Month: May 2011

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Quote Of The Day

May 12, 2011 by

With the success of the Navy SEALs in the operation against Osama bin Laden, claims to have been a member of this elite force are on the rise. In an AP article about groups that work to expose these fakers, Steve Waterman of South Thomaston, ME said:

“There were about 500 SEALs that operated in Vietnam, and I’ve met all 20,000 of them.”

Mr. Waterman is a retired Navy diver and underwater photographer who has helped expose over 100 of these wannabes. Though never a SEAL, he participates with www.stolenvalor.com  to help expose those who fraudulently claim military honors to which they aren’t entitled.

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HB 2756 – Texas Open Carry Bill

May 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

Aaron Spuler of the Weapon-Blog is asking for help. If you live in Texas and want open carry, now is the time to act.

From Aaron:

We’re running out of time to get Texas HB 2756 (Open Carry) passed this legislative session. The last day to get a vote on this one is Thursday. If we miss this opportunity, we won’t have another opportunity until 2013 (the Texas legislature only meets once every two years).

He has details on his blog here on what you need to do.

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SAF Sues In Virginia Challenging

May 10, 2011 by

The Second Amendment Foundation released this information on the suit against Eric Holder and the head of the Virginia State Police around 4:45pm EDT.

If you listened to Tom Gresham’s GunTalk interview with Alan Gottlieb on May 1st, it becomes clear that Alan was telegraphing SAF’s next move. He discussed the implications of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s ruling in Dearth v. Holder in which the court said that a citizen couldn’t be denied their Second Amendment rights just because they didn’t have legal residence in a state. In that case, Mr. Dearth was a U.S. citizen living abroad and was precluded from buying a firearm because he didn’t have a state of residence. Alan said he thought the Dearth decision laid the groundwork for challenging that part of the Gun Control Act of 1968 which required residency in a state.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia challenging the constitutionality of federal and Virginia provisions barring handgun sales to non-residents.

SAF is joined in the lawsuit by Michelle Lane, a District of Columbia resident who cannot legally purchase handguns because there are no retail firearms dealers inside the District. The Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller ruling struck down the District’s handgun ban, confirming that individuals have a constitutional right to possess handguns.

SAF and Lane are represented by attorney Alan Gura of Gura & Possessky, PLLC, who won both the Heller ruling and last year’s Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago. Named as defendants are Attorney General Eric Holder and W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police.

“This is an important issue in the era of the national instant background check,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The NICS check should allow law-abiding citizens like Miss Lane to exercise their Second Amendment rights regardless their place of residence.”

“Americans don’t check their constitutional rights at the state line,” said Gura. “And since Michelle Lane is legally entitled to possess firearms, forcing her to seek a non-existing D.C. dealer to buy a handgun is pointless when perfectly legitimate options exist minutes across the Potomac River.”

“The Supreme Court has ruled that District residents have an individual right, protected by the Constitution, to have a handgun in their home,” Gottlieb noted. “The high court has also ruled that the Second Amendment applies to the states. Existing state and federal statutes violate both the spirit and letter of recent court rulings and the Constitution, and our lawsuit seeks to remedy that situation.”

UPDATE: Here is a link to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The case is Lane et al v. Holder et al.

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“Disputed And Unconfirmed”

May 10, 2011 by 9 Comments

The Brady Campaign issued a new “research report” today entitled Officer Gunned Down. I won’t get into a critique of the so-called study now. Rather, I want to point out what might be one of their first comments on Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker).(corrected)

Rio Rico, Arizona, Dec. 14, 2010.

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, 40, was shot and killed while attempting to apprehend a group of armed subjects who had been robbing illegal immigrants as soon as they crossed the border from Mexico to Arizona.

Two of the guns recovered at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder were part of a Phoenix-based sting operation targeting major Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The shooting has engendered controversy, as it s alleged that federal prosecutors and ATF permitted 1,998 guns to be purchased and retained by suspected straw buyers in the hope that a major case could be built. While the truth of those allegations are disputed and unconfirmed. it is undisputed that if firearms laws were stronger by prohibiting multiple sales and requiring responsible sales practices, these gun sales could not have been legally completed.

Other weapons from the sting were recovered in May 2010, when a Customs and Border Protection agent confronted an armed band of criminals along the U.S. side of the border. The suspects fled but some of the guns they left behind were traced back to weapons purchased in the sting

The allegations are disputed and unconfirmed?

Are the authors of this report living in Never-Never Land? Have they not seen the CBS News reports by Sharyl Attkisson where ATF Agents have gone on camera and on record about Operation Fast and Furious? Have they not read the released documents from Senator Grassley and Representative Issa which show that the firearms dealers were told to go through with these sales even though they objected? I won’t even go into the work done by Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea to bring this story to light since December 2010.

These sales would not have been completed if the gun dealers were allowed to follow their own good instincts and decline the sale. They had questions and were co-opted by the powers that be in the Phoenix Field Division.

The authors of this “study” by the Brady Campaign are engaging in willful denial of the facts. To try and blame it on weak gun laws and irresponsible gun dealers is to whitewash the complicity of ATF managers in allowing these gun to walk. Frankly, it is the authors of this study who are being irresponsible.

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Unpossible!

May 10, 2011 by

The Chicago Sun-Times reports today that an Uptown man was arrrested yesterday after he made “unspecified threats” to the Willis Tower.

..investigators found 20 guns, several pounds of gunpowder and two grenades in his apartment.

But later Monday, police said that “there was no overt threat made,” and that the 60-year-old renter had been taken a facility for a mental evaluation.

Guns? Grenades? Being as this happened in the Daley-run City of Chicago, the only word that comes to mind is unpossible!

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People I Missed Seeing At The NRA Annual Meeting

May 9, 2011 by 7 Comments

It is a shame we didn’t see them hanging out on the floor of the Convention Center. I would have liked to have introduced them to Breda or NancyR or Laura. I would have reserved Tam for a later date as she might have been too much for Rachel and Meghan to handle.

UPDATE: After having her head almost explode the first time she watched this, Breda has recovered enough to give play by play comments on the McCain-Maddow video.

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ATF Whistleblower Jay Dobyns On Fox Business News

May 9, 2011 by

ATF Agent Jay Dobyns infilitrated the Hell’s Angels. After he came out of deep cover to testify at trial, his wife was threatened with gang rape, threats of torture were made against his kids, and his house burned down due to arson while his family was originally still in it. Fortunately, his family escaped without harm.

And what did ATF managers in the Phoenix Field Office do in response? Nothing. They left Dobyns and his family hanging out to dry. From Once Proud on the CleanUpATF Forum, “What’s sad is the Hells Angels take better care of their own than ATF takes care of it’s agents!”

Interestingly enough, these are the same managers who ran Operation Fast and Furious. In the interview below, Dobyns says that ATF has become a rogue agency run by corrupt managers.