Month: March 2011

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Napolitano – Not Aware Of Gunwalking Operation

March 9, 2011 by 2 Comments

In an unrelated hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley had some pointed questions for Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. It should be pointed out that before Napolitano was appointed to DHS, she had served as Governor of Arizona, Attorney General of Arizona, and US Attorney for Arizona. One would think that she would want to be kept apprised of what was going on in her old home state.

UPDATE: Prior to becoming the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Dennis Burke was a senior advisor to Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security. Given that Burke’s office worked with ATF on Operation Fast and Furious, I find it interesting that Napolitano claims to have no knowledge of such a big operation.

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Demonstration Of The X-Rail Shotgun Magazine Extension

March 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

3-Gun Nation provides a good demonstration of the X-Rail shotgun magazine extension in competition. I can see it helping the competitors in the Unlimited Class. I wonder how well an item like this would work in a shotgun for home defense. I’m thinking that if it doesn’t cause the muzzle to be too heavy it might be useful in situations where you had to defend against a home invasion.

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New Co-Sponsors For HR 822- National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity (updated)

March 9, 2011 by

HR 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, just went from one co-sponsor – Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC-11) to 43 co-sponsors. The new co-sponsors represent a cross-section of the country including anti-gun states such as New York and California. I see more than a handful of Democrats have signed on to the bill as well.

If your Congressman is not a co-sponsor and he or she represents that he or she is “a friend of the Second Amendment”, then ask them why they aren’t a co-sponsor. I’d love to see the number of co-sponsors exclipse that of HR 308 in short order.

The co-sponsors added on March 2nd and 3rd.

Rep Boren, Dan [OK-2] – 3/2/2011
Rep Ross, Mike [AR-4] – 3/2/2011
Rep Graves, Sam [MO-6] – 3/2/2011
Rep Huelskamp, Tim [KS-1] – 3/2/2011
Rep Gibson, Christopher P. [NY-20] – 3/2/2011
Rep Heller, Dean [NV-2] – 3/2/2011
Rep Owens, William L. [NY-23] – 3/2/2011
Rep Coffman, Mike [CO-6] – 3/2/2011
Rep Lamborn, Doug [CO-5] – 3/2/2011
Rep Duncan, John J., Jr. [TN-2] – 3/2/2011
Rep Schmidt, Jean [OH-2] – 3/2/2011
Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [GA-3] – 3/2/2011
Rep Rogers, Mike D. [AL-3] – 3/2/2011
Rep Gingrey, Phil [GA-11] – 3/2/2011
Rep Young, Don [AK] – 3/2/2011
Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] – 3/2/2011
Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5] – 3/2/2011
Rep Garrett, Scott [NJ-5] – 3/2/2011
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4] – 3/2/2011
Rep Diaz-Balart, Mario [FL-21] – 3/2/2011
Rep Boswell, Leonard L. [IA-3] – 3/2/2011
Rep Miller, Jeff [FL-1] – 3/2/2011
Rep Barton, Joe [TX-6] – 3/2/2011
Rep Carter, John R. [TX-31] – 3/2/2011
Rep Pence, Mike [IN-6] – 3/2/2011
Rep Heinrich, Martin [NM-1] – 3/3/2011
Rep Benishek, Dan [MI-1] – 3/3/2011
Rep Chaffetz, Jason [UT-3] – 3/3/2011
Rep Hall, Ralph M. [TX-4] – 3/3/2011
Rep Holden, Tim [PA-17] – 3/3/2011
Rep West, Allen B. [FL-22] – 3/3/2011
Rep Herger, Wally [CA-2] – 3/3/2011
Rep Mica, John L. [FL-7] – 3/3/2011
Rep Johnson, Timothy V. [IL-15] – 3/3/2011
Rep Posey, Bill [FL-15] – 3/3/2011
Rep Granger, Kay [TX-12] – 3/3/2011
Rep Rahall, Nick J., II [WV-3] – 3/3/2011
Rep Miller, Gary G. [CA-42] – 3/3/2011
Rep Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. [GA-2] – 3/3/2011
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7] – 3/3/2011
Rep Kissell, Larry [NC-8] – 3/3/2011
Rep Davis, Geoff [KY-4] – 3/3/2011

UPDATE: The number of co-sponsors has now jumped to 57 with the addition of 14 more co-sponsors yesterday. From my perspective, it is interesting to note that all three NRA-rated Democrats from North Carolina are now on board with this bill.

Again, if your Representative is not on either of these lists and they call themselves “pro-gun”, you need to start asking them why they haven’t signed up as a co-sponsor.


Rep McIntyre, Mike [NC-7] – 3/8/2011
Rep Latham, Tom [IA-4] – 3/8/2011
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5] – 3/8/2011
Rep Bachus, Spencer [AL-6] – 3/8/2011
Rep Adams, Sandy [FL-24] – 3/8/2011
Rep Wilson, Joe [SC-2] – 3/8/2011
Rep Mulvaney, Mick [SC-5] – 3/8/2011
Rep Petri, Thomas E. [WI-6] – 3/8/2011
Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [MI-11] – 3/8/2011
Rep Turner, Michael R. [OH-3] – 3/8/2011
Rep Canseco, Francisco “Quico” [TX-23] – 3/8/2011
Rep Jenkins, Lynn [KS-2] – 3/8/2011
Rep Emerson, Jo Ann [MO-8] – 3/8/2011
Rep Kline, John [MN-2] – 3/8/2011

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Know Who You Are Dating

March 9, 2011 by 4 Comments

Sean at An NC Gun Blog has a story about a man shooting his girlfriend at the veterinary clinic where she worked in Johnston County. Turns out he was a convicted felon which should have made this sort of crime “unpossible” as felons are precluded by law from possessing firearms.

One moral of this sad story is that you shouldn’t be dating convicted felons as they just aren’t good dating material. Sean gives excellent advice on how to make sure the man (or woman) you are dating is not a felon.

Ladies. Can I talk to you for a moment? Here’s the deal. It’s expensive to get a full background check on your beau, so here’s how you can shortcut the process. Ask to see his concealed weapon license. The license will tell you two things. First, he’s not a felon, druggie, wife beater, or adjudicated mentally incompetent. Second, it will show that he’s capable of defending you. You might want to pick up a Concealed Carry License for yourself. I mean, how does he know YOU’RE not a felon?

Concealed carry permits – not just to carry concealed but to improve your love life. What more could you ask?

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ATF “Gunwalking” Since 2008?

March 9, 2011 by

Sharyl Attkisson deserves an Emmy for the reporting that she has done on Operation Fast and Furious aka Operation Gunwalker.

In a report yesterday, she found that ATF has allowed guns to “walk” to Mexico since 2008. This time it was from the Tucson area and involved an estimated 450 firearms. It appears that the firearms dealers involved had serious concerns about the sales, reported them to ATF, and then were made paid confidential informants. The FFL’s then were encouraged to sell even more to the suspect buyers.

The ATF Special Agent in Charge of the area was William Newell. Mr. Newell is the recently appointed ATF attache in the US Embassy in Mexico City. CleanUpATF is reporting a rumor that the Mexican government will declare Mr. Newell a persona non grata and force his exit from Mexico.

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Grassley Asks For Independent Investigation Into Project Gunwalker

March 9, 2011 by

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is asking for an independent investigation into Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker. He sent a letter yesterday to the head of the Integrity Committee of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency asking that the Department of Justice’s Acting Inspector General recuse herself from investigation and that an independent Inspector General conduct the investigation into the scandal. Sen. Grassley does not believe that the DOJ’s Acting Inspector General can conduct an impartial investigation especially given they did not follow-up with Agent John Dodson until after being pushed to do so by Grassley’s office in February. Dodson had made his charges to the OIG in December.


Grassley Requests Investigation of ATF’s Fast and Furious Policy be Removed from the Justice Department Inspector General

WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said that he did not have confidence that the Justice Department Inspector General’s office could produce a report that the public would view as frank and unbiased in its investigation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) policy of letting guns “walk” along the Southwest border—a policy that may have contributed to the death of a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent.

In a letter today to Kevin Perkins, the head of the Integrity Committee of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Grassley cited several conflicts that lead him to believe that the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Justice cannot be seen as completely disinterested and independent.

“There are certainly better and more independent ways to conduct this investigation. To have an acting Inspector General’s office lead an investigation like this one just won’t pass the smell test,” Grassley said. “The fact that the Inspector General did not take this whistleblower’s allegations seriously enough to even call him back raises a lot of red flags for me.”

Grassley’s concerns outlined in his letter are:

1. The Inspector General position at the Justice Department is currently vacant. Any acting Inspector General is ill-equipped to take on an entrenched bureaucracy and challenge senior officials with tough questions.

2. The Justice Department Inspector General’s office was made aware of the allegations brought forward by ATF Agent John Dodson shortly after Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death. The Inspector General failed to respond to Dodson’s numerous attempts to contact the office until Grassley’s staff notified the office.

3. ATF officials have cited an Office of the Inspector General report as one of the factors that prompted the shift to a riskier strategy of letting guns be trafficked rather than arresting straw buyers.

Grassley began looking into allegations brought forward by Dodson, and more than a dozen other ATF agents, after the Justice Department Inspector General failed to investigate. The agents indicated that their supervisors kept them from stopping gun traffickers with the normal techniques that had been successfully used for years. They instead were ordered to only watch and continue gathering information on traffickers instead of arresting them as soon as they could. In the meantime, the guns were allowed to fall into the hands of the bad guys even as agents told supervisors that it could not end well. Many of the guns have subsequently been found in firefights along the border, including a December 14, 2010 firefight where Terry was killed.

Grassley’s requests for information have gone unanswered about what transpired at the ATF and the Department of Justice during the time when Terry was killed and the policies instituted during Project Gunrunner that allowed guns to be sold to known straw purchasers and moved across the border without intervention.

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Scare Tactics From NCGV On Castle Doctrine

March 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (NCGV) is mischaracterizing the Castle Doctrine bills as a “shoot first” bill. This would be par for the course for this organization.

They say they represent families across North Carolina but all their leaders are from the Research Triangle. Not to take anything away from the good people of Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham but to say they are representative of the rest of the state is ludicrous.

HB 74: A Threat to North Carolina

Information you need to know to protect your self against this dangerous legislation . . .

Send a letter to your Elected Officials asking them to stop HB 74

HB 74 is NOT Self-Defense

In North Carolina every citizen has the right to use deadly force to defend themselves or their families. If someone protects themselves with force they will not be prosecuted as long as they had no opportunity to retreat. There are no individuals in jail anywhere in the country who are in jail for acting in legitimate self-defense. HB 74 removes this “duty to retreat” and is an invitation to reckless use of guns. The new law eliminates a citizen’s duty to avoid the threat, and allows the use of deadly force before other options.

Who Does this Bill Endanger? You.

This bill provides protection for someone using deadly force — it provides no protections for the innocent victims caught in the crossfire. Worse yet, this legislation directly threatens North Carolinians whose jobs require them to visit others homes and properties. A social worker on an unannounced home visit, a volunteer distributing materials door to door, or even a mailman delivering a package is in potential danger.

Where Does Your Castle End?

HB 74 often referred to as the “Castle Doctrine” implies that this legislation applies only to a home or residence. However HB 74 extends past the individual’s home if they believe someone is committing a ‘forcible felony’ – which thereby includes nearly all public places. The shooter could receive immunity for shooting recklessly into a crowd, as long as he reasonably believed he was in serious danger. If passed this “Shoot First” law will not only permit shooting in our streets, the shooter will not be prosecuted for any death or injury whether to a hardened criminal or a helpless child who was only a by-stander.

No Recourse For Victims

If passed this “Shoot First” law will give the shooter complete immunity from criminal prosecution or civil liability. The shooter will not be prosecuted for any death or injury even if they kill or injure a person an innocent bystander or the wrong person.

The Threat is Real.

After passing similar legislation in Florida:

Kenneth Allen, 58, twice shot his neighbor, Jason Rosenbloom, 30, in early June 2006. Rosenbloom went to Allen’s house about a complaint filed. “I was no threat. I had no weapon… He had a gun. I turned around to put my hands up. He didn’t even say a word, and he fired once into my stomach. I bent over, and he shot me in the chest,” Rosenbloom told the New York Times. [New York Times, 8-7-06]

In 2008, two gangs in Tallahassee got into a shoot-out. A 15-year-old boy was killed. A judge dismissed charges against the shooters, citing Florida’s ‘Shoot First’ law. [ St. Petersburg Times, 10-17-10]

Christopher Cote, 19, of The Acreage, Florida was shot twice with a shotgun and killed by his neighbor, Jose Tapanes, 62, September 17 after an argument began when Cote walked his dog on Tapanes’ property. Tapanes has been charged with first-degree murder and has argued that the new Florida law gave him the right to kill the teen.[ Miami Herald, 9-18-06 ]

In Colorado:

Gary Lee Hill got in an argument with a group of people at his house. There was a physical fight, but as the group of people drove away, Hill walked out away from his house with a gun and shot one member of the group, John Lee Knott, in the back. Mr. Hill was found “not guilty’ according to the standards of Colorado’s “Shoot First” law.

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www.StopTraver.org

March 9, 2011 by 2 Comments

The NRA-ILA has set up a new webpage called StopTraver.org to help oppose the confirmation of Andrew Traver as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The page has links to info sheets on Traver as well as the means to quickly send a personalized letter to your state’s Senators.

If you would like to know more about Andrew Traver, just do a search in the box in the upper left corner of this page. I have many posts on Traver including his background, career, his backers, and those who oppose his nomination.

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Illinois Concealed Carry Bill Reported Out Of Committee

March 8, 2011 by

Concealed carry legislation is on the move in the State of Illinois!

The Agriculture & Conservation Committee passed HB 148 out of committee by a 12-2 vote. HB 148 is the bill that would finally establish concealed carry in Illinois and would preempt home rule on firearm regulations. The bill has 36 sponsors and co-sponsors.

HB 148 would:

Creates the Family and Personal Protection Act. Permits the county sheriff to issue permits to carry concealed firearms to persons at least 21 years of age who meet certain requirements. Requires an applicant for a permit to have completed specified training requirements developed by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board consisting of classroom instruction and live firing exercises. Preempts home rule. Amends the Illinois Police Training Act and the Criminal Code of 1961 to make conforming changes. Effective immediately.

This bill now goes to the floor of the Illinois State House. With IGOLD – Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day – set for this Thursday, I don’t think the timing could be any better.

H/T ISRA

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Righthaven LLC – Porn Purveyor?

March 8, 2011 by

Much has been written about copyright trolls Righthaven LLC and their campaign of no-notice campaign lawsuits over the past year. Just when I thought nothing they did could surprise me, I found I was mistaken.

Steve Green of the Las Vegas Sun has been providing some of the best coverage on Steve Gibson, Righthaven LLC, and their legal antics since the beginning. His Sunday, February 27th article on the counter-attack by a South Carolina defendent, Dana Eiser, had this buried in it.

Righthaven is the copyright enforcement partner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post. Since March 2010, it has filed at least 239 lawsuits against website operators and message-board posters in the United States, Canada and Europe charging material from those newspapers was posted online without authorization. Righthaven has also obtained copyrights to two porn movies, but as of late last week hadn’t sued anyone over those films.

Obtaining copyrights to porn movies? Given that attorney Steve Gibson and his firm Righthaven LLC have been engaging in a form of legal pornography, I guess it is only fitting. There is no word on which movies they hold the copyright or in which porn genre.

This leads me to wonder if we will be seeing lawsuits against couples for a copyright violation because they emulated some sexual position that saw in a porn flick for which he holds the copyright.