but that is not really what caught my eye.

What did catch my eye and excite me is that the SHOT Show is being held January 18th through 21st at the Sands Expo Center. The recently opened Caesars Forum will also be the scene for part of the SHOT Show.

So this means both the Safari Club Convention and the SHOT Show will be in Las Vegas the same week. I really think this is great because it would be one airfare and one hotel instead of two. I certainly plan to go as things stand now.

I’m sure I’d be exhausted trying to do both but what wonderful exhaustion it would be!

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NRA Board Member Asks For Examiner

February 8, 2021 by 1 Comment

Attorneys for Phil Journey, a state judge in Kansas and a NRA Director, filed a motion in the NRA’s bankruptcy cased today. The motion asked the court to appoint an examiner (or independent investigator) to examine claims against the NRA made by the NY Attorney General Letitia James. These claims were made in the suit seeking the NRA’s dissolution.

Journey says he fully supports the NRA’s mission of protecting the Second Amendment through “education, training, and sport.” He then says:

Accordingly, Movant (Journey) seeks the appointment of an examiner to bring to light the veracity of the alleged fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, and gross mismanagement that has plagued the NRA’s reputation, caused significant alienation of the Association’s members and supporters, and hampered its ability to fulfill its core organizational purpose.

He then lays out the areas which he wants the examiner to investigate:

The best path to ensure that the NRA seizes upon the opportunity before it to recommit to its most historical ideals is to appoint an independent examiner to add transparency and confidence to the bankruptcy process. To that end, Movant requests the appointment of an examiner to examine and investigate: (i) the actions of Debtors’ pre- and post-petition management; (ii) the management practices being employed in the operation of the non-profit organization; (iii) the compensation of management; (iv) the benefits and perks being provided to the Debtors’ management team; and (v) the propriety of arrangements with certain vendors.

Journey goes on to accuse the NRA’s management of using Ackerman McQueen and other vendors as conduits to hide personal expenses and perks. He then says the Board has become a figurehead while “management” aka Wayne LaPierre actually steered the direction of the NRA.

He alleges the bylaws were violated by not having the Board of Directors to vote on the bankruptcy filing nor was the intent to seek Chapter 11 even disclosed to the Board. He goes on to note that the NRA’s management routinely ignored the bylaws, the laws of New York, and Robert’s Rules of Orders which led to Craig Spray resigning and the designated head of reorganization deciding not to take the job. Furthermore, the formation of Sea Girt LLC was not approved by the Board. Journey says information was withheld by management and the Board’s attorney which made it impossible for them to do their fiduciary duty.

The legal rationale along with case law is then presented in the argument as to why an examiner is needed.

I will be blunt. I always thought Phil Journey was a Wayne LaPierre loyalist which is why he got nominated and elected to the Board of Directors. This is either a measure of his disgust with Wayne, Brewer, and their cronies or the ultimate sleight of hand to divert attention elsewhere. Given what is in the motion, I’ll go with the former for now.

I fully expect Brewer and company fight tooth and nail against this. He did issue this statement to Bloomberg News on Journey’s motion.

The NRA disputed the claim that it didn’t follow its own rules when it filed bankruptcy. It didn’t directly address the question of whether an examiner should be appointed.

“This plan was undertaken in full compliance with NRA policy,” NRA lawyer William A. Brewer III said in an email to Bloomberg. “The plan has been widely endorsed by NRA board members, NRA members, elected officials, and other key stakeholders.”

I think this motion will get very serious consideration from Judge Harlin Hale for two reasons. First and foremost, Phil Journey is a sitting judge in a state court in Kansas. That alone elevates his concerns above that of a mere bystander. Second, he is now and has been in the past a director of the NRA. I think that would give him standing as he has a fiduciary duty.

For now, it will be very (very!) interesting to see what comes of this motion. I hope it succeeds and I hope the creditor’s committee is successful in getting a trustee appointed.

I have embedded the full brief below. Read it for yourself and tell me what you think.

Motion To Appoint Examiner In NRA Bankruptcy Filing by jpr9954 on Scribd