Mon, July 25, 2011 11:00:51 PMVA-ALERT: VCDL Update 7/25/11
Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join.html
VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html
Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
1. VCDL meeting on August 4 at RRPC in Charlottesville
2. VCDL picnic on August 6 at the Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield
3. VCDL to have a booth at Louisa County Fair July 29-30. Help needed!
4. VCDL PAC endorses David Ramadan (87th)
5. Virginia Tech responds to AG opinion on 'No Guns' policy
6. One court's opinion is no match for attorney general
7. Guns now welcome in Virginia state forests
8. Operation Gunrunner was funded by the 2009 stimulus package
9. Operation Fast and Furious: Designed to promote gun control
10. Video commentary on Fast and Furious
11. Obama executive order cannot legally enact rifle-reporting law
12. Gun runners stopped in Texas
13. Fast and Furious hardly a 'renegade operation', sources say
14. Eric Holder's false testimony on Gunrunner
15. Pravda Syndrome: MSM can't stop lying about 'Gun Walker'
16. Democrats to introduce gun control legislation tomorrow
17. What gun control gets you
18. Who needs a gun at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant?
19. Critics take aim at new D.C. handgun legislation
20. Who would ever need a gun in a Cracker Barrel?
21. ACTION ITEM: Madison County Fair is anti-freedom
22. T.G.I. Fridays is a gun-free zone
23. Windsor ordinance update
24. Proposed U.N. arms treaty slammed as Dems 'dance of distraction' continues
25. SAF's final U.N. Arms Trade Treaty report
26. RT LTE: In support of air guns on private property
27. Ahmed Farajallah accused of illegally buying weapons
28. D.C. wants to open gun shop in police facilities
29. Wisconsin Governor signs concealed-carry bill into law
30. Wyoming gun owners could violate federal law
31. Legislation will protect gun rights on Army Corps of Engineers land
32. A gun activist takes aim at U.S. regulatory power
33. Teaching kids to act safely around guns starts at home
34. Burglar messes with wrong dude (Video)
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1. VCDL meeting on August 4 at RRPC in Charlottesville
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Come one, come all to the next VCDL meeting to be held at RRPC on Thursday, August 4th at 6:30 p.m. We will begin with an awesome pot luck dinner and then when we are fed and happy we will talk about how to go about getting a criminal record expunged. VCDL Executive Member and attorney Mark Matthews has graciously agreed to address this subject.
This topic came up when acquaintance of EM Patricia Webb discovered that a false arrest from his teenage years was still on his record. Not only was the arrest record there, but there was no disposition listed for the charges! As you can imagine, this can cause a myriad of problems, both with firearms purchases and with employment and even with travel! Come join us to learn more about the subject and what to do if you have a similar situation.
RSVP to Pat.Webb@vcdl.org so we have an idea of the number for dinner.
Please put the number attending in the subject line (example: Meeting - 2)
Bring a dish to share if you can. Drinks and the main course will be provided. If you are unable to bring anything for the dinner, please don't let that stop you, we will have plenty!
Directions:
Rivanna Rifle and Pistol Club
http://www.rrpc.org
Route 631
Charlottesville, VA 22903
From Interstate 64, take exit #120 South (5th street)
Follow to range on right. There will be a sign just before the driveway.
Follow the drive straight up the hill to the clubhouse.
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2. VCDL picnic on August 6 at the Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield
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Mark your calendars!
To celebrate the Governor McDonnell's directive earlier this year to allow both open and concealed carry in State Parks, VCDL is having a picnic on Saturday, August 6, at the Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield County from 11 AM to 2 PM.
Pocahontas State Park is located at:
10301 State Park Road
Chesterfield, VA 23832
Also, carry has been legal in State Forests since July 7th!
Guest speakers will be announced at a later date.
The picnic is open to the public and is free (there is a $5 parking fee that the parks charge for each vehicle entering the park, with exceptions for military and the disabled). If you are planning on attending, please RSVP to: picnics@vcdl.org
Use a subject line that says "Attending" followed by the number in your party, like this, "Attending 3" If you can help with grill work, or set up and tear down, please indicate so in your email to picnics@vcdl.org
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3. VCDL to have a booth at Louisa County Fair July 29-30. Help needed!
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EM Brandy Polanowski has arranged for VCDL to have a table at this year's annual Louisa County Agricultural Fair taking place July 29-30 (approximate hours Friday 11am-10pm and Saturday 9am-8pm) at the Louisa Volunteer Firemen's Fairgrounds. Assistance is needed to help man the booth over the course of the event. Entrance to the fair is $4/day for adults and $2 for children under 12 and seniors, but VCDL will reimburse shift volunteers . This is considered one of the largest county events, with lots of foot traffic over the course of the 2 days as local organizations, businesses, political groups and more have their information and/or wares displayed. If you can give any time to help with this event, please contact Brandy with day(s) and time (ie. morning, afternoon, evening, all day) availability.
brandy.polanowski@vcdl.org
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4. VCDL PAC endorses David Ramadan (87th)
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David Ramada held a Skeet Shoot competition, picnic and Fundraiser over the weekend and was read the VCDL PAC endorsement by VCDL Executive Member Ed Levine. Dennis Fusaro from the VCDL PAC was also present.
Video from Youtube:
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5. Virginia Tech responds to AG opinion on 'No Guns' policy
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Virginia Tech continues to disgrace itself by prohibiting the otherwise legal carry of firearms on campus. Their policy, even if converted to a regulation, is too broad to be legal, in my opinion. For example they can't ban a guest or visitor from carrying outside their buildings just because a bunch of people are gathered in an area.
John Pierce emailed me this:
From Monachus Lex: http://tinyurl.com/3l5zac4
By John Pierce
July 12, 2011
Following last week's opinion by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that state university policies are trumped by state-issued concealed handgun permits while properly promulgated regulations are not, Virginia Tech has announced their intent to transform their 'no guns' policy into a regulation.
Virginia Tech Associate Vice President of University Relations Larry Hincker, who in 2006 spearheaded the university's efforts to defeat a bill which would have allowed students and employees to carry handguns on campus, told local media that he expects the Board of Visitors to initiate the process when next they meet with University officials.
In 2006, after the campus carry bill was defeated, Hincker was quoted as saying that "This will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." As for the possibility of those on campus needing legally carried firearms for self defense in the face of an armed attacker? Hincker assured the campus community that "Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same." But less than a year later, in one of the most tragic incidents in University history, Seung-Hui Cho demonstrated that no policy, regulation or law can stop a criminal or disturbed individual intent on harming others.
However, Virginia Tech has continued to cling to the same flawed policy which left employees, teachers, and adult students disarmed, helpless and locked in a building with a madman. And Hincker says that he expects the wording of the policy to remain the same in any proposed regulation.
2.2 Prohibition of Weapons
The university's employees, students, and volunteers, or any visitor or other third party attending a sporting, entertainment, or educational event, or visiting an academic or administrative office building, dining facility, or residence hall, are further prohibited from carrying, maintaining, or storing a firearm or weapon on any university facility, even if the owner has a valid permit, when it is not required by the individual's job, or in accordance with the relevant University Policies for Student Life. This prohibition applies to all events on campus where people congregate in any public or outdoor areas.
Any such individual who is reported or discovered to possess a firearm or weapon on university property will be asked to remove it immediately. Failure to comply may result in a student conduct referral and/or arrest, or an employee disciplinary action and/or arrest.
Hincker went on to add that it was a simple matter of changing policy into regulation. Generally, this would be an incorrect statement as the process to promulgate a regulation under the Virginia Administrative Process Act (VAPA) requires a number of time consuming steps as the following chart from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission demonstrates:
VAPA TimeframesHowever, the Virginia General Assembly has exempted the actions of Educational institutions operated by the Commonwealth from almost all of the requirement of the Virginia Administrative Process Act.
2.2-4002
A. Although required to comply with 2.2-4103 of the Virginia Register Act (2.2-4100 et seq.), the following agencies shall be exempted from the provisions of this chapter, except to the extent that they are specifically made subject to 2.2-4024, 2.2-4030 and 2.2-4031:
6. Educational institutions operated by the Commonwealth, provided that, with respect to 2.2-4031, such educational institutions shall be exempt from the publication requirements only with respect to regulations that pertain to (i) their academic affairs, (ii) the selection, tenure, promotion and disciplining of faculty and employees, (iii) the selection of students, and (iv) rules of conduct and disciplining of students
Consequently, Virginia Tech is statutorily empowered to negate the clear will of the legislature and enact a regulation having the force and effect of law without any of the due process protections embodied in the Virginia Administrative Process Act. The University is only required to publish the regulation pursuant to 2.2-4031 but is not required to accept any public comment unless their own internal policy requires it.
The general assembly granted this blanket exemption to state-run educational institutions in order to facilitate their ability to respond to issues involving the operation of the institutions, not to allow them to thwart the legislative intent of the legislature.
Next session, it is imperative that Virginia voters support the Virginia Citizens Defense League in expanding preemption to apply to state agency action to prevent these types of abuses of agency power.
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6. One court's opinion is no match for attorney general
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Tears are flowing at the Virginian-Pilot. Their anger at Attorney General Cuccinelli is misplaced.
Board member Bruce Jackson emailed me this:
From The Virginian-Pilot: http://tinyurl.com/5togbyj
July 14, 2011
Toting firearms to church is legally permissible only so long as clergy don't object, but a college's campus gun ban doesn't apply to people with concealed carry permits.
Those two recent gun rights rulings are the handiwork of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. They reflect the conservative crusader's read of the law and regrettably in this case, his politics.
As discomfiting as the notion of lethal weapons in church may be to some, it's his take on the campus gun policy that's more troublesome, largely because Cuccinelli can't bring himself to yield after dispensing legal advice.
Instead, he editorializes about campus gun bans as policies that leave citizens defenseless against a rampaging gunman, even as he claims to have no opinion: "It certainly can be argued that such policies are ineffectual because persons who wish to perpetrate violence will ignore them, and that the net effect of such policies is to leave defenseless the law-abiding citizens who follow these policies."
Advocacy for an armed populace as protection against unforeseen mayhem is a common meme among gun rights advocates. It is arguably more troubling in a state that has so recently seen the horrible result of an armed gunman's rampage on a college campus.
That commentary is part of a legal conclusion Cuccinelli released this month arguing the University of Virginia can ban people from openly carrying guns inside school facilities, but may not ban those with weapon permits.
On its face, that would seem at odds with a Supreme Court of Virginia decision earlier this year that upheld a tailored campus gun ban at George Mason University.
But here, too, Cuccinelli has an answer. He sees a difference between the GMU regulation, which has the force of law, and the U.Va. policy with a broader scope.
Never mind that the George Mason rules don't make a distinction between open and concealed carry, that school officials believe its campus ban applies in either case, or that its language bears some similarities to what U.Va. has on the books.
If officials at Mr. Jefferson's university are adamant about prohibiting guns on campus, they would be wise to develop a strong regulation. And Cuccinelli would do well to better mask his personal feelings when offering legal guidance about public institutions. [PVC: Mr. Jefferson would be extremely offended to have such a regulation in force at any university bearing his name]
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7. Guns now welcome in Virginia state forests
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Board member Bruce Jackson emailed me this:
From NBC Washington: http://tinyurl.com/5r3ovhu
By Allison Harris
July 18, 2011
Visitors to Virginia's state forests can now add a new item to their day-in-the-park checklist:
Backpack? Check.
Bug repellent? Check.
Handgun? Check.
On Thursday, Virginia's Department of Conservation and Recreation began allowing visitors to carry firearms into state forests. Gov. Bob McDonnell directed the department to cease enforcement on anti-gun carry rules in the forests in January, but the new rule did not go into effect until yesterday.
Law-abiding Virginia citizens who are legally authorized to carry a firearm are allowed to bring open or concealed firearms into the forests.
"Carrying guns in the state forests is not different than carrying guns on Main Street in Richmond," Department of Conservation and Recreation Public Relations Manager Gary Waugh said. "There are no additional regulations that anyone has to have."
The Virginia Citizens Defense League petitioned for the ability to carry firearms in Virginia's state forests. VCDL President Philip Van Cleave is pleased with the new law.
"It's important to be able to carry firearms [in state forests] because you never know when something can happen," Van Cleave said. "I consider my life valuable everywhere, at all times and I don't want anyone attacking me anywhere."
But, members of another Virginia group, The Virginia Center for Public Safety, fought the new gun carry law.
"We feel that park rangers and state personnel are being put in danger and that hunting laws could be abused," VCPS spokeswoman Lori Haas said. "It's an unnecessary policy."
Waugh said that despite the turnaround in the gun carry ban, everything at Virginia's state forests is operating as usual.
"We already have had law enforcement in place for years," Waugh said. "When this happened, we didn't anticipate any changes."
Waugh says that the parks and forests are having a "record attendance year" and that no one is talking about the change in the gun carry law.
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8. Operation Gunrunner was funded by the 2009 stimulus package
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Todd A. Pegg emailed me this:
From Free Republic: http://tinyurl.com/3tnys8l
By Domandred
July 7, 2011
Something about Project Gunrunner (gunwalker, fast and furious) has been bugging me but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
This morning when I woke up I remember seeing Project Gunrunner in a bill that was discussed here. The original thread about it was a rumor thread that HR45 had been rolled into the stimulus package.
In that thread I scanned the text of H.R.1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for gun, firearm, etc and came up with a hit.
I posted in the thread: "Only time "gun" or "firearm" appears is in the part that give $10,000,000 to the ATF for Project Gunrunner. That was H.R. 495, asking for 15,000,000 for Gunrunner".
H.R. 495 that I mentioned never made it out of committee, but it looks as it was to specifically fund Gunrunner.
Instead portions of it were rolled into the stimulus package a month later. That text found in H.R.1 is:
For an additional amount for 'State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance', $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to 'Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses' for the ATF Project Gunrunner.
Notice that's $40,000,000 for Southern border enforcement, $10,000,000 of which specifically for Project Gunrunner. What does $10 million pay for here? It didn't hire any new agents that I am aware of.
What this tells me is that several congressmen also had knowledge of what Gunrunner was going to entail. This isn't just the ATF and DOJ. This is all levels and areas of government. Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.
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9. Operation Fast and Furious: Designed to promote gun control
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Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Smoking Guns.
Todd Pegg emailed me this:
From Townhall.com: http://tinyurl.com/6zwsrqx
By Katie Pavlich July 13, 2011
[SNIP]
"Internal ATF emails seem to suggest that ATF agents were counseled to highlight a link between criminals and certain semi-automatic weapons in order to bolster a case for a rule like the one the DOJ announced yesterday [Monday]."
Townhall has obtained the email which states "Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations."
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10. Video commentary on Fast and Furious
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From Youtube:
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11. Obama executive order cannot legally enact rifle-reporting law
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From Ammoland.com: http://tinyurl.com/6zg7zx8
By Alan Korwin
July 14, 2011
PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- Effort to Bypass Congress Is Illegitimate, Experts Say Similar Laws Have Required Bills, Open Debate and Recorded Votes. The news Media is Asleep at the Wheel, Reporting Without Questioning. The Firearm Owners Protection Act Bans Such Proposals Altogether and Congress has Already Rejected Reporting for Long Guns.
If this stands up, limits on power fall apart - Is that the true goal of Project Gunrunner?
The effort by the Obama administration to establish new gun law by executive order is not a legal method for enacting law in the United States, according to Alan Korwin, a national expert on gun law and author of nine books on the subject. Other experts agree that such a measure requires an act of Congress, and cannot legitimately be implemented by executive order, as Mr. Obama is attempting to do.
"We already have rapid-reporting requirements for multiple firearm sales, for handguns," Mr. Korwin notes, "and this required Congress to draft and enact a statute, which became federal law 18 U.S.C. 923(g). It's not legal to create another similar law for long guns without Congress," Korwin says.
When that law was changed to allow reporting of multiple handgun sales to local authorities, in addition to federal officials, that also required federal law, which was passed as part of the Brady bill. Congress had an opportunity to include long guns in those reporting requirements, and rejected it. Congress is the only entity with legitimate power to change that, Korwin and other experts say.
According to knowledgeable observers, a firearms bill like this would not make it through Congress, since the House is firmly in pro-gun-rights Republican hands. This may explain Obama's effort to sidestep Congress and attempt to enact a gun law by decree instead of due process and open transparent deliberation.
"Mr. Obama knows such a bill would have no chance of passage in the current Congress. His attempt to avoid Congress is an affront to all Americans, regardless of where they stand on the gun-rights issue," said Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. "Apparently the president is a fan of former Clinton advisor Paul Begala's approach to government: "Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool!"
A president who attempts to pass laws on his own is dangerous to the nation.
"If the administration can get away with this and enact new law without Congress, there is no practical limit on presidential exercise of power, a truly frightening development," says Philip Van Cleave, a civil-rights activist and president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. "Even attempting to grab such power is a tyrannical act," Van Cleave says.
No justification or rational is known that would allow such action regarding rifle sales, when the essentially same law for handguns required a bill and proper passage. This goes even one step further than Obama's federal health care law, which then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said we would have to pass to learn what's in it. That at least used Congress for an appearance of legitimacy, this bypasses Congress completely.
Equal treatment under the law would also be defeated by the move, since the attempt singles out dealers in only four states - California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. One gun dealer, who refused to be identified, pointed out that this will force Mexico's deadly vicious drug cartels to make their illegal straw purchases in the other 46 states.
Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Oklahoma are the next closest states to the Mexican border, and could conceivably see an uptick in the sales Obama claims he is trying to thwart. Those states would be under no obligation to report multiple sales, though licensed dealers are typically vigilant and report sales that seem suspicious, if for no other reason than to protect their licenses to operate.
"The whole scheme is preposterous," says Kim Grady, a board member and national coordinator for Second Amendment Sisters. "Federal agents were the ones smuggling guns into Mexico in the first place, to bolster the numbers Mr. Obama, Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder were loudly promoting to build support for more gun control - even after their numbers were exposed as false," Ms. Grady notes.
"The ATF-managed straw sales sales were repeatedly reported to ATF officials, who ignored the information. Now dealers will be required to do what they were already doing, to the rogue agency that ignored them? This has nothing to do with gun control, and everything to do with control."
If a new law is needed, Grady said, it's one to imprison federal agents who cooperate in gun smuggling, not more paperwork for honest and conscientious licensed business people.
According to ATF, the new edict will generate 18,000 reports in a year. It is unknown where the staff and money to handle such a load will come from, or how the information will be used. FOPA specifically bans collecting this information in any sort of federal facility.
According to Charles Heller, the newly appointed executive director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, "The ultimate aim of all regulations like the one in this executive order, is to make it so difficult for private citizens to own and shoot a gun, that they no longer bother to do so. This is EXACTLY what the Declaration of Independence, whose anniversary we just celebrated, refers to as 'sending forth agents to eat out our substance.'"
Heller notes that, "In the recent Gunrunner debacle, the Obama administration attempted to pad the statistics of 'crime guns' going to Mexico from the U.S. This is a violation of several U.S. laws, committed by law enforcement agents who failed to refuse illegal orders. The solution is simple and straightforward - disarm the agents and decertify the agency as a law enforcement organization. Remove their badges, and give them business cards like any other bureaucrats. Turn them from jack-boots into gumshoes."
According to published reports, Obama promised action on gun restrictions to long-time anti-rights activist Sarah Brady, saying they would come "under the radar," after he got things properly positioned. It defies imagination to suggest that Project Gunrunner, and the Fast and Furious smuggling crimes were just fronts that had nothing to do with padding the numbers, gun smuggling, or even building political support for gun control.
"If that was just a smokescreen, all arranged so Mr. Obama could begin enacting gun law by decree instead of through Congress, now that would be one slick pre-planned political stratagem," said author Korwin, adding, "I can't believe he's that clever, but it sure looks like he's getting that result."
The NRA has promised a lawsuit to fight the administration's decree, about the only action short of impeachment that can be taken if a president acts outside the law. That case would be heard in federal courts, which operate under Obama's Justice Dept. and AG Eric Holder, which have in the past mysteriously dismissed cases they did not like. Voter intimidation by a black panther in Philadelphia, for example, disappeared, even though the club-wielding perp was caught on videotape.
BACKGROUNDER
As early as Dec. 17, 2010, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported that an effort was underway to create rifle-reporting requirements:
"An editorial in today's Washington Post discussed the recent decision by ATF to require federally licensed firearms retailers along the Southwest border to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of most semi-automatic rifles. Specifically this would impact semi-automatic rifles that are larger than .22 caliber, capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days.
"Though the Post supports this ill-advised proposal, it did acknowledge the legitimacy surrounding one of industry's objections:
"When reports of its plan surfaced, the administration came under immediate attack from the gun rights lobby. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association, argued that the administration lacked the legal authority to demand data on rifles and shotguns. It has a point: While Congress authorized the ATF to collect information on handgun sales, it declined to extend the requirement to long guns. A court is likely to be asked to decide whether demand letters may be used to shake loose this information?" http://tinyurl.com/2fye7bl
NSSF continues to oppose multiple sales reporting of semi-automatic rifles. Such reporting requirements will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement. Traffickers will go further underground, hiring more people to buy their firearms. This will make it much harder for retailers to identify and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement. http://www.nssfblog.com/more-on-atf-mul ... reporting/
NSSF would also like to remind all members of industry, sportsmen and gun owners to voice their concerns by doing the following:
* Call the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and Regulation Affairs, Department of Justice, Desk Officer at (202) 395-6466.
* E-mail Barbara A. Terrell, ATF, Firearms Industry Programs Branch at Barbara.Terrell@atf.gov
* Call your Senators and Representative: United States Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
The NSSF reports that, "According to ATF, the average age of a firearm recovered in the United States is 11 years old. In Mexico it's more than 14 years old. This demonstrates that criminals are not using new guns bought from retailers in the states."
Congress, when it enacted multiple sales reporting for handguns, could have required multiple sales of long guns - it specifically chose not to.
The Washington Post reported on Dec. 17 of last year that, "The plan (to register rifles) by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revives a proposal that has languished at the Justice Department and in the Obama administration for several months, according to people with knowledge of the proposal... The idea of such a requirement is so controversial to many gun owners that administration officials proceeded cautiously for fear of provoking the National Rifle Association, sources said."
The paper quoted Ted Novin, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who noted the timing after the election and said, "This is an ill-considered proposal and one that ATF does not have the legal authority to unilaterally impose."
The Post also quoted NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox, "This administration does not have the guts to build a wall (on the border), but they do have the audacity to blame and register gun owners for Mexico's problems," Cox said. "NRA supports legitimate efforts to stop criminal activity, but we will not stand idle while our Second Amendment is sacrificed for politics."
The original idea, says the Post, was to label the operation as an emergency, and have ATF issue a "demand letter" to 8,500 dealers in the four border states requiring the new reports to a centralized federal facility.
When the NRA got wind of the idea back then, it warned its four million members in a "grassroots alert" that the administration might try to go around Congress to get such a plan enacted as an executive order or rule.
"Emergency approval would last six months, after which the requirement would end unless other action were taken, the draft states," according to the Post. That time is now up and Obama has seen fit to attempt to continue the operation, in defiance of law and with disregard for Congress. http://tinyurl.com/6c37t97
From the Firearm Owners Protection Act 18 USC 926 Rules and regulations
"The Attorney General may prescribe only such rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter...
(3)... No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners' Protection Act (1986) may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established."
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12. Gun runners stopped in Texas
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Bill Cowardin emailed me this:
From the Seguin Gazette: http://tinyurl.com/65pbeby
By Felicia Frazer July 10, 2011
GUADALUPE COUNTY - A Thursday night traffic stop ended with Guadalupe County deputies seizing a large cache of weapons believed to be Mexico bound.
Guadalupe County Sheriff's Cpl. Clint Garza said a deputy stopped a black Ford truck for a traffic violation around 9 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 10 near the 604 mile marker.
The driver was hauling a trailer loaded down with plywood and wallboard, Garza said.
While taking to the driver, the deputy realized he was not being truthful and was given the OK to search the vehicle, Garza said.
"During the search the deputy located a false compartment in the load of materials that contained a large amount of weapons and ammunition," he said. "It was found that approximately 67 semi-automatic weapons were located along with several thousand rounds of ammunition."
Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke said it was evident the guns were not being shipped for recreational purposes.
"There is no telling what the weapons were destined for. No doubt they were not intended for a good thing," he said. "They were not being transported for a sporting club or a hunting club."
Garza said once the guns hit the border into Mexico - where deputies suspect the vehicle was headed - the price tag per gun could have doubled.
As the violence across the border continues, Zwicke said discovering a cache of weapons can make a difference.
"We are happy to take these guns of the street," he said. "It's a different world we live in. With terrorism and things going on in the U.S. and Texas, it's scary."
The truck, trailer, guns and ammunition were seized by the Sheriff's Office.
The case remains under investigation.
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13. Fast and Furious hardly a 'renegade operation', sources say
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From Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner:
From examiner.com: http://tinyurl.com/6kgqatu
By Dave Workman July 14, 2011
[SNIP]
'Fast and Furious' hardly a 'renegade operation,' sources say
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' botched Operation Fast and Furious was not a "renegade operation" but a coordinated effort "from the top down," say congressional sources and ATF insiders.
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14. Eric Holder's false testimony on Gunrunner
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Bill Hine emailed me this:
From Salem-News: http://tinyurl.com/3guqb6d
By Tim King July 9, 201
Eric Holder gave false info to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof.
(SALEM, Ore.) - (This is an update and overview: Report on Eric Holder & U.S. Weapons Smuggling Program to Mexico Making Rounds) New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as "Fast and Furious", which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels[1].
Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, and then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, "I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."[2]
The ATF weapons smuggling ring involved the arrest of several government officials with the city of Columbus, New Mexico including the mayor and police chief, but that is all[3].
They were apparently known from the beginning and the weapons deals with 'straw buyers' were videotaped. Smuggled U.S. weapons from this operation, described as mostly semi automatic versions of military weapons like the AK-47, were found to be used in the shooting deaths of two U.S. federal agents.
The new information, which is not really new at all, proves that Holder had to be aware of the U.S. government weapons smuggling operation planned and implemented by federal agents from ATF which he denied to Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) less than two months ago, as detailed below.
Background on Fast and Furious 'Gunrunner' Operation
As we have reported with the help of our Photojournalist Robert Plumlee, who is a former CIA asset, we know that around 1,800 weapons were funneled through the Chaparral Gun Store in Chaparral, New Mexico, and into the hands of the murderous cartels. As referenced, the gun shop was directly tied to the mayor, police chief and city council of Columbus, New Mexico, a town famous for the Pancho Villa border raids a century before[4].
Weapons from the ATF Gunrunner or Gunwalker scheme as it came to be known, were recovered from the desert where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died in a shootout with cartel members. A U.S. gun that allegedly was smuggled into Mexico from Dallas, Texas, was used to murder an Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent named Jaime Zapata[5].
Considering how big of a problems guns and violence already are in Mexico, it should be a mystery how this U.S. / Mexico weapons smuggling program was ever launched, and according to Holder's earlier testimony, included in our report, Feds Call Meeting with Journalist Who Reported Human Remains and Cartel Weapon Build up with U.S. Ties, it is a mystery[6].
This is official sworn testimony from Holder, the video is transcribed.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa grills Attorney General Eric Holder over Failure and tragedy of 'Operation Fast and Furious'
Issa: "When did you first know about the program, Fast and the Furious? To the best of your knowledge what date?"
Holder: "I'm not sure of the exact date but I probably heard of Fast and Furious the first time in the last few weeks."
Issa: "How about the head of the Criminal Dept. Lanny Brewer, did he authorize it?"
Holder: "I'm not sure whether or not Mr. Brewer authorized it, you have to understand in which the department operations, although there are operations this one has gotten a great deal of publicity".
Issa: "Yeah there are dead Americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. so I would say that it hasn't gotten enough attention, has it Mr. Attorney General?"
Holder: "Not exactly, there is an investigation that is underway You'll have to look at that to see what exactly in regard to..."
Issa: "But Mr. Attorney General..."
Holder: "...I take very seriously, the allegation..."
Issa: "Mr. Attorney General, do you take seriously... Mr. Attorney General, do you take, take seriously a subpoena signed by the Clerk of the House?"
Holder: "Of course".
Issa: "Mr. Attorney General, isn't it true that those cases that will go to trial in June... We have very limited time, sorry, those cases are basically a bunch of meth addicts who did the buying, that you do not have what this program was supposed to produce, you don't have the kingpins, you don't have the places it went, what you have are the people you already had on videotape many, many months before indictments were brought, isn't this true?"
Holder: "There are cases that are important that we are tying to bring that we want to try successfully and they are part of a scheme they are part of a scheme. You can't look at an individual case as an individual matter and think it's unimportant because small cases lead to larger ones."
Issa: "We're looking at you, straw purchasers, we're looking at you, and you're key people who knew or should have known about this, and whether or not your judgment was consistent with good practices and whether or not, instead, the Justice Dept. is basically guilty of allowing weapons to kill Americans and Mexicans. So will you agree to cooperate with that investigation both on the House and Senate side?"
Holder: "We'll certainly cooperate with all of the investigations but I take great exception to what you just said; the notion that somehow or another, this Justice Dept. is responsible for those deaths that you mentioned, uh... that assertion's offensive. and I want to tell you that..."
Issa: "What if it's accurate?"
Holder: "...it is the policy of the Justice Dept. to make sure that we do all that we can to protect law enforcement agents, it is one of the reasons we have tried to look at a whole variety of methods and techniques we can use to protect the lives of law enforcement agents, it is something this country is not focused enough on."
Issa: "What am I gonna tell Agent Terry's mother about how he died at the end of a gun that was videotaped as it was sold to a straw purchaser fully intending and expecting it to end up in the hands of drug cartels?"
Holder: "Well, one; you know we'll have to see exactly what happened with regards to the guns that are at issue there. And... (pause) I've attended funerals you know. it's something that, you know it isn't theoretical, this is not political, it is extremely real for me as Attorney General...
Issa: "It is for us too"[7] .
An article published Friday, 8 July 2011, The Stimulation of Murder, by Investor's Business Daily, explained that A.G. Holder was, in spite of his denial, fully aware of the ATF's gun-running to Mexico operations, to the point that it was fully disclosed in President Barack Obama's Stimulus Bill.
"Right there in the stimulus bill that no one in Congress bothered to read is $10 million for Project Gunrunner (aka Operation Fast and Furious), which resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and increased drug cartel violence", the article stated.
Attorney General Eric Holder's direct denial of knowledge of this as shown above, to Congress, could and possibly should be his downfall. Rather than relying on the blog article, I simply copied the words and dropped them into Google. Lo and behold, Holder's 2009 speech in Mexico from the Dept. of Justice...
Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference in CUERNAVACA, MEXICO Thursday, April 2, 2009
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.
But as today's conference has emphasized, the problem of arms trafficking will not be stopped at the border alone. Rather, as our experts emphasized, this is a problem that must be met as part of a comprehensive attack against the cartels - an attack in depth, on both sides of the border, that focuses on the leadership and assets of the cartel...[2]
Special Agent Jaime Zapata was shot and killed outside of Mexico City, Mexico.
He and another agent assigned to the United States Embassy and were traveling between Mexico City and Monterrey when they were forced off the road by 10 members of a Mexican drug cartel. The agents were in an armored vehicle with diplomatic plates and identified themselves as diplomats.
The cartel members opened fire on them, fatally wounding Agent Zapata and wounding the second agent.
Several members of the drug cartel were apprehended in Mexico and face charges in connection with Special Agent Zapata's murder.
Special Agent Zapata had served with ICE for four years and had previously served with the United States Border Patrol for just under one year. He is survived by his parents and four brothers, two of whom also serve as federal agents.
Source: ODMP Remembers;...
As if the information isn't bad enough, one of our reporters who has spent the last three years working on the border, gathering information on the narco cartels, Robert 'Tosh' Plumlee; blew the whistle on the gun walking operation known as, Fast and Furious by filing numerous reports to federal agencies and local law enforcement in May 2009 about these guns walking across the border. These reports were some seven plus months before Brian Terry's death in December 2010. Mr. Plumlee also reported a number of alleged bodies buried in the desert on the U.S. side of the border that officials in New Mexico, for whatever reasons, refuse to investigate. These bodies, mostly skeletal remains, have been fully photographed and documented with a GPS (Global Positioning System) located by Mr. Plumlee[6].
Also, as revealed in our recent reports, there are major stores in Mexico of what Robert Plumlee refers to as, 'high impact weapons' which include anti-aircraft guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers and mortars. These weapons are of U.S. origin, they are ample and they include the latest and most deadly, the same high tech weaponry currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. While not fully tallied, there are reported sites where thousands and thousands of these weapons exist, along with 'knock-off' Mexican army uniforms[11].
He made note of these weapons storage areas while accompanying a recently disclosed U.S./Mexican joint military force that has been battling the cartels south of the U.S. border since 2009. Even reports about this task force were vehemently denied by Mexico, and then later corroborated by a Wikileaks cable[12][13][14].
Not only are we dealing with official, approved U.S. government weapons smuggling programs, undisclosed U.S./Mexican military anti-narco operations, and hardcore lies from the very top of the U.S. governmental structure; it also seems that there is an overriding motivator for destabilizing the U.S. southern border, and in essence extending the need for both the U.S. and Mexican 'wars on drugs'[13][14][15].
Many may ask, why now... why this? What possible reason would justify shipping weapons to 'trace' in Mexico that have no navigational or homing devices? For those who don't know, more than 40,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the launch of Calderon's drug war.
This is not to say that the Mexican President is not sincere. In fact by most accounts, Calderon is truly trying to help his country that does have a history of corruption, gain the upper hand over the cartels and end the rampant crime.
As we suggested in the article, Is Los Zetas Military Cartel Planning a Bloody Revolution in Mexico?, the push is on for control of Mexico and Los Zetas, a cartel that began three years ago when its founders split away from the Mexican Army Special Forces, 'Los Zetas', is moving toward a full-scale revolution. Robert Plumlee believes the outcome of the 2012 Mexican elections will determine that outcome. Either way, the end results do not look good, particularly with major supplies of brand new U.S. weapons in the Zetas' control.
The Money Trail
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed near Rio Rico, Arizona, while attempting to apprehend a group of armed subjects. The suspects had been preying on illegal immigrants with the intent to rob them.
Agent Terry and several other agents were attempting to arrest the group when shots were exchanged between the suspects and agents. Agent Terry was struck in the pelvis by a round fired by a suspect armed with an AK-47.
The wounded agent was flown to a hospital where he succumbed early the following morning.
Four members of the group were taken into custody and at least one suspect remains at large.
Agent Terry was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had served with the United States Border Patrol for 3.5 years. He had previously served as a police officer with the Lincoln Park, Michigan, Police Department. He is survived by his parents, brother, two sisters, five nieces, and one nephew.
Officer Down Memorial Page
Los Zetas does not want the drug war to end. They are known for entering drug rehab facilities in Mexico and killing every single person in the building. The end of the drug war would lead to legalization of marijuana as a health treatment on a federal level and this move would devastate the current U.S. pharmaceutical industry. This is the industry that by all logic, would least benefit from an end to the drug wars. This is very likely why Eric Holder reversed the federal government's position last week on state laws over medical marijuana. He says the feds are going to increasingly bust medical cannabis users and program, regardless of state law, as federal law never made any real concessions.
With the government refocusing enforcing laws against sick people who use marijuana, and delivering deadly weapons to Mexico, one of our writers has been causing significant problems for one of the nation's top pharmaceutical companies.
Our writer Marianne Skolek, who lost her daughter to an Oxycontin-related respiratory failure, has been a thorn in the side of Purdue Pharmaceuticals for years, writing articles that continually expose the practices of this company that has been exposed for very serious criminal behavior.
Aided by Marianne's testimony, along with that of others who lost family members to Oxycontin, two U.S. Attorneys convicted several top level Purdue executives for falsely advertising the drug as both non-lethal and non-addictive. That may stand as one of the most outrageous claims ever made by a supposedly legitimate U.S. business.
The connection is that long before Eric Holder was lying to Congress over the U.S. role in Border Patrol and Immigration Customs Enforcement agent's deaths tied to U.S. supplied weapons in Mexico, he was one of a lawyer for Purdue, at this dark point in their business history.
In the article, Eric Holder negotiated an OxyContin settlement in West Virginia - working for Purdue Pharma!, Ms. Skolek reveals how Holder not only shielded Purdue over falsely advertising the drug Oxycontin which has led to tens of thousands of related deaths, but also how his actions in arranging a settlement actually allowed the drug to become the epidemic it is. That is serious.
In 2001, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw Jr., filed a civil case against Purdue Pharma alleging that the privately held pharmaceutical company had engaged in "coercive and deceptive" marketing of OxyContin. He alleged that Purdue used misleading advertisements and had promoted the inappropriate use of OxyContin for minor pain. His lawsuit further stated that Purdue had offered doctors free trips to "pain management" seminars where the firm pitched the drug as safe and effective for treating minor pain - without mentioning the drug was supposed to be used only for severe pain and easily abused.
McGraw also alleged that Purdue had told "pharmacists that they can get in trouble if they do not fill prescriptions, even if they believe someone may be an abuser of the drug."
The lawsuit was a big worry to Purdue because they had a lot to lose financially, and that is why they turned to Eric Holder, an attorney with Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C.
As Marianne wrote in her article:
The morning the case was to go to trial, in November 2004, Holder helped negotiate a settlement. Working in the judge's chambers in West Virginia, he put together an agreement under which the firm would have to pay $10 million over four years into drug abuse and education programs in West Virginia -- and Purdue Pharma would not have to admit any wrongdoing!
Eric Holder managed to keep the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma quiet since there would be no trial and no documents or testimony to be made public. Did Holder's "hands in the pockets of Purdue Pharma" allow this epidemic of OxyContin death and addiction throughout the country to perpetuate? Many people think it did [16].
It seems clear that there are competing factions in the U.S. government and while there are positive motivations in some cases, there are other motivations that are highly detrimental to the future of both countries. Holder seems to be at the center of this.
There are reports of cartels financing U.S. politicians who have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. There are extremely solid reports of caches of large amounts of weapons that are too vast to have "fallen off the back of a truck".
What is lacking is a direct trail on the campaign contributions. It seems AG Holder has demonstrated for the record that he is not willing to tell the truth when under direct examination, and also that he prefers to see companies like Purdue avoid legal responsibility. I don't know what could be more significant when dealing with a lighted fuse situation like the border wars raging along the border that divides the United States and Mexico.
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15. Pravda Syndrome: MSM can't stop lying about 'Gun Walker'
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James D. Durso emailed me this
From Pajamas Media: http://tinyurl.com/5wlmclo
By Bob Owens July 15, 2011
"Smoking gun" emails and other recent revelations about "Operation Fast and Furious" - and other gunrunning operations by agencies of President Obama's executive branch - have backed the mainstream media into a corner: they have been responding with silence or with outright deception.
One need look no further than CNN, where syndicated columnist (and PJMedia contributor) Ruben Navarrette Jr. delivered a whopper of a lie Thursday [1], claiming that the administration's attempt to create rifle reporting requirements actually affects machine guns. He claimed:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has decided to try to clean up Dodge City by requiring gun dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to report bulk sales of automatic weapons.
He also wrote:
Do you remember the part of the Constitution where it says that people have the right to buy two or more automatic weapons within five days without law enforcement knowing anything about it? Me neither.
Automatic weapons were not among those being trafficked from American gun shops to Mexican cartels.
Not a single one.
They have been heavily regulated since the National Firearms Act of 1934, and in the 77 years since that became the law of the land, machine guns like those you would find in a a few specialized gun shops have been used in just two [2] illegal homicides.
In yet another unsigned editorial [3], the New York Times leads with the blatant fabrication that 70 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States. This is the most recent talking point created by Democrats [4], released just before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform heard testimony from ATF whistleblowers about Operation Fast and Furious in June.
The statistical misrepresentation is a variation of the 90 percent lie [5] that the Obama administration has been using since the president was inaugurated. In actuality, 83 percent of guns used by the cartels come from somewhere other than the United States, and of the 17 percent traced to U.S. origins, roughly 8 percent were traced to U.S. gun shops.
Plus, we now know that a substantial portion of the weapons that transited gun shops did so as a direct result of federal law enforcement agencies telling dealers to make questionable sales to suspected cartel gun runners.
A fact the Times conveniently and purposefully ignores.
In addition to using debunked statistical lies, the Times tells Americans what they think the laws are - or rather, what they wish they were:
These guns have no legitimate place in civilian life and were banned outright for 10 years until Congress and two successive administrations failed to fight for the ban's renewal.
That, too, is a series of blatant lies [6]. A handful of specific guns were banned by name, but so-called assault weapons were never "banned outright." In fact, sales of these firearms actually increased during the decade-long fiasco known as the "assault weapons ban."
Despite what the grandstanding editors of the Times claim, AK and AR-pattern semi-automatic (self-loading firearms that fire one shot per trigger pull) rifles are extremely common, with the latter becoming known as modern sporting rifles [7] and finding a home in practical shooting competitions, home defense, target shooting, and in hunting applications for nearly every kind of large and small game animal in North America.
The deceptive language used by administration champions in the media is hardly accidental. The disarming of the proles has long been a goal of the liberal elite that are the authors and audience of the various bi-coastal establishment news outlets, and they are more than willing to be duplicitous to manipulate their readers.
The Times editors presumably know little of firearms from firsthand experience, but are certainly intelligent enough to know the practical and academic differences between a military or law enforcement machine gun and a civilian rifle. They simply choose to conflate the two when it suits their attempt to influence the masses, and as we've shown above, they're more than willing to fabricate when fudging the truth won't do. Their peers have also demonstrated that they are more than willing to attack the messenger [8] if they think they can get away with it.
Unfortunately for the administration, however, even the most loyal of media sycophants can't cover a scandal as large as Gunwalker appears to be.
The public is too well-educated, the evidence of probable criminality too blatant and widespread. The administration's apparent plan to use gun violence to spur support for gun control efforts has become Watergate with a body count, and no amount of media deception or spin, or party [9] misdirection [10], can save them from the consequences of their actions.