Sen. Chuck Grassley was interviewed by Cam Edwards and Ginny Simone about Assistant AG Lanny Breuer’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Grassley said Breuer was a perfect example of what happens to people who try to stonewall Congress on oversight. He said the longer they hold off cooperating, the more egg they will get on their face when the facts eventually come out as they always do.
Holder and the rest of his cronies should heed this advice but I doubt they will.
Sen Richard Burr (R-NC) has always been concerned about the proper treatment of veterans during his time in Congress. He is currently the Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
One of his major beefs with the Department of Veterans Affairs is that they report any veteran who has an appointed financial fiduciary to manage their financial affairs to the FBI’s NICS system as being ineligible to own a firearm. These are not, mind you, individuals who have been adjudicated mentally deficient, incompentent or a danger to themselves or others but rather veterans who need help managing their finances. Currently, 114,000 veterans have been reported by the VA to NICS because of how Veterans Affairs has interpreted the law.
In July, Burr introduced S. 1707 – the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act – to remedy this. The bill currently has 18 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle including such gun control backers as Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT). A companion bill, HR 1898, was introduced in the House by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT). This bill was merged into HR 2349 which passed the House of Representatives and was sent to the Senate on October 11th.
These bills say that a veteran will not be considered adjudicated mentally defective unless a finding or order has been rendered by a judge, magistrate, or other competent judicial authority saying the individual is a danger to himself or to others.
To put the 114,000 veterans who have lost their Second Amendment rights into perspective, currently there are 7.6 million people receiving Social Security benefits who have an assigned fiduciary. None of these 7.6 million people with assigned financial fiduciaries has been reported to NICS nor have they lost their Second Amendment rights.
Cam Edwards interviewed Sen. Burr about this problem and his bill on Tuesday. While the Senate has not been able to pass a budget for over 900 days, let’s hope this is one bill they can get their act together on and pass.
I have held a Curios and Relics FFL since the 1990s and was due to renew it for another 3-year period. I sent in my renewal application on October 17th and received my new license on November 2nd. To be quite frank, I was amazed that ATF’s Federal Firearms Licensing Center turned this renewal around so quickly.
I have criticized the ATF strongly over Project Gunwalker and the agency’s management. However, I believe in giving kudos where they are due and the Federal Firearms Licensing Center turned my renewal application around in record time.
On a side note, if you have an interest in older military firearms or in historic firearms, you really should investigate getting a Curios and Relics FFL. It costs $30 for a 3-year period and allows you to receive eligible firearms directly. The golden days of being a cruffler may be fading but there are still some good deals to be had. Moreover, companies like Midway USA and Brownells will give you a dealer discount on purchases which pays for the C&R FFL if you order just a few things. It is something to think about.
I met Rob Morse on the last day of the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference. It turns out he was a fellow gun blogger and had a blog named Slow Facts. We spent a few hours in Chicago O’Hare chatting while waiting for our respective flights home, me to North Carolina and Rob to Southern California.
Rob is an engineer by training and he applies that same clarity of thought to piercing the gun prohibitionists’ arguments against national reciprocity for concealed carry in this article.
Defenders of the existing feudal licensing scheme claim that their state has special needs. (Yes, there are a few “special needs” states in these United States. They have been taking the short bus for years now.) So what! Of course each state tests its drivers in slightly different ways to obtain a license. Some towns allow right turns at a red traffic light, and others don’t. We now post traffic signs so the regulations are explicit and not a matter of local knowledge. Gun laws also differ slightly from state to state, and most of the differences are similarly arbitrary.
It is as if California didn’t allow you to cross the border in your pickup truck because your truck is not on their list of approved vehicles. At the border they say, “In our state, we only let certain people drive that kind of truck. Now why would you be needing one?”
Don’t you recognize the same old political excuses?
- “People will be dying all over the place if we let you drive a truck like that in our state.
- “We have a long tradition of truck control, and it has served us well.
- “Only criminals drive that kind of truck and we won’t stand for it here.
- “Strangers simply don’t understand our system of truck regulation, and we need to keep foreign trucks out of their hands for their own protection.
- “You wouldn’t want one of our children to get their hands on a truck like this, now would you?
- “Our local government knows its citizens and determines the trucks that best serve their needs.”
Rob makes a very perceptive argument when he says that one of the major reasons some politicians oppose national reciprocity is that visitors will make the locals look bad by comparison. In other words, when the people of California or New York or New Jersey see visitors carrying concealed, legally and safely, they will begin to wonder why the heck they don’t have the same rights as the visitors.
Read the whole post as it does an excellent job is demolishing the arguments of Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors with their Our Lives, Our Laws campaign.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has introduced legislation that would strengthen the protections granted to whistleblowers in the Federal government. This act, HR 3289 – The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011, was introduced yesterday and has 3 co-sponsors including Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee. While the text of the legislation is not yet available, Issa’s office did release this statement about the bill.
WASHINGTON – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today announced the introduction of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (H.R. 3289). The legislation will strengthen provisions of the Whistleblower Protection Act, originally enacted in 1989, for federal government employees who expose abuse, mismanagement, or criminal activity in federal agencies and programs.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is an original co-sponsor of the legislation, as are Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who sponsored whistleblower protection enhancement legislation last congress. Similar legislation was approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month. You can read a copy of the House legislation here.
“Whistleblowers play critical roles in exposing wrongdoing in government,” said Issa.”Federal employees who discover waste, abuse and mismanagement in their agency need to be able to alert agency leaders and Congress without fear of reprisal from supervisors, and within the confines of the law. This legislation establishes new protections for those who seek lawful ways to address abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
When enacted, the legislation will:
- close judicially-created loopholes in existing whistleblower protection law;
- extend whistleblower protection rights to some 40,000 airport baggage screeners;
- increase avenues for intelligence community whistleblowers to safely and legally expose waste, fraud and abuse at intelligence agencies;
- create specific protection in the law for scientific freedom;
- ensure a permanent anti-gag statute to neutralize classifications like “classifiable,” “sensitive but unclassified,” “sensitive security information” and other poorly defined security labels;
- establish consistency with other remedial employment laws;
- strengthen the Office of Special Counsel’s ability to seek disciplinary accountability against those who retaliate, and provides the OSC with authority to file friend of the court briefs in support of whistleblower rights cases appealed from the administrative level;
- create a pilot program to extend whistleblower protection to non-defense contractors.
The legislation will be considered at a business meeting of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday November 3rd at 9:30 a.m.
Given the retaliation that we have seen against such ATF whistleblowers as John Dodson, Vincent Cefalu, and Jay Dobyns, I think this legislation is an overdue step in the right direction.
Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com did a story a week and a half ago about ATF Agent Jay Dobyns who, after successfully infiltrating the Hell’s Angels, received death threats, threats against his family, and had his house burned to the ground. These threats were ignored by the then head of the Phoenix Field Division William Newell. When Dobyns filed a complaint, Newell retaliated against him. As Pavlich notes as to why this matters:
So why does this matter? Newell was the brainchild of Operation Fast and Furious in the ATF Phoenix Field office. Newell is also the agent who was in regular contact with a member of the White House national security team, Kevin O’Reilly, about the lethal program. Newell also said he would conduct Operation Fast and Furious again, despite two Americans and hundreds of innocent Mexicans dead as a result of the program.
Newell used Dobyns as a test run, to see just how much he could get away with in his management position within ATF before getting reprimanded. Considering nobody was held accountable for the mistakes made in handling death threats against Dobyns, Newell knew he had the green light to do whatever he wanted, at the highest levels of corruption. The Dobyns case empowered him. Newell was protected and defended for ignoring violent death threats against a federal agent, he had free reign to do what he wanted. This gave Newell everything he needed to get away with Operation Fast and Furious, which started in Fall 2009.
If Newell and Gillett had been reprimanded and/or fired when they should have been, we may never had a Project Gunwalker and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry could well still be alive. That sounds like as good a reason as any to see HR 3289 pass and be signed into law.
Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) becomes the 30th Representative calling for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder due to Project Gunwalker.
Florida Republican Rep. Connie Mack became the latest congressman to demand that Holder step down, telling The Daily Caller late on Tuesday that “Eric Holder should resign Fast and Furiously!”
Mack is a high-profile political figure who entered Florida’s Republican primary for Senate last week. Mack’s decision to call for Holder to resign appears to signal that it’s politically popular.
His wife, Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) has also indicated she is “deeply concerned” about Holder’s involvment in Operation Fast and Furious but has not gone so far as to call for his ouster.
The other 29 congressmen include in order from most recent to oldest:
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)
Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX)
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA)
Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL)
Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN)
Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY)
Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO)
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN)
Rep. Allen West (R-FL)
Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS)
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)
Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS)
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)
Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)
Rep. John Mica (R-FL)
Rep. Quico Canseco (R-TX)
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID)
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX)
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
When Democrats start calling for Holder’s resignation, it will then become critical. As much as I’d like to see Holder gone now, I hope he sticks it out through 2012 so he becomes an electoral albatross around the neck of President Obama.
UPDATE: As I said in the headline – and growing. Four more Republicans have joined the call for Holder’s resignation. They are:
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
Rep. Diane Black (R-TN)
Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH)
Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
There are other Congressmen who have expressed concern and displeasure with Attorney General Eric Holder who have not gone so far as to ask for his resignation. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) had this to say:
“At this point, it appears that a full scale cover up occurred, and Mr. Holder must answer the fundamental questions of what he knew and when he knew it, as should the White House staff who knew the details of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Pearce said. “I would like to see the congressional investigation run its course and for Mr. Holder to show the veracity we rightfully expect from public officials.”
I find myself in agreement with Rep. Pearce’s call to let the investigation runs its course and to have Holder called to testify under oath which he is scheduled to do in December. If Holder resigns before the investigation is complete, it will lead to a call to stop the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings and the complete scale of scandal will be hidden from public view. Given that building a rationale for more gun control seems to have been the impetus behind Operation Fast and Furious, the hearings need to continue.
The Outdoor Channel’s Gun Stories returns to discuss the Remington 870 pump shotgun. It is the best selling shotgun in history with over 10 million sold.
In the battle over which modern pump shotgun is better, I am torn between the 870 and the Mossberg 500/590. With its twin rails, the 870 is smoother and probably more reliable. However, I find the tang safety on the Mossberg more user friendly. My first shotgun, a 12-gauge full choked shotgun made by Savage for a hardware chain, had the tang safety and it could be I just got used to that.
UPDATE: I can’t get the embedded video to play and I’m working on that.
Michael Bane examines the different varieties of polymer-framed service pistols in this segment from an episode of last season’s Best Defense TV program. He looks at the Glock, the Ruger SR9, and FNH FNP to illustrate the differences.
Copyright troll Righthaven, LLC is now facing its just deserts. Yesterday, a Writ of Execution was issued against it and U.S. Marshals are authorized to use “reasonable force” to collect a judgement against it. The judgement was a result of an award of attorney fees to a defendant by Judge Philip Pro of the U.S. District Court for Nevada after he dismissed a suit brought by Righthaven against Wayne Hoehn.
Righthaven attempted to delay the proceedings by appealing to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals but they missed the deadline for filing its opening brief in the case. They blamed missing the deadline on a “misunderstanding” but the court refused to grant them an extension.
According to the website Ars Technica:
The appeals court has refused to act on Righthaven’s request to delay its August judgment further, and the money was due last Friday. When it didn’t show up, Randazza Legal Group went back to the Nevada District Court to request a Writ of Execution to use the court’s enforcers, the US Marshals, to collect the money. The court clerk issued the writ today, and Righthaven’s $34,045.50 judgment has now ballooned to $63,720.80 with all the additional costs and fees from the delay.
I spoke to Marc Randazza this evening, who tells me, “We’re going to enlist the US Marshal in marking sure this court’s order has some meaning.” He looks forward to heading over to Righthaven’s offices as soon as possible. Should Righthaven not have the cash in its bank accounts, the writ allows Randazza to “identify to the US Marshal or his representative assets that are to be seized to satisfy the judgment/order.”
Frankly, I hope that more of those sued by Righthaven go back to court to obtain judgements against them. Moreover, I hope that smart lawyers find a way to pierce the corporate veil and go after Steve Gibson and his personal assets. As Righthaven is his brainchild, that indeed would be just deserts.
William the Coroner, gun blogger, forensic pathologist, and cat lover passed away yesterday at his home in northern Ohio. I had the opportunity to meet and chat with him in Pittsburgh at the Gunnie After-Prom that Breda put on during the NRA Annual Meeting.
William the Coroner was only 43. As Chance noted today about feeling old, “And here I was not fretting about being over the hill when life smacked me right up side the head with a dose of mortality.” He was referring to his father’s heart attack. It could apply just as well to the passing of William the Coroner.
For William:
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
H/T Sean and New Jovian Thunderbolt
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