Month: November 2010

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Old Politicians and Old Press Releases Really Never Die

November 20, 2010 by

It is sometimes amazing what documents you can find that are still available on the Internet. I’m not talking about historical documents related to our country’s founding that might be found in the National Archives. Rather I came across this old press release from someone that the State of Illinois would rather forget – then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2005

Governor Blagojevich launches effort to fight gun trafficking
Governor sets up gun crime unit in State Police; New Gun Trafficking Unit will work with Indiana, Mississippi and federal agencies to stop flow of crime guns into Illinois

CHICAGO – In a new effort to stop the flow of illegal guns into Illinois, Governor Rod Blagojevich today announced the creation of an elite gun trafficking police unit that will work with federal authorities and law enforcement agencies from two other states to detect and capture gunrunners and dealers.

“Most guns used in crimes come from out of state. The more we can stop the flow of illegal guns into Illinois, the less gun crime and gun violence we’ll see. That’s why we’re creating an elite gun crimes unit to reduce the flow of crime guns into the hands of criminals. We’re going to track illegal guns to their sources and crack down on the sale and distribution of illegal guns,” Governor Blagojevich said.

More crime guns flow into Illinois from Indiana and Mississippi than from any other state. According to recent data, 777 crime guns from Indiana and 532 crime guns from Mississippi were located in Illinois. Crime guns from these two states alone nearly equal the total number of crime guns from the next 10 states combined.

Nationwide, close to 90 percent of guns used in crimes are trafficked. In Chicago, for the past two years more than 75 percent of murders involved guns.

Trafficking is when a gun is passed from a legal buyer or seller, to a person or group who are not permitted to have a weapon. Trafficking also takes place when a gun is stolen, sold by a corrupt dealer to a criminal, sold to a legal buyer who gives it to a criminal, or inadvertently sold to a criminal. In Illinois, almost half of traced gun crimes were trafficked from another state.

“Illinois is flooded with a deadly tide of crime guns that come from states that have very lax gun laws. This initiative will have a greater impact on reducing Illinois crime than any other gun safety measure currently being proposed,” said Jim Kessler, Policy and Research Director for Americans for Gun Safety.

The gun-tracing unit will work with authorities in Indiana and Mississippi, coordinating information on purchases, allowing law enforcement to take action. The unit will also analyze federal data to detect trends and patterns and prevent criminal activity.

The unit will be led by a Master Sergeant and will include five new intelligence analysts to study crime gun data and help lead agents to gun traffickers. The state troopers assigned to this unit will be trained by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

The Governor also sent a clear message to those who want to make guns more easily accessible. “Bills that would preempt the home rule and take away the power of cities to enact gun control laws, or that would make Illinois a conceal and carry state, or that would destroy records that will make it harder for law enforcement to trace gun crimes, are bills that would weaken our gun laws and increase crime. If any of these bills reach my desk, let me say it right now: they are dead on arrival.”

Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director George Phillips, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Division of the ATF Andrew L. Traver, and the leadership of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police as well as legislators and leaders from state and national gun control advocacy groups including Americans for Gun Safety, the Chicago Chapter of the National Brady Campaign and the Northern Suburban Chapter of the Million Mom March joined the Governor at the press conference.

Blago, as he has become know in new headlines, was impeached and convicted by the Illinois General Assembly in 2009. He was later tried on Federal corruption charges. Blagojevich was convicted on one count of lying to the FBI when a mistrial was declared on the remaining 23 charges as the jury couldn’t reach a decision. He will be retried on those charges in April 2011.

It is important to remember that Blagojevich always made gun control a central part of his political campaigns. Running for reelection in 2006, he pummeled his Republican opponent mercilessly on gun control especially her opposition to a new assault weapons (sic) ban.

I’m sure that is one news conference and one disgraced politician that Andrew Traver and those supporting his nomination to be the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives would sooner forget. The beauty (and the curse) of the Internet is that things are never really forgotten.

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And In North Carolina News…

November 20, 2010 by

Congressman Bob “Who Are You” Etheridge has conceded defeat to Renee Ellmers. In the unofficial recount, Ellmers has maintained her approximately 1,500 vote lead. Ellmers, if you will recall, was rated AQ by the NRA and was eventually endorsed by them. Etheridge, by contrast, was rated D by the NRA. It is somewhat surprising that someone with his weak gun rights credentials could hold on to his seat in rural eastern North Carolina for so long.

One last thing about Renee Ellmers – she has her CCW and didn’t hide that fact.

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CCRKBA Joins Fight Against Nomination of Traver

November 19, 2010 by

This was released yesterday by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms regarding the nomination of Andrew Traver to head ATF:

CITIZENS COMMITTEE OPPOSES TRAVER NOMINATION TO HEAD BATFE
Thursday, November 18th, 2010

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today is announcing its opposition to the nomination, by President Obama, of Andrew Traver as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Traver is currently special agent in charge of Chicago’s BATFE field division, where he has a history of working with gun prohibitionists. He served as an advisor to the International Association for Chiefs of Police on that group’s 2007 “Gun Violence Reduction Project,” in cooperation with the anti-gun-rights Joyce Foundation. This project involved several high profile anti-gun-rights advocates, but there was not a single representative from the firearms community on the advisory panel.

“The nomination of Andrew Traver is more proof that Barack Obama has complete disregard for the Second Amendment and the rights of firearms owners,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “We have serious concerns that the agency, under his leadership, will maintain any semblance of cooperation with the firearms industry, over which BATFE exercises considerable control.”

Traver helped develop the IACP/Joyce Foundation report, which recommended banning an array of modern sport-utility rifles and .50-caliber rifles used in long-range competition. The report also encouraged Congress to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment that protects sensitive trace data used by law enforcement in criminal investigations from being misued in frivolous municipal lawsuits that have consistently lost in court, and urged the adoption of restrictive gun show regulations that would effectively force them to close.

“Mr. Traver appears to be joined at the hip to various gun control and gun ban efforts,” Gottlieb observed. “The Citizens Committee, its members and supporters across the country oppose this nomination because Traver’s history clear shows that he is not the right man for such an important job.”

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Brady Campaign Says Oops – Never Mind

November 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

Like a scene from the first season of Saturday Night Live where Gilda Radner’s character Miss Emily Litella is always saying “Never mind!”, so it is with the Brady Center.

Yesterday they had this announcement on their website trumpeting their filing an amicus brief in the NRA’s Texas case D’Cruz et al v. McCraw et al:

Brady Center Urges Court to Throw Out NRA Lawsuit to Allow Teenagers to Carry Concealed Firearms

Nov 17, 2010

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence today filed a brief in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas urging the court to throw out an NRA lawsuit claiming that teens and young persons ages 18-20 have a constitutional right to carry loaded, concealed weapons in public.

“It is dangerous and reckless for the NRA to claim that teenagers should be allowed to carry loaded semiautomatic weapons on our streets and playgrounds. The Second Amendment allows for commonsense gun laws, it doesn’t require that we legally allow armed teens in our communities,” said Brady Center President Paul Helmke.

The lawsuit, filed by the National Rifle Association, claims that the Second Amendment requires that states allow teens and young persons ages 18-20 to carry loaded firearms in public. It seeks to overturn a Texas law that generally prohibits the carrying of loaded, concealed weapons by people under age 21. Texas is one of 36 states that restricts the possession or carrying of firearms by teens and young persons ages 18-20. The Texas Constitution specifically allows the regulation of public gun carrying, stating that the “Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.”

The brief cites studies showing that young persons under 21 often lack the same ability as adults to “govern impulsivity, judgment, planning for the future, and foresight of consequences.” People aged 18-20 fall within the age range of offenders who commit the highest rates homicide and engage in criminal gun possession.

According to the Brady Center brief, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment protects a limited, narrow “right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home” but has also made clear that the right to bear arms “is not infringed by laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons.” Laws restricting teenage gun possession and carrying are reasonable gun laws permissible under the Second Amendment.

The Brady Center amicus brief was filed today in the case D’Cruz v. McCraw by attorneys with the Brady Center, the law firm Hogan Lovells and Texas attorney Scott Medlock. The Brady Center was joined on the brief by Texas organizations Mothers Against Teen Violence and the Texas Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Today, in that same court, they filed a motion to withdraw their application of amici curiae.

In light of the fact that defendants have not moved to dismiss Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint and have instead requested additional time to respond to the Amended Complaint, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Mothers Against Teen Violence, and Texas Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, through undersigned counsel, move to withdraw their application for leave to file a brief as amici curiae.

This move was not opposed by either the NRA or the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

Perhaps to make up for their premature filing of their brief, the Brady Campaign then filed an application to file an amicus brief in the Westchester County (NY) pistol permit case, Kachalsky et al v. Cacace et al. They attached as an exhibit the proposed amicus brief.

However, as I noted in a post describing the first endorsed letters in this case, Judge Cathy Seibel’s Individual Practices 2.A. requires a pre-motion conference arranged by letter before a motion is allowed to be entered into the record. She makes no mention of amici curiae filings. One must wonder if the Brady Campaign is quite aware of just how tightly Judge Seibel runs her courtroom. If not, they well could be in for a surprise and may have to say “never mind” again.

The Brady Campaign – the Miss Emily Litella of gun control groups.

UPDATE: David Codrea has a post on an earlier oopsie that the Brady Campaign had with an amicus brief here.

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No Appeal in Wisconsin Concealed Carry Case

November 18, 2010 by 5 Comments

About a month ago, I did a post on Clark County, WI Judge Jon Counsell who ruled that that Wisconsin’s ban on concealed carry was unconstitutional. At the time it was widely speculated that the State of Wisconsin would appeal that ruling.

They didn’t.

In an email that I received today from Asst. State Public Defender William Poss he said, “The good news is that the state did not appeal the ruling.” That is good news indeed for residents of Clark County, Wisconsin!

With the recent electoral victories of Republican Scott Walker as Governor and the Republican take-over of both houses of the Wisconsin State Assembly, look to see a bill authorizing concealed carry statewide in 2011.

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Traver’s Nomination Sent To The Senate By White House

November 18, 2010 by

This was announced yesterday on the White House’s website:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release November 17, 2010 Presidential Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate, 11/17/10
NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:

Daniel L. Shields III, of Pennsylvania, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Brunei Darussalam.

Joseph M. Torsella, of Pennsylvania, to be Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, with the rank of Ambassador.

Joseph M. Torsella, of Pennsylvania, to be Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during his tenure of service as Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform.

Andrew L. Traver, of Illinois, to be Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. (New Position)

WITHDRAWAL SENT TO THE SENATE:

Marsha Ternus, of Iowa, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute for a term expiring September 17, 2012, vice Robert A. Miller, term expired, which was sent to the Senate on September 13, 2010.

It’s official now. Time to start writing both of your state’s Senators even if they are anti-gun sorts. No letters, faxes, or emails let them say they didn’t hear any opposition to Andrew Traver as the head of ATF.

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C. K. Shivers – The Gun

November 17, 2010 by

Former Marine infantry officer and foreign correspondent for the New York Times C. K. Chivers recently published a book called The Gun. It is a look at the history, development, design, and role of the AK-47 in conflicts around the globe. The video below is a brief overview of the book as told by Chivers himself. One point made about the book is that it will not appeal to the hardcore AK fanatic. As the Kitup Blog says about it:

Chivers forced me to retract my statement during the lead in to the show that he was a “sort of gun expert.” He admits that he’s done a lot of reporting on guns, talked to a lot of fighters who use them and researched the history of firearms, but it’s not like Col. Doug Tamilio at PEO Soldier Weapons is ringing his phone off the hook with a job offer.


If you’re into the caliber debate, want to relive the ill-fated rush to field the M-16, are a student of the civil war, World War II and the Cold War, like the M-14 better than the AK-47, like the AK-47 better than the M-14, are a student of the inner workings of Soviet economic planning and international revolutions or are intrigued by how something as simple as a rifle gets from paper to palm, The Gun has something in it for you.

Christian at the Kitup Blog did a longer interview with Chivers. It runs about 30 minutes and can be found in the embedded player below.

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ATF – Circling the Wagons

November 17, 2010 by

In my earlier posts on Andrew Traver, I referred to a website and forum run by dissident ATF agents upset with the mismanagement and corruption within BATFE called CleanUpATF.org. The comments from these agents who know or had worked with Traver was that he a nice guy but out of his league as a manager.

That was then and this is now. It looks like even those who were his harshest critics within ATF are circling the wagons and supporting Traver.

The comments from earliest to last:

A new ATF Director has finally been nominated. As expected, the Chicago SAC has been given the nod and officially nominated to the position. The change in leadership is long overdue. We can only hope he will lead this agency into the future and not into the ground, like the last few folks. Also, we can hope that he cleans house in SOD, starting with the Chief and his little shadow, the newly promoted Deputy Chief. Maybe we can get back to the basics and support the everyday working agents out on the street. Please carry this agency into the future.

Don’t get your hopes up. This is all smoke and mirrors. DOJ and the White House have never really tried to find someone for director. Traver is all they half-heartedly put together. He will never pass confirmation. My bet is that he gets a hold put on his nomination within a week.

I would encourage all of us to give Traver our support. He deserves the benefit of the doubt. He has a massive mess to clean up but lets hold out hope that he can do it. He deserves a chance to succeed. There is not much patience left out there so no doubt he does needs to go to work quick.

I think we’ll find out pretty quick if he is the real deal. If the White House put him in the Director’s chair just to keep a seat warm and fend off the critics, we’ll see that immediately. If he comes in and makes moves and decisions and improvements then he’ll do everything that Melson couldn’t or wouldn’t and likely be embraced. I am a little amazed that they left Traver all this baggage that his predessors created but time will tell if he can man up and get things working again. I will say this, if he doesn’t move quick then he’ll be in trouble. The men and women of ATF need results now. If he drags his feet he is going to be viewed as another Truscott-Sullivan-Melson DOJ lap dog. Good luck Traver, bring us back please.

Did he ever remove that ASAC who purchased the Cadillac?

If his first decision is to appoint Martin DD, he’s already lost. Probably trying to fly under the radar, the U. S. Attys office released (over the weekend) that the big NEUTRALITY ACT case Martin supported and solf the Director on, has been dismissed. They did not mention the ONLY thing seized in that huge caper, THE BLACK RHINO HORN. Yes it got Martin press and yes he wasted an entire squads resources and yes he seized NO GUNS. I guess the good news is that he allow us to blow $235000+ like he did on the OTHER big wire case. Great Job.

I think we owe Traver a chance and not be quick to pre-judge. We all ponder what we would do different if we were to replace our boss. Traver is a well educated man and I have to believe that he has seen the decline of this agency over the last few years. Lets give him the benefit of the doubt that he is well intentioned, will seek good counsel, learn from past mistakes and focus on mission. It is about time we have a cop at the helm, the lawyers have proved inadequate and incapable of decision making.

We have NO choice but to give him a chance. Its the right thing to do. BUT He only gets SO LONG to say, “I inherited these problems” before he too will be held accountable. This is OUR Bureau too.

Work fast Mr. Traver. We want you to have success and be a great Director but you have to work fast. Stop the trainwreck and you will be the peoples champ.

One of the first rules of any bureaucracy is that intense infighting is allowed and even encouraged. However, any attack from outside the organization must be resisted at all costs even if it is aimed at someone you despise.

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Big Media – Andrew Who?

November 17, 2010 by 4 Comments

If one was to depend on the mainstream media or big media to know that Andrew Traver had been nominated by President Obama to be the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, you’d be out of luck.

Only two of the 25 largest newspapers in the country have any mention of the Traver nomination. The New York Times had a report on Nov. 15th and originally spelled Traver as “Taver”. They didn’t give much info other than that Traver is the SAC for the Chicago Field Division and that his confirmation would probably be opposed.

Al Kamen had a brief mention of Traver in his In The Loop column yesterday. Kamen’s column was where Traver’s nomination was first floated as a trial balloon back in August. He had this to say about it:

As we mentioned back on Aug. 4, if approved, Traver would be the first-ever Senate-confirmed ATF director. The position had been filled (at the Treasury Department and more recently at Justice) without Senate input. Since the job became Senate-confirmable in 2006, it seems, no one has made it past the watchful eyes of the gun lobby.

Hard to imagine Traver will be approved by the new Senate.

The only mention of Traver’s nomination in the Chicago area was on the WLS-TV, the ABC affiliate. Even then all they did was reprint the relevant parts of the press release from the White House announcing the nomination. No other newspaper or TV/radio station has any mention of Traver on their websites and that includes both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

So what about the major broadcast and cable networks? Nothing. No ABC, NBC, or CBS. No CNN, Fox, or MSNBC.

One must wonder why Andrew Traver is being treated as such a stealth candidate in the media. Is it because his appointment only matters to the gun culture and the anti-gun rights forces and for the rest of the world it is considered ho-hum news? Or is it because the intent is to sneak Traver through the confirmation process?

Sebastian at Snow Flakes in Hell is of the opinion that Obama is just waiting until Congress goes into recess to make this a recess appointment which wouldn’t require the advice and consent of the Senate. Traver would hold the office until the end of the next  Congress or until the 112th Congress ends in 2012. We’ll just have to wait a few more days and see.

UPDATE: David Codrea agrees with Sebastian on the possibility of a recess appointment for Traver. He goes over the details in his National Gun Rights Examiner column.

UPDATE II: Welcome Instapundit readers and thanks to Glenn for the Instalanche!

Here are links to my earlier posts on Andrew Traver.

NRA on Traver

Brady Center on Traver

Jesse Jackson, Jr. on Traver

Who is Andrew Traver

I Don’t Believe in Coincidences

First Post on Traver

Feel free to post any or all of these blog entries on your favorite forum. Since the Big Media isn’t going to publicize the nomination, it will take an Army of Davids to do it instead. All I ask is that you include a link back to the original.