Month: November 2015

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Malfeasance Rewarded

November 30, 2015 by 5 Comments

Imagine if you will that you worked for a large company and were issued both a company car and company-provided credit card. Then imagine what would happen if you decided to use that company car to drive to a casino, to use that company-provided credit card to get a cash advance to buy chips, and you did it all on company time.

You would likely be fired and perhaps even prosecuted for stealing from your employer. Or, at least, that is how it should work in the real world.

However, if you were a BATFE Special Agent and you did this, then you just might get promoted to Special Agent in Charge of a Field Division and move into the Senior Executive Service. According to the summary report from the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General posted to CleanUpATF.org, that is exactly what happened.

Investigative Summary:
Findings Concerning On-Duty Gambling and Related Misconduct by an ATF Special Agent in
Charge While in a Prior Position


The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated this investigation based on information from
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) alleging that a current Special
Agent in Charge (SAC) gambled on duty and engaged in related misconduct while in a position
with ATF prior to being promoted. The OIG investigation determined that the SAC gambled on
duty, misused his government travel card to facilitate his gambling, and misused his assigned
government vehicle by using it to travel to casinos. By gambling while on duty, the SAC violated
federal regulations that prohibit federal employees from gambling while on duty. In addition,
the SAC violated ATF policy by, among other things, misusing his government travel card to
obtain cash advances to gamble, and using his assigned government vehicle to travel to casinos
to gamble, which is not an “official purpose” for which use of the government vehicle is
authorized. Prosecution was declined. The OIG provided a report of investigation to ATF for
appropriate action.

So the question remains, which one of the 25 Special Agents in Charge (SAC) on this list is the culprit? Was it Eric Harden in LA, Delano Reid in NYC, Carl Walker in Atlanta, or someone else?

Inquiring minds want to know.

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Do Mag Bans Reduce Casualties In Mass Shootings?

November 30, 2015 by 1 Comment

Bans on standard capacity magazines, that is, magazines with a capacity over 10 rounds, are supposed to have an impact on the number of casualties in mass shootings. The question is do they?

The simple answer is no.

As David Yamane reports in his Gun Culture 2.0 blog, criminologist Gary Kleck presented research at the recent American Society of Criminologists annual meeting that studied this question. Kleck’s research looked at mass shootings in which more than six people were killed or wounded. He went with six because that is the capacity of most revolvers and thus no standard capacity magazine would have been needed.

Even with this restrictive definition of a mass shooting, Kleck found that large capacity magazines – defined as holding over 10 rounds – were used in only 21 of the 88 incidents (24%). So, in 76% of the incidents, a large-capacity magazine ban would have made no difference in any event.


Kleck then goes on to analyze further the 21 incidents in which a large-capacity magazine was used. In every case, the shooters carried either multiple guns or multiple magazines. Therefore, even without a large-capacity magazine, the shooters could easily switch guns or magazines.


Kleck also marshals evidence to show that the rate of fire of most mass shooters is so slow that having to change guns or magazines more frequently would not diminish their casualty counts.

The bottom line to Kleck’s research, as David notes, is that it isn’t the tool but the desire of the evil doer to kill as many people as possible.  However, this conflicts with the desire of politicians and gun prohibitionists to “do something”.

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Doing My Part To Stimulate The (Gun) Economy – 2015 Edition

November 25, 2015 by 2 Comments

In years gone by, I have worked hard to include every firearm, tactical, big box sporting goods store, and accessories sale that I could find for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Call me lazy but this year I will point you to two very good compilations that already exist. I don’t see any reason to reinvent the wheel or do extra work when others have already done it.

First, Slickguns.com has done an extraordinary job in compiling the Black Friday/Cyber Monday ads from all the major players and then some. It can be found here.

Second, for those who are seeking more tactical items, Soldier Systems has their Black Friday list which is sponsored by Tactical Distributors. You can find it here. If it is like last year, it will be a work in progress with more and more sales and discounts added.

One sale I got in my email box that I haven’t seen in either of these two lists is from Going Gear. If you are looking for a high lumen flashlight, then they can help. Find them here. Another sales going on is from ALG Defense. They are offering 20% off all their AK and AR triggers plus some other stuff. ALG Defense is connected with Geissele which is also having a Black Friday event. It is listed on the Slickguns page.

Feel free to add sales and discounts you come across in the comments section. I would welcome it and I’m others will find it helpful.

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NSSF Points Out The Contradictions In Big City Police Chief’s Advice

November 25, 2015 by 2 Comments

Last Sunday in an interview on 60 Minutes DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier said that if you can take out an active shooter, do it. She noted that even the best police response time will be 5-7 minutes. NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton disagreed with that advice saying essentially it was a good way to get killed. He didn’t think a person with a handgun could take out someone with an AK-47 as they would be “outgunned”.

The NSSF video below shows the contradictions in what Lanier says and what Bratton says.

However, the problem in both New York and the District of Columbia is that Joe Average can’t get a carry permit. Donald Trump has a carry permit but he also now has Secret Service protection. Michael Bloomberg doesn’t need a carry permit because he has a swarm of armed guards around him all the time. The bottom line is that a lot of people will get killed in either city before the cops arrive.

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One Shot Draw Drills

November 23, 2015 by 3 Comments

Enough with the political stuff! Here is something interesting that you can use at the range if they allow you draw from a holster. While most indoor ranges forbid it, you could do it at an outdoor range in most places.

In this training video from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Doug Koenig demonstrates how he uses a one shot draw drill to speed up his response time for steel challenge competitions. He notes that he first starts out doing the drill at home with dry-fire practice. That is something everyone could do regardless of what his or her favorite range allows.

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This Is Getting Tiresome

November 23, 2015 by 3 Comments

The New York Daily News – “New York’s Picture Newspaper – is keeping up their propaganda campaign against the NRA and Republicans for refusing to add those on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database to the NICS denied list.

They are now reporting that NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) are supporting efforts to add those on the “No-Fly” list to the NICS denied list. What they are forgetting is that the FBI still runs a check on everyone who buys a gun through a FFL.

As Bratton made clear yesterday on NBC’s Meet The Press, he is more worried about people put on a list for some unknown and ephemeral reason buying a gun than he is about ISIS using Syrian refugees to smuggle in jihadis into the United States. Clearly one does not get to be the commissioner of police without bowing to one’s political masters.

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Just How Are We Supposed To Do That In DC, Pray Tell, Chief Lanier?

November 23, 2015 by

Emily Miller, author of Emily Gets Her Gun and one of only 45 people in the District of Columbia with a carry permit, tweeted this yesterday afternoon.

It was in response to the interview with DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier by 60 Minutes. In the interview which dealt with active shooters, Lanier said that it was unreasonable to expect the police to arrive in time to stop most mass shootings. She told Anderson Cooper:

I always say if you can get out, getting out’s your first option, your best option. If you’re in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the gunman out, it’s the best option for saving lives before police can get there. And that’s– you know, that’s kind of counterintuitive to what cops always tell people, right? We always tell people, “Don’t– you know, don’t take action. Call 911. Don’t intervene in the robbery”– you know– you know– we’ve never told people, “Take action.” It’s a different– this is a different scenario.

 You can see the full interview below which also includes comments by NYC Police Commissioner William Bratton.

View More: Newsmakers News|60 Minutes News|Live News|More News Videos

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Tabloid Journalism At Its Finest?

November 18, 2015 by 7 Comments

As posted on Facebook by the Daily News.

To paraphrase one of the Daily News’ most famous headlines –  NRA to NY Daily News: Drop Dead.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that this sort of drivel comes from the New York Daily News. Until 1991, their tagline was “New York’s Picture Newspaper.” In other words, they were the paper meant for functional illiterates who needed the story told in pictures rather than words.

The gist of the article is that pro-gun Republicans are standing in the way of legislation that would add those people on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database to the NICS denied list. They quote from a GAO report showing how many people on this list were allowed to purchase firearms. Given the error rate and vague criteria for being added to the list, this should not be surprising. What I do find surprising is that the GAO was even given this data given the secretive nature of that list.

The article quotes major proponents of the list (and enemies of civil liberties) such as Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY). Both have been longtime proponents of using the Terrorist Screening Database as another means of denying firearms purchases.

The timing of the article days after the terrorist attacks in Paris is not coincidental. It is an overt effort on the part of the Daily News to cast the NRA – Hillary Clinton’s favorite punching bag – as enablers of Islamic terrorism because they oppose efforts to tie the FBI’s vague and inaccurate terrorist list to the NICS System. It is yellow journalism at its worst.

UPDATE: Colion Noir makes an excellent point on Facebook regarding those on the FBI terrorist list who (legally) obtained firearms. He said, ” If there are 2000 suspects on a terror watch list and each of them “legally” bought firearms that means they underwent a FBI background check, which means the FBI knew about each attempted purchase and approved them.”

I agree with him that this is “dishonest manipulative garbage”.

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Quote Of The Day

November 17, 2015 by 3 Comments

As the march of the social justice warriors advances across colleges and universities across the nation today’s quote of the day provides the explanation. It comes from the Letters to the Editor column of today’s Wall Street Journal.

Remember when they started giving every kid a trophy? Those children are in college now.


Mike Simone
Gahanna, Ohio

An alternative explanation is that Obama’s former campaign organization now called Organizing for America or OFA has been training every disgruntled group on a college campus in Alinskyite tactics. While this is probably the more realistic explanation, I prefer the “every kid gets a trophy” explanation myself.

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You Can’t Make This Sh@% Up

November 14, 2015 by 9 Comments

It seems that the Demanding Moms for Illegal Mayors got a little ahead of themselves here and had to delete the tweet below.

Mass shooting? Nice dumbing down of a terrorist attack there, Shannon.

I guess if France had universal background checks then these ISIS terrorists couldn’t have obtained their full-auto AK-47s. Oh, wait, you have to have a firearms license which includes a psychological examination, criminal background check, and a defined purpose for having a firearm before you can even possess a firearm.

Those full-auto AKs? Illegal for civilians to possess. I guess terrorists don’t play by the rules. Funny how that works.