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NC Attorney General Roy Cooper Jumps On The “No-Fly, No-Gun” Bandwagon

December 9, 2015 by 1 Comment

Roy Cooper has been the Attorney General of North Carolina for the last 15 plus years. You’d think that in that time he’d have learned a little bit about protecting civil liberties. While he refused to sign on to the multi-state attorney general amicus brief in the Heller case, he did sign on to the one for McDonald v. Chicago. Cooper also intervened in the Duke lacrosse case which ultimately dismissed all the (false) charges against the three Duke University lacrosse players.

Now that Cooper, a Democrat, is running for governor he is going all out to look tough on crime and secure the votes of those who are feeling insecure during these times of Islamofascist terrorist attacks. To that end, he has proposed that the North Carolina General Assembly preempt Congress and prohibit those in the FBI‘s Terrorist Screening Database from purchasing firearms. It should be noted that neither of the San Bernadino killers was on the list.

Attorney General Roy Cooper on Monday called on state lawmakers to approve legislation that would prevent anyone being monitored by the FBI as a terror suspect from purchasing firearms in North Carolina.

“Stopping terror suspects from getting weapons that could harm our state and its people makes common sense,” Cooper said in a statement. “Even if Washington won’t act, we can.”

In the wake of last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., the U.S. Senate voted down a measure that would have curtailed the gun rights of people on the government’s no-fly list and other FBI databases of terror suspects.

Hasan Harnett, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, immediately fired back at Cooper.

“It’s shameful that Roy Cooper has chosen once again to side with Washington, D.C. and follow President Obama’s lead, using the recent terrorist attack as a bait-and-switch to push for more gun control in North Carolina. Considering anyone can be placed on the terror watch list for any number of reasons arbitrarily, it is equally as scary that our state’s elected attorney general and top law enforcement officer is for stripping our citizens of their constitutional rights and denying them due process in order to score points with the far-left elements of his party.”

 Roy Cooper has finally come out of the closet on gun control. For years he has been rather wishy-washy on gun rights. I’m actually glad that he has decided to ally himself with the national Democrat Party on gun control issues. Given that Michael Bloomberg spent millions to make sure the state kept it racist Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit system, I would fully expect Cooper to get Bloomberg’s monetary support.

Grass Roots North Carolina is not taking Cooper’s proposal lying down. They have issued an alert and are asking people to both email and call Cooper regarding his proposal. They refer to it as “modern-day McCarthyism”. I would suggest everyone who is reading this to cut and paste the message and flood “No Fly” Roy’s mailbox.

NC’s
Attorney General to
Bring
Modern Day
McCarthyism to North

Carolina

Parroting Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton,
North
Carolina Attorney General
Roy Cooper recently
demanded
state legislation to
deny gun purchases for
anyone
on the Terrorist Watch
List, saying:
“Stopping terror suspects from
getting weapons that could

harm our state and its people
makes common sense. Even if

Washington won’t act, we can.”
By barring gun purchases to

1,000,000 people on the
Terrorist Watch List, Cooper

surpasses even Barack Obama’s
proposal to deny roughly

50,000 people on the No Fly
List.

Fret not that tens of

thousands of lawful citizens –
including Senator Ted
Kennedy – have been
denied airline
transportation
thanks to
misidentification. Never mind
the
Terrorist Watch List is so
inaccurate it includes
72 Department of Homeland Security employees.

Forget that stringent gun
control in both France and

California failed to stop
terrorists from getting

weapons. And don’t bother to
read the Huff Post’s “7

Ways You (Yes, You) Could
End Up On A Terrorist Watch

List“.

Why not? Because all that is
trivial compared to having the

state’s top cop and would-be
governor proposing to flout

the Constitution by denying
you due process under both the

Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments. You have no

“right” to fly, but as
affirmed by the Supreme Court
in DC v. Heller and
McDonald v. Chicago,
you
definitely have a
right to keep and bear
arms.

America has traveled this road
before, and the landscape

wasn’t pretty. Widespread
violations of Constitutional

rights and civil liberties in
the late 1950s against

“subversives” on secret
blacklists compiled by the FBI
were so shockingly
un-American, they earned their

own moniker: McCarthyism.

Where
will Cooper’s modern
McCarthyism end? Once
government is free to deny a

fundamental, enumerated
Constitutional right for

merely being included on a
secret list, are our other

cherished freedoms far behind?
Free speech? Freedom of

religion? History demonstrates
that when governments are free

to use the full powers of the
state against those on secret

lists, the first casualty is
liberty.

Due process
–
notice, an opportunity
to be heard, the
right to
face one’s accuser –
has been America’s
bulwark
against tyranny since
the Founders penned the

Constitution.

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!

  • EMAIL ATTORNEY GENERAL ROY
    COOPER.     Use this contact form on the NC
    DOJ website:
    http://ncdoj.com/Home/ContactNCDOJ.aspx

    and use
    the copy/paste
    message provided below,
    under ‘Deliver This

    Message.’

  • PHONE ROY COOPER at this
    number: (919) 716-6400

    Tell
    him that you’ve
    read about his proposed

    scheme to suspend the
    Second Amendment rights

    of North Carolinians
    using the arbitrary and

    secret “Terrorist Watch
    List.” This would
    suspend the rights of
    certain citizens absent

    any proper due process.
    Suppressing the Fifth

    and Fourteenth
    Amendments is clearly

    illegal, and would be an
    example of modern day

    McCarthyism. It will not
    be
    tolerated.

DELIVER THIS MESSAGE

Suggested Subject:
“‘Watch List:’ No McCarthyism in
North Carolina!”  
Dear Attorney General Cooper:
I
have just read of
your
proposal to use the
“Terrorist Watch List” to
deny Second Amendment rights
to North
Carolinians. I
am absolutely
mortified to hear
this, and I
demand that you
immediately cease any effort

to establish what can only
be called modern day

McCarthyism.

The “watch list” is an
arbitrary and secret
government list. Citizens
who are placed on this list

usually have no knowledge of
the fact that they are on

it, have had no hearing, and
no opportunity to face their

accusers. There are also
numerous examples of

innocent civilians being
placed on this list in

error. The “watch list”
sidesteps due
process, and denying
citizens their
Constitutional rights
outside of proper due

process is a clear violation
of the Fifth and Fourteenth

Amendments.

There is no Constitutional
right to “fly commercial,”
but there is a
Constitutional right to keep

and bear arms. Do not
attempt to use an arbitrary

and secret government list
to deny human rights to
this
state’s citizens. It
would be a huge
mistake.

I
will be monitoring this
issue through alerts from

Grass Roots North Carolina.

Respectfully,
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About Those CMP 1911s

December 8, 2015 by 4 Comments

The Firearm Blog has done some excellent work on estimating the potential prices for the 10,000 Army-surplus 1911s that will be sold be the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Steve estimates that the price will probably be about 30% less than the going retail rate for a WWII milsurp 1911. He comes up with that figure by looking at the going rate for a M1 Garand from the CMP and the prices you will find on sites like Gunbroker.com. You can read his analysis here.

The Firearm Blog TV has produced a good little video explaining how it will all work.

One of the must-do things if you want to purchase any firearm or ammunition from the CMP is membership in an affiliated club. They have a search page to find a club in your area.

But what do you do if there are no clubs nearby or the club in your area is so stuck in a 1950s mindset that it just isn’t worth the injury from banging your head into the wall over their stupid rules? There are alternatives. For example, if you are a member of the Glock Shooting Sports Foundation, then you belong to an affiliated organization. Likewise if you joined the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) so as to support their litigation in Chicago, you are a member of an affiliated organization.

Another alternative is the Garand Collectors Association. A membership there costs $25, qualifies you to buy from the CMP, and gets you a very nice quarterly journal with all things M1 Garand. Moreover, they have a close relationship with the CMP and they send membership rolls to the CMP on a regular basis. This is the direction that I plan to head.

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“From Infamy To Victory”

December 8, 2015 by

This video which is part of the NRA’s Frontline Series does an excellent job in showing how the United States went from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the signing of the surrender in Tokyo Bay. It is hosted by Ollie North.

Particularly poignant is the interview with Jiro Yakimura. Mr. Yakimura was a Nisei. That is, Mr. Yakimura was a natural born US citizen whose parents had immigrated from Japan. When Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Mr. Yakimura was a college student in Hawaii and was a member of ROTC. In the days that followed, he and his fellow ROTC students were given a 1903 Springfield and sent to guard various spots on Oahu. Then, due to his Japanese ancestry, his services to his country were no longer needed. The story has a somewhat happy ending as Mr. Yakimura was finally able to serve his country as an officer in Army Intelligence in the Pacific.

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A Day That Will Live In Infamy – 74th Anniversary

December 7, 2015 by 2 Comments

74 years ago today, on December 7th, 1941, fighters and bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the US Pacific Fleet in their home port of Pearl Harbor at 7:55am local time. IJN fighters and bombers also attacked US Army Air Force installations at Hickham, Wheeler, Bellows, and other air fields destroying most of the aircraft on the ground.

Most of the veterans on both sides have now passed away due to age. The National Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, in fact, disbanded at the end of 2011 due to the advanced age of the remaining survivors.

One of the few live broadcasts of the attack was from KGU Radio in Honolulu.

A list of the ships of the Pacific Fleet in port on December 7th can be found here along with the damage suffered. As bad as the attack was, most of the battleships went on to fight again later in the war.

The battle for Wake Island began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The IJN and the Japanese Imperial Army launched widespread attacks beginning December 8th on the British in Malaya , the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), and the Americans and Filipinos in the Philipines and Guam.

One immediate impact of the attack was that the industrial base of the United States shifted from a peacetime to a wartime footing. The propaganda poster below was meant to urge workers on.

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Quote Of The Day

December 6, 2015 by 1 Comment

The quote of the day comes from Herschel Smith at The Captain’s Journal. It is in response to an editorial by Josie Duffy at DailyKos. It should be noted that Duffy’s bio says she is an attorney.

Duffy said in her (fact challenged) editorial that our opinion on gun control doesn’t matter. That if we oppose gun control then we are saying that peoples’ lives matter less than our guns. Duffy has no clear understanding of the concept of self-defense nor of the role that firearms provide in securing.

Hershel said in response:

As for the disagreeable ones over at Kos, I would respond that if you bristle at the idea of gun rights, fine. But what you are really saying is that while evil men hunt down the innocent in places of work, worship and play to kill them, what you really want to see is those innocent men perish rather than have access to a means of self defense.

You would rather see women hiding and cowering under desks than be able to live another day for their children, and you would rather see blood in the streets for the sake of government control than free men who won’t allow their families to be harmed.

The hatred of police that your hippie fathers and mothers cherished, has turned into a love of government control. The love of guns owned and operated by the Black Panthers, The Weather Underground and others, turned into a hatred of anything that could threaten the power of the state – once your ilk was in charge. What you once loved you now hate because it gives someone else that same freedom and power. Admit it. Go ahead and admit it. Is that such an unreasonable thing to ask?

I could go on about Duffy’s editorial but I think Herschel does a better job of it.

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Happy Repeal Day!

December 5, 2015 by

On this date in 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution repealed the 18th Amendment. The Great Experiment was called to a close when the state of Utah ratified the 21st Amendment at 5:32pm.

At the same time as he signed the proclamation officially ending Prohibition, FDR asked that saloons be prohibited and he “enjoined all citizens to cooperate with the government in its endeavor to restore a greater respect for law and order, especially by confining their purchases of liquor to duly licensed agencies.”

Governmental control of substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and coffee (yes, coffee!) have a long history as an article in today’s Weekend Wall Street Journal makes clear.

Although the U.S. is indelibly associated with Prohibition, authorities the world over have long regarded the pleasures (or vices) of alcohol, tobacco and coffee with deep suspicion. Concerns about these habit-forming substances’ potential health hazards didn’t provoke the official hostility. Instead it often came from paranoia over what the masses might get up to if allowed to let off a little steam without supervision.

What “the masses” might get up to including overthrowing their masters’ yoke. It was in the coffeehouses and taverns of Boston and Philadelphia that men such John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and others gathered to discuss the idea of an independent nation.

So whether it is alcoholic beverage control or gun control, the key word is always going to be control. Government, you see, just doesn’t trust us.

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Sneak Attack By Dems Fails

December 3, 2015 by 5 Comments

If it hadn’t been for an alert from the National Shooting Sports Foundation this afternoon, I would not have known that the Democrats were planning to bring up gun control amendments to H.R.3762 – Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015. That bill would repeal parts of ObamaCare so it was near and dear to the Republicans’ heart.

The two major anti-gun amendments were brought up by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). Feinstein’s amendment would have made anyone listed on the FBI’s secret Terrorist Screening Database a prohibited person for NICS checks. The Manchin amendment was a repeat of 2013’s Manchin-Toomey universal background check bill.

Both amendments needed 60 votes to pass. Fortunately, neither even got a majority.

Feinstein’s amendment failed 45 Aye to 54 Nay. Meanwhile, Manchin-Toomey failed by a vote of 47 Aye to 50 Nay as reported live on the Senate’s livestream. It seems that an additional vote was added to the Aye column in the final reprot.

As NSSF General Counsel Larry Keane pointed out on Twitter, Manchin-Toomey got 7 fewer votes in 2015 than in 2013. (Actually, 6 but still…)

Both of these votes were cynical efforts on the part of Democrats to play off on yesterday’s terrorist attack in San Bernadino, California. I think we can come to expect to see this come up with every major vote or after any mass shooting that doesn’t involve JJ, Pookie, Ice Dog, or Ray-Ray.

The roll call vote on Feinstein’s amendment breaks down like this:

YEAs —45
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)		 Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)		 Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —54
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)		 Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)		 Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)


Not Voting – 1
Warner (D-VA)

And the roll call vote on this year’s Manchin-Toomey universal background check amendment is as follows:

YEAs —48
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)		 Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)		 Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Toomey (R-PA)
Udall (D-NM)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —50
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)		 Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)		 Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)


Not Voting – 2
Johnson (R-WI) Warner (D-VA)

Just like in 2013 the only Republicans voted for Manchin-Toomey were Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and, of course, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA). (Corrected to add Collins who I missed when I first scanned the list)

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I Didn’t Know That ISIS Had Attacked Paris, Maine

December 2, 2015 by 3 Comments

Sometimes you just have to shake your head in wonder about the things that come out of the mouth of Barack Obama. The video clip below is a case in point.

Obama made these comments while in Paris, France. You know where on November 13th, eight ISIS terrorists killed 132 people in a set of coordinated shootings across the City of Lights.

I’m guessing he must have confused Paris, France with Paris, Maine. The former is the French capital while the later is a small town in western foothills region of Maine near Sebago Lake.

Likewise, he must have confused the Norway where 69 were killed and 110 wounded at a youth camp in 2011 with Norway, Maine. I mean, it is right next door to Paris, Maine. Besides that area of Maine has a slew of summer camps for kids. Any reasonable person could see how he got confused by this especially since Denmark, Maine is just about 25 miles away.

January 20, 2016 cannot get here soon enough.

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A NICS Check Two-Fer

December 2, 2015 by 2 Comments
The FBI’s NICS checks marked two milestones on Black Friday, November 27th. First, it had the highest recorded number of NICS checks on record for the day after Thanksgiving which is otherwise known as Black Friday. Second, and more importantly, it surpassed the previous one day record total for NICS background checks set on December 21, 2012.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reports that it processed 185,345 transactions on Nov. 27, Black Friday, making the day the highest Black Friday ever and the highest day in NICS history. The highest previous day was Dec. 21, 2012 with 177,170 background checks. For the entire Nov. 26-29 2015 four-day Black Friday period 368,774 checks were completed, a 9.9 percent increase over the 335,555 checks conducted over the corresponding 2014 4-day period.

While the number of NICS checks are indicative of the number of firearm sales transactions, they are not perfectly correlated. For example, concealed carry permits in many states are taken as a substitute for the NICS background check. Thus, the actual number of firearms sold could be even greater than the number of checks reported.

Many factors probably are coming into play here. First, the ISIS attacks in Paris are still fresh in the minds of many people. I know my fellow Polite Society Podcast co-host Gary Daugherty has reported a significant rise in the number of people contacting him to take the Illinois concealed carry class. Second, the Democrats have decided the gun control is a winning issue for them and have gone all in on it. Finally, President Obama has said he wants to make gun control one of his primary focuses in his last year in office.

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Malfeasance Rewarded

November 30, 2015 by 5 Comments

Imagine if you will that you worked for a large company and were issued both a company car and company-provided credit card. Then imagine what would happen if you decided to use that company car to drive to a casino, to use that company-provided credit card to get a cash advance to buy chips, and you did it all on company time.

You would likely be fired and perhaps even prosecuted for stealing from your employer. Or, at least, that is how it should work in the real world.

However, if you were a BATFE Special Agent and you did this, then you just might get promoted to Special Agent in Charge of a Field Division and move into the Senior Executive Service. According to the summary report from the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General posted to CleanUpATF.org, that is exactly what happened.

Investigative Summary:
Findings Concerning On-Duty Gambling and Related Misconduct by an ATF Special Agent in
Charge While in a Prior Position


The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated this investigation based on information from
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) alleging that a current Special
Agent in Charge (SAC) gambled on duty and engaged in related misconduct while in a position
with ATF prior to being promoted. The OIG investigation determined that the SAC gambled on
duty, misused his government travel card to facilitate his gambling, and misused his assigned
government vehicle by using it to travel to casinos. By gambling while on duty, the SAC violated
federal regulations that prohibit federal employees from gambling while on duty. In addition,
the SAC violated ATF policy by, among other things, misusing his government travel card to
obtain cash advances to gamble, and using his assigned government vehicle to travel to casinos
to gamble, which is not an “official purpose” for which use of the government vehicle is
authorized. Prosecution was declined. The OIG provided a report of investigation to ATF for
appropriate action.

So the question remains, which one of the 25 Special Agents in Charge (SAC) on this list is the culprit? Was it Eric Harden in LA, Delano Reid in NYC, Carl Walker in Atlanta, or someone else?

Inquiring minds want to know.