Month: March 2012

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“After My Election I Have More Flexibility” – Obama

March 26, 2012 by 2 Comments

Jake Tapper of ABC News is reporting on a comment made by President Obama to Russian President Demitri Medvedev today at the end of their 90 minute meeting in Seoul, South Korea. They were discussing issues of mutual concern but especially missile defense.

The exchange:

President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.

President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

While this comment was made in the context of missile defense, I think it is a harbinger of things to come if Obama is re-elected. While he has been somewhat restrained in his gun control efforts so far, I think most rational people would expect Obama to ramp up his efforts once he no longer has to worry about re-election. If you didn’t think this presidential election and the concurrent congressional elections were not that important, think again.

A caller to Tom Gresham’s GunTalk last week or the week before said he was setting aside money to buy more guns in case it looked like Obama would be re-elected. He called it his Obama Re-election Gun Buying Fund. Tom responded that instead of buying more guns he should invest the money in supporting pro-gun candidates so that he and everyone else would have their Second Amendment rights protected. Given Obama’s comment, I think Tom made an eminently sensible suggestion and one that I’d like to second.

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Historical Quote Of The Week

March 26, 2012 by

I have been remiss in posting these historical quotes of the week and hope this quote will get things back on track. It comes from James Wilson who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence as well as one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court appointed by President George Washington.

“The defence of one’s self, justly called the primary law of nature, is not, nor can it be abrogated by any regulation of municipal law. This principle of defence is not confined merely to the person; it extends to the liberty and the property of a man: it is not confined merely to his own person; it extends to the persons of all those, to whom he bears a peculiar relation – of his wife, of his parent, of his child, of his master, of his servant: nay, it extends to the person of every one, who is in danger; perhaps, to the liberty of every one, whose liberty is unjustly and forcibly attacked. It becomes humanity as well as justice.”

Wilson, James. “Lectures on Law: Of the Natural Rights of Individuals.” The Works of the Honourable James Wilson. Ed. Bird Wilson. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Lorenzo Press, 1804. 496. Print.

This quote is found on page 65 of Proclaiming Liberty which is available from Amazon.com for $12.95. The Kindle edition is now available for $3.95.

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The NRA Annual Meeting App

March 25, 2012 by

The NRA has released a free mobile app for the 2012 Annual Meeting. It is available for the iPhone, Androids, and Blackberrys. I have been playing with it for the last week and I like it.

Access exhibitor information and floor plan (including products & specials)

  • Quickly Navigate the Show Floor via Interactive Maps
  • Read Exhibitor Descriptions
  • Save your Favorite Exhibitors to an Expo Plan
  • Search for Seminars, Workshops and Special Presentations that Interest You
  • Save your Favorite Seminars, Workshops and Special Presentations to your Personal Itinerary
  • Receive Updates and Schedule Changes on our “Buzz” Channel
  • Email Exhibitors Directly and Access Their Website
  • Search Exhibitors Using Keywords
  • View Ticketed Events

 The opening screen is shown below and is the gateway to the rest of the features.

The items that I find most useful center around the exhibits and the scheduled events. First, the exhibits. Every exhibitor is listed with their booth number, website info, contact info, and a thumbnail description of what they offer. You can add them to your planner as a vendor you want to visit. It also allows you to find them on a map of the exhibition floor.

The exhibitor listing has the companies listed alphabetically as well as by category. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see 32 ammunition companies listed. These include everything from ammo makers to reloading equipment manufacturers.

 

The scheduled events on the app include all the ticketed events such as the Leadership Forum, all the book signings and appearances, and all the seminars. They are listed by day and time. If you look at the screenshot below, you will see green plus signs and red minus signs. These are to add or delete an event from your planner.

In My Planner, every session and every exhibitor that you’ve clicked on will be added to your schedule or personal exhibitor list.

You will need to register on the app if you want to be able to save your selections. It will also let you sync the app and the changes will show up across your various devices such as an iPad and an iPhone. The one warning I’d add here is to make sure you remember your password. The app has no function for reminding you of a forgotten password and you’ll have to re-register.

If you are going to the Annual Meeting and have a smart phone, I’d download this app. It will cut down on paper and will keep you current on what is going on. If you aren’t able to go to the meeting, I’d still download it for the exhibitor information. Even if there was a nominal charge for this app, I think it would be a good buy. And since it is free, it becomes a great buy.

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Alternate Uses For Ammo

March 25, 2012 by

When I came out into the kitchen yesterday morning, this is what I saw on the kitchen table.

The Complementary Spouse is a crafter. She was putting patches on a jeans purse that she was repairing for her older daughter. She needed some extra weight to hold the patches in place while the glue cured and boxes of handgun ammo provided just the right amount of weight.

So if your significant other is complaining about how much space your ammo cache is taking up, just show them this picture and suggest that it can be used for many things including arts and crafts.

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About Those Big Fish The ATF Was Pursuing…

March 25, 2012 by

Ostensibly the purpose of ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious was to use the little fish (aka straw purchasers)as a means to reach the big fish of the Mexican drug cartels. After it came out last week that the ATF let Manuel Celis-Acosta, ringleader of the illegal gun buyers, off when they had him in custody at the US-Mexican border, we now learn that the so-called big fish were informants for the FBI.

According to DEA and Congressional reports, the two men were the primary cartel contacts used to finance the illegal gun trafficking ring. Jim Needles, the assistant Agent in Charge of the Phoenix ATF office estimated the brothers spent $250,000 on guns tracked by his agency while conducting Operation Fast and Furious. Needles called it “a disappointment” the FBI didn’t bother to tell his agency of the connection.

“You are getting at the very basis of this investigation,” Senator Charles Grassley said Friday.

“But I have to wait till we have all the information before we bring down the hammer.”

Grassley first revealed in September 2011 the FBI, knew, but failed to tell the ATF, it’s informants were part of the gun trafficking ring. Then in February, Grassley called them “the big fish” ATF had been looking for the entire time.

Both the FBI and DEA know the Miramontes brothers’ role and identity, but declined to tell the ATF during a “deconfliction” meeting Dec. 15, 2009. Nor did either agency speak up at any of the joint meetings all three agencies attended of the Southwest Border Initiative. The DEA and ATF’s Group 7 shared the same floor of the same building and the same ‘wire room’ to listen to wiretaps of suspects.

Eventually and under pressure, the FBI invited top ATF officials to a classified briefing in El Paso in the late summer of 2010 and described the Eduardo and Jesus Miramontes as “a national security assets”. The two men were “off limits, untouchable and indictable” said a source familiar with the briefing.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

Mike Vanderboegh offers this analysis of the news:

Is it becoming clearer? Black operations are compartmentalized. The only thing that is required is the ability to deflect interest from other agencies and supervisors within a given agency who might be meddlesome. “National security” goes a long way. What is also required are back-channel means of communication and control. Can you say from “old friends” like the State Department’s Kevin O’Reilly serving on the National Security Council and “Gunwalker Bill” Newell in Phoenix? I knew you could. And remember the one thing in Phoenix which would be required would be someone in control who could issue the proper orders and put them in a nice legal-looking frame — Janet Napolitano’s lickspittle, anti-gun zealot Dennis K. Burke. Personnel is policy.

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich is leading a counter-attack by accusing Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and their investigators of “impeding the Department’s efforts to hold individuals accountable for their illegal acts.” Moreover, as David Codrea notes, Weich’s objections center around the fact that ATF knew Manuel Celis-Acosta was trafficking in firearms and still let him go despite that knowledge. His attempt at deflection on the leaks coming from the Department of Justice is a day late and a dollar short given what we now know.

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Quote Of The Day

March 25, 2012 by

When multi-millionaire NBA stars are joining “million hoodie marches” and when you are shocked that the name “Trayvon” was not uttered in the news round-up on CBS Sunday Morning, you know the whole Zimmerman-Martin affair has jumped the shark.

Thrown into this media circus is a sage, yet snarky, comment from Tam:

I wish the media would find another ball to chase soon. I have never hoped for some random celebrity to choke on their last cookie so hard in my life. Elton John would probably do. He’d wipe the whole Zimmerman/Martin thing right off the front page, and he’s kinda past his Sell-By date, anyway. I mean, all he’s done in the last twenty years is release more re-recordings of songs about dead blondes, right? Come on, Elton, how about leaning in over the plate and taking one for the team?

I can see the epitaph now – “He was just walking down a yellow brick road listening to some crocodile rock and dreaming of being a rocket man when he was beaten by a deaf dumb and blind kid (who) sure plays a mean pinball.”

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When Editorials Read Like A MAIG Press Release

March 24, 2012 by 4 Comments

The Stamford Advocate ran an editorial yesterday that could have been a press release from Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. For all I know, it was.

The editorial entitled “More guns arrive and the bullets fly” seems to be in response to the news that firearms manufacturers lead by Connecticut’s Sturm, Ruger were having record sales.

It is the incredibly permissive gun laws in this country that allow millions of new guns to be purchased in the United States each year. And it is the incredibly permissive gun laws in this country that abet the illegal flow of many of those guns into American cities that do not want them, that are trying to keep them out.

While they acknowledge the Second Amendment exists, they still cling to the collective-right interpretation despite the Supreme Court’s rulings in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago which affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right.

In the years since that was passed, courts have made many precedent-setting decisions that have expanded gun rights. But how did “A well regulated militia” come to mean “everyone can build a private arsenal big enough to invade a mid-sized nation”?

They then move on to suggest that there should be restrictions on how many firearms a person should be allowed to own. Of course, they call it coming to “our senses” and “reasonable limits” which they never define. This, they say, would prevent criminals and street gangs from obtaining weapons with which to kill cops and kids or something like that.

They conclude their press release editorial by stating:

It is the legal gun trade that supplies the illegal gun trade. Until we place some sensible limits on the first, ones in keeping with the spirit of a “well regulated militia,” we will never begin to get a handle on the second. And law-abiding citizens’ best defense against bullets flying into their homes and into their bodies will continue to be sheer luck.

Of course this is a ludicrous claim and one for which the editorial board of the Stamford Advocate should be ashamed. However, in the rarefied and elite world of Stamford, shame is an antiquated concept suitable only for the little people.

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Quote Of The Day

March 24, 2012 by

James Taranto writes the Best of the Web column for the Wall Street Journal. He has the ability to drill down to the essence of a situation with just a very few words.

A case in point which is the quote of the day.

Shouldn’t That Read ‘Because of . . .’?
“Despite calls for stricter guns laws in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin, firearm stocks are soaring as gun companies struggle to keep up with high demand.”–Washington Free Beacon, March 22

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Obama: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”

March 23, 2012 by 3 Comments

The only surprise here is that it took President Obama so long to jump on the Trayvon bandwagon despite this not being a Federal issue. I know the Justice Department is getting involved but, at the heart of this, the shooting of Trayvon Martin should be a local matter with some State of Florida involvement. The police powers – laws dealing with health, safety, and welfare – have traditionally been reserved to the states.

Obama said in part:

…it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened.”

Mr. Obama said he is glad the Justice Department is investigating the shooting and that Florida Gov. Rick Scott formed a task force in response to the incident as well. The president suggested he was sympathetic to suspicion that the shooting may have been racially motivated.

“You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Mr. Obama said.

“All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” he continued. “And that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened as well as the specifics of the incident.”

As SayUncle noted earlier today, the most stuff comes out about this case, the less clear things are. Add in the original police report that Weer’d Beard has put up and it becomes more and more murky. Unfortunately, that has never stopped Obama from commenting before and it obviously didn’t stop him this time either.

I have refrained from covering this for the most part because others like Sebastian, Miguel, and Robb have more info and have done a great job of it. In this case, I just couldn’t help myself as Obama’s narcissism to me is like a red cape to a bull.

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Sign Of The Times

March 23, 2012 by

My sister-in-law saw this flyer posted just inside the doorway of Crown Candy in St. Louis yesterday. Cindy, who will be a special correspondent for the blog at the upcoming NRA Annual Meeting, knew I’d be interested. She also said she saw her first billboard for the Annual Meeting.

If you have ever watched that quintessentially American show, Man Versus Food, then you may have heard of Crown Candy. In their Five Milkshake Challenge, you have 30 minutes to drink all five milkshakes. On this challenge, Adam failed.

I take it as great sign that you see flyers like this in a place like Crown Candy which usually has a line outside waiting to get in.