David Codrea

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David Codrea On Bob Barr As NRA President

May 14, 2024 by 6 Comments

Journalist David Codrea had an interesting article posted yesterday on Ammoland. It is titled, “Barr for NRA President Would Prove Association Has Learned Nothing.” The article deals with Bob Barr’s support for the Lautenberg Amendment while a member of Congress. For those who are unfamiliar with the Lautenberg Amendment it makes a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence a disqualification of your Second Amendment rights. In other words, if convicted of such a misdemeanor you are not allowed to purchase, possess, transport, or ship both guns and ammunition.

Now I don’t think anyone reading my blog is in favor of domestic violence in any form or fashion. If you are, stop reading now and never come back. However, with some courts now finding that non-violent felons are entitled to having their 2A rights restored, it is hard for me to argue that a misdemeanor conviction should be worthy of a lifetime denial of an enumerated Constitutional right.

Codrea points to GOA’s take on Barr when he authored a competing bill to Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s (R-ID) complete reversal of the Lautenberg Amendment. He noted that Barr endorsed the underlying concept of the Lautenberg Amendment but just not the retroactive part of the ban.

Codrea also links to a number of posts over the years he put up on his old blog The War on Guns. They are worth a look as well. I will say having a negligent discharge is one thing but going wobbly on rights is a more serious matter when it comes to being the next President of the NRA.

I have a t-shirt that I picked up at, of all places, an NRA Annual Meeting. I’m not sure who was giving them out but if Barr is elected President then the message on that shirt still stands. It reads “Negotiating Rights Away.”

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CBS News And Arms Smuggling To Mexico

September 19, 2023 by 2 Comments

CBS News is running a special investigation into the smuggling of firearms to Mexico. US government officials estimate that the cartels are smuggling 2,000 firearms a day across the Mexican border. The way it works is that the cartels alerts buyers in the US who are not prohibited persons of their needs, they transfer the guns to brokers, and then the guns go to smugglers who take the firearms across the border to the cartels. Buyers are reported to be spread across all 50 states.

To combat this, ATF established Project Thor which ran from 2018 until 2021 according to former Senior Special Agent Chris Demlein. Funding for the project ended with the 2022 budget.

Demlein led the first interagency intelligence project aimed at identifying and dismantling the cartels’ international weapons supply chains across the U.S. Within months of its launch on July 25, 2018, the initiative, known as Project Thor, connected the dots between hundreds of disparate law enforcement cases, uncovering vast networks that give these criminal groups on-demand access to American guns. They briefed hundreds of government officials on their discoveries, including the National Security Council and senior Justice Department leadership.

Below is an inforgraphic created by the DEA to show how the smuggling networks operated.

CBS Investigative Reporter Adam Yamaguchi was allowed by a gun smuggler to show how they hid the firearms in a car. The skeptic in me wonders why the cartels would allow this. The report below goes on to say the firearms are used by the drug cartels to protect their trade in drugs like fentanyl, meth, cocaine, and narcotics. It does make note that there is only one official firearms store in Mexico and it is on a military base. He also speaks of “military grade weapons” without acknowledging the role that diversion of firearms from the Mexican military has played.

His video as seen on the CBS Evening News is here.

The full 22 minute CBS Reports documentary can be viewed here.

The last time CBS News investigated arms smuggling to Mexico they did real journalism. That was back in 2011-2013 and the investigative reporter was Sharyl Attkisson who is long gone from CBS. She won an Emmy for her work exposing the role of ATF in Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker. That was where ATF made FFLs sell guns to known gun runners so they could supposedly trace them to Mexico. The problem was that they quickly lost track of the firearms and they were used by cartel gunmen to kill two Federal LEOs plus over Mexican nationals.

Lest we forget, this sad episode was actually uncovered by the combined work of citizen journalists David Codrea and the late Mike Vanderboegh. Eventually Congressional hearings were held, DOJ stonewalled, and then AG Eric Holder was found in Contempt of Congress.

For those whom Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker is something new, I suggest searching my blog using the term “Gunwalker”. I had quite a few pages devoted to it. Even better is to go to David Codrea’s “A Journalist’s Guide to Project Gunwalker” and follow his posts from the defunct Gun Rights Examiner. You can also go to Mike’s Sipsey Street Irregulars blog. While posting stopped soon after his death from cancer in 2016, the blog is still online and it can be searched.

It is important to remember that whatever the official justification for Operation Fast and Furious was, the real reason was that the Obama Administration wanted to build support for more gun control. Given the number of ex-Obama Administration officials in the Biden Administration, should we expect any less from them? The mainstream media acts even more like the propaganda arm of the administration now than they ever did in the Obama years.

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Remember Project Gunwalker?

August 12, 2022 by 4 Comments

Do you remember Project Gunwalker? It was also officially known as Operation Fast and Furious. I tend to prefer David Codrea‘s name for this scandal as it involved walking guns to Mexico in the hopes that they would then show up on crime scenes. It was an effort of the Obama Administration, BATFE, and the Department of Justice to build support for more gun control. Thanks to the efforts of bloggers like David, Dave Workman, and the late Mike Vanderboegh along with mainstream journalists Sharyl Attkisson and William LaJeunesse the veil of secrecy was removed.

One thing that was always a puzzle was how BATFE actually thought they could track the firearms after they left the gun stores. Thanks to Twitter post by gun rights attorney Stephen Stamboulieh we now know.

He also had a picture of these stocks all packaged up.

I have to wonder a) how long the batteries really would have lasted, b) how long would these rifles have taken to reach the cartels once they left the gun store, c) whether the tracking devices would rattle within the stocks, d) if they rattled would the cartels discover the devices, and e) whether the cartels upon discovering the tracking devices would have ended up killing the gun dealers.

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Comment Of The Day

November 10, 2021 by 2 Comments

The comment of the day comes from David Codrea. He, too, took note of the esteemed Marion Hammer’s comments regarding NRA members that I highlighted yesterday.

So they should have pushed ‘shine Club instead of Wine Club? But keep sending money because we know how to be sophisticated with it!

Think of the NRA ‘shine Club. They could have offered sampler packs of ‘shine from renowned moonshiners like Popcorn Sutton, Tim Smith, and Junior Johnson. At least two of those three actually make or made legal ‘shine.

I tend to agree with the rest of David’s post where he speculates that the recording could only have come from an insider and that Wayne and Company are fully aware of who it is. Read the rest of his post and watch the video. It is worth it.

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NRA Dissolution Lawsuit Promises To Get More Interesting

September 3, 2021 by 2 Comments

In June, Frank Tait and Mario Aguirre filed a motion seeking to intervene on behalf of NRA members in the NRA dissolution case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Their contention, rightly in my opinion, was that no one was adequately representing the approximately five million NRA members.

As you might expect, both the Attorney General and the NRA have objected to this. A hearing is currently scheduled for September 9th to hear arguments relating to this motion.

Last year, I had some discussions with others who were interested in seeing an intervenor motion filed in the dissolution lawsuit. One of the major issues brought up was that there was some doubt that under New York that members themselves would have standing. It was thought that only a sitting director would have standing to intervene in the dissolution lawsuit.

We now know, thanks to a letter filed this afternoon with the court by Taylor Bartlett, attorney for Tait and Aguirre, that this issue will now be off the table. There will be one, if not two, sitting directors joining the motion to intervene on behalf of the members of the NRA.

William Brewer himself, the world’s most brilliant attorney according to some of the lesser minds on the NRA board, wasted no time filing a letter to the judge stating that he found the request for leave by the intervenors to file an amended motion “improper”. He then indicates in so many words that the NRA is prepared to fight this motion.

I have been told confidentially the name of one of the potential directors who will be joining in the motion to intervene. As such, I respect that trust and will hold off on announcing the name until it is announced in the court proceedings.

I would also point you to a post this afternoon by David Codrea concerning this letter to the court by Taylor Barlett for his take on it.

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Interesting Times

August 1, 2019 by 2 Comments

David Codrea published the following tweet earlier today. As he was out of town and wouldn’t be available to respond, he said he wouldn’t name names. If it turns out to be false, he said it would be on him. That said, remember he was one of the people who broke open Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious.

This will be very interesting so I plan to keep checking Twitter and doing Google searches over the next few days.

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What Is This World Coming To?

July 19, 2019 by 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I got two emails on the same day from reporters at Bloomberg’s TheTrace.org asking about a blog post I had written. While I did give them a clarification on one item, I kinda ignored the request to put them in touch with my sources on the NRA Board of Directors.

Then yesterday, a friend sent me a link to an article in Slate.com regarding Marion Hammer’s condescending email about those purged from their committees on the NRA Board. It included this paragraph.

One day later, NRA board member and Soldier of Fortune magazine founder and publisher Robert K. Brown reported on Facebook that he had been removed from the Grassroots Development Committee, the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, and the Legislative Policy Committee. “[Nobody] in the NRA power structure has the guts to explain to me why this was done,” Brown wrote at the time. “NRA leadership lacks any moral character and basically falls under the label of loathsome toads.” (Blogger John Richardson reported that Brown had maintained assignments on the Publications Committee and the Special Contributions Committee. Brown declined to comment to Slate, but said he is a board member.)

What the hell is this world coming to when those with paid jobs in the media have to reach out to us citizen journalists and/or quote our work? I think it would amuse the late Mike Vanderboegh given the work that he, David Codrea, and Dave Workman did in exposing Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious.

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No More Rights Watch Column At Guns Magazine?

December 17, 2018 by

Readers of Guns Magazine will soon notice a longtime feature missing or changed. The Rights Watch column written and edited by David Codrea will be gone.

From David’s blog War On Guns:

I received an email this morning from the editor at GUNS Magazine informing me “we are going a different direction with Rights Watch and will no longer need your column.” This isn’t that much of a surprise. I have actually been expecting the hammer to drop ever since they “parted ways” with my former editor and magazine mentor Jeff John earlier this year.


I know that I write for a niche within a niche and have a feeling that was a factor. It’s their right to run their magazine as they see fit and I’ll be interested to see what that “different direction” turns out to be.

As a longtime reader and subscriber to Guns Magazine I think this sucks. It was always one column that I didn’t miss nor do I think one should miss. Given David’s leading role along with the late Mike Vanderboegh and Dave Workman in exposing Operation Fast and Furious, it doesn’t make sense to me. 

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Document Of The Day

May 22, 2018 by

After the murders in Sutherland Springs, Texas by the former airman, the only record you could find about his court martial was a two page summary  The former airman was a prohibited person but the US Air Force neglected to forward the records on to the FBI’s NICS System. As I noted at the time, if he had been charged with this crime in a civilian court not only would his records have been sent to the FBI but it was highly likely that he’d still be in prison.

Thanks to the efforts of David Codrea and attorney Stephen Stamboulieh the Air Force was forced to release the entire 610 page court transcript. Codrea had made a request for it under the Freedom of Information Act but the Air Force and the Department of Justice refused to release it. He sued in US District Court for the District of Columbia with the aid of Stephen Stamboulieh. The suit was filed in January of this year and the Air Force has finally released a record of the trial proceedings.

As Codrea noted in an article about the release:

The refusal to comply with the FOIA, forcing the filing of a complaint to obtain requested documents, points to a desire to cover up a record that shows the Air Force knew his crimes rose to the level of required reporting. (An attached motion alleging “illegal pretrial confinement and punishment” is also something they probably weren’t eager to see come to light).

This was clearly a damaged, a violent, and of relevance, a guilty young man, and as we’ve seen in similar cases, the government knew about him. They nonetheless failed to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, allowing the killer to purchase firearms from a Federal Firearms Licensee without the system flagging him.

What this and similar reporting failures acting as catalysts for “Fix NICS” and other legislation fail to account for is that ultimately, being a “prohibited person” cannot stop anyone so inclined from obtaining a gun. If it could, we wouldn’t see regular headlines about “gun violence” from places like Chicago.

I would urge readers to go to Ammoland and read the whole article. Then they should start scanning the trial transcript. It makes for interesting reading.

As a refresher, David Codrea and the late Mike Vanderboegh were the citizen journalists who broke the story on the Obama Administration’s Operation Fast and Furious which allowed firearms to go to Mexican cartels and which resulted in the deaths of two Federal law enforcement officers and untold numbers of Mexican nationals.

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Reclassification Of Bump Stocks By BATFE – Comments Due By January 25th

January 7, 2018 by 3 Comments

As many already know, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives anticipates opening a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with regard to bump fire stocks to clarify whether or not they meet the definition of a machine gun under the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before they release any proposed rule, they are seeking comments from manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. These must be received by midnight EST on January 25, 2018.

The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the questions to be answered is here. All comments must include this identification number – 2017R-22. Comments can be submitted online, by fax, or by US Mail. So far, 2,309 comments have been received. Here is the link to submit them online. It also allows you to upload a document.

These are the questions that they have for consumers:

Consumers

21. In your experience, where have you seen these devices for sale and which of these has been the most common outlet from which consumers have purchased these devices (e.g., brick and mortar retail stores; online vendors; gun shows or similar events; or private sales between individuals)?

22. Based on your experience or observations, what is (or has been) the price range for these devices?

23. For what purposes are the bump stock devices used or advertised?

 Gun law attorney Adam Kraut had these suggestions for responding to the ANPRM. Adam has more on the notice here.

Comments vary in form, length, and specificity. However, there are some things that a person submitting a comment will want to consider. Specificity is key. Providing a basis for the support or opposition to a proposed rule is crucial. Citing to studies or other evidence-based information is useful to show the agency why or why not a proposed rule is useful. In the instance of an ANPRM, responding to the specific questions posed by the agency is a particularly good strategy (not to say a commenter could not and should not go broader in their response). Regulations.gov has some more tips.

As important as comment “dos” are, there is one comment “don’t” that should be avoided: the Form Letter. As comment periods are not a measure of “popularity”, flooding the agency with form letters do not serve a useful purpose in the rulemaking process. A comment that is well reasoned is a much better avenue to pursue and not very difficult.

David Codrea has his take on the notice of rulemaking here.

The danger in this anticipated rulemaking is the same as it is with the proposed bills banning bump stocks before Congress:  where does it stop? With the Slidefire Bump Stock or will it go further to mean any modification that could increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm? Because of this, it is important that we comment.

While it might feel good to tell the BATFE to just f*#k off, go away, and mind the letter of the law, that will get us nowhere. It will be expressly ignored as it includes profanity. I think Adam’s approach to address some part of the questions asked is a good one. These cannot be ignored as readily. I think the key thing is to kill the attempt to issue a rule before it gets off the ground. That is better than having to respond to an actual proposed rule which is more likely to be adopted.