Category Archives: Firearms

2012 Primary, Firearms, Gangsta Govt, Obama, True Talking Points

Video proof that Obama, Holder and Napolitano knew about gun walking in 2009

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Under the Bush Administration this program was called “Wide Receiver”, but in that program the guns were stopped at the border and the “straw man” gun runners were arrested. Under the Obama Administration the guns were allowed to go into Mexico so that the administration could say we needed new gun laws to stop it.

Hillary Clinton early on tried to make an issue out of American guns going to drug cartels, but when the media and others investigated only a small percentage of American guns were being smuggled to the cartels; the vast majority of guns that cartels use are from the Mexican military, Colombian FARC communist rebels, etc.

So, according to whistle blowers in the ATF and recovered documents the administration sought to make the issue about American guns and the result was over 200 Mexicans killed and an American border agent gunned down.

TheRightScoop.com gets credit for keeping this piece of video archived.

Firearms, True Talking Points

Gun Sales Skyrocket, Poverty Up, Crime Drops.

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We have heard it before, the primary cause of crime is poverty. While it may be a factor, history proves otherwise time and time again. We have also heard that too many guns causes crime, again this has been debunked time and time again as this latest example shows.

Emily Miller at the Washington Times:

Gun-control advocates are noticeably silent when crime rates decline. Their multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts are designed to manufacture mass anxiety that every gun owner is a potential killer. The statistics show otherwise.

Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that violent crime decreased 4 percent in 2011. The number of murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults all went down, continuing a pattern.

“This is not a one-year anomaly, but a steady decline in the FBI’s violent-crime rates,” said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association. “It would be disingenuous for anyone to not credit increased self-defense laws to account for this decline.”

Mr. Arulanandam pointed out that only a handful of states had concealed-carry programs 25 years ago, when the violent-crime rate peaked. Today, 41 states either allow carrying without a permit or have “shall issue” laws that make it easy for just about any noncriminal to get a permit. Illinois and Washington, D.C., are the only places that refuse to recognize the right to bear arms. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence did not respond to requests for comment.

If the gun grabbers were right, we’d be in the middle of a crime wave, considering how many guns are on the streets. “Firearms sales have increased substantially since right after the 2008 election,” said Bill Brassard, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which represents the $4 billion firearms and ammunition industry. “There was a leveling off in 2010, but now we’re seeing a surge again.”

The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) serves as one of the best indicators of gun sales because it counts each time someone buys a gun. Checks hit an all-time high of 16.5 million last year. In the first five months of this year, the numbers have gone up 10 percent over the same period last year as Americans rush to the gun store in case President Obama decides to exercise “more flexibility” in restricting guns in a second term.

Gun manufacturing is the one private-sector industry “doing fine” on Mr. Obama’s watch. Sturm, Ruger & Co. sold 1 million firearms in the first quarter of 2012 – an amazing 50 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011. The jump was so steep that the company stopped accepting orders from March to May to catch up with demand for its products.

Last month, Smith & Wesson announced a firearm-order backlog of approximately $439 million by the end of April, up 135 percent from the same quarter in 2011. Sales in that period were up 28 percent from 2011 and 14 percent over its own predictions to investors. NSSF estimates the industry is responsible for approximately 180,000 jobs and has an annual impact on the U.S. economy of $28 billion.

2012 Primary, Education, Firearms, Gangsta Govt, History, Thugs, True Talking Points

The NRA Helped Defend Black Americans from the KKK

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by Ann Coulter, based on the book Negroes With Guns by civil rights hero Robert F. Williams:

Gun control laws were originally promulgated by Democrats to keep guns out of the hands of blacks. This allowed the Democratic policy of slavery to proceed with fewer bumps and, after the Civil War, allowed the Democratic Ku Klux Klan to menace and murder black Americans with little resistance.

(Contrary to what illiterates believe, the KKK was an outgrowth of the Democratic Party, with overlapping membership rolls. The Klan was to the Democrats what the American Civil Liberties Union is today: Not every Democrat is an ACLU’er, but every ACLU’er is a Democrat. Same with the Klan.)

In 1640, the very first gun control law ever enacted on these shores was passed in Virginia. It provided that blacks — even freemen — could not own guns.

Chief Justice Roger Taney’s infamous opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford circularly argued that blacks could not be citizens because if they were citizens, they would have the right to own guns: “[I]t would give them the full liberty,” he said, “to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”

With logic like that, Republicans eventually had to fight a Civil War to get the Democrats to give up slavery.

Alas, they were Democrats, so they cheated.

After the war, Democratic legislatures enacted “Black Codes,” denying black Americans the right of citizenship — such as the rather crucial one of bearing arms — while other Democrats (sometimes the same Democrats) founded the Ku Klux Klan.

For more than a hundred years, Republicans have aggressively supported arming blacks, so they could defend themselves against Democrats.

The original draft of the Anti-Klan Act of 1871 — passed at the urging of Republican president Ulysses S. Grant — made it a federal felony to “deprive any citizen of the United States of any arms or weapons he may have in his house or possession for the defense of his person, family, or property.” This section was deleted from the final bill only because it was deemed both beyond Congress’ authority and superfluous, inasmuch as the rights of citizenship included the right to bear arms.

Under authority of the Anti-Klan Act, President Grant deployed the U.S. military to destroy the Klan, and pretty nearly completed the job.

But the Klan had a few resurgences in the early and mid-20th century. Curiously, wherever the Klan became a political force, gun control laws would suddenly appear on the books.

This will give you an idea of how gun control laws worked. Following the firebombing of his house in 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King, who was, among other things, a Christian minister, applied for a gun permit, but the Alabama authorities found him unsuitable. A decade later, he won a Nobel Peace Prize.

How’s that “may issue” gun permit policy working for you?

The NRA opposed these discretionary gun permit laws and proceeded to grant NRA charters to blacks who sought to defend themselves from Klan violence — including the great civil rights hero Robert F. Williams.

A World War II Marine veteran, Williams returned home to Monroe, N.C., to find the Klan riding high — beating, lynching and murdering blacks at will. No one would join the NAACP for fear of Klan reprisals. Williams became president of the local chapter and increased membership from six to more than 200.

But it was not until he got a charter from the NRA in 1957 and founded the Black Armed Guard that the Klan got their comeuppance in Monroe.

Williams’ repeated thwarting of violent Klan attacks is described in his stirring book, “Negroes With Guns.” In one crucial battle, the Klan sieged the home of a black physician and his wife, but Williams and his Black Armed Guard stood sentry and repelled the larger, cowardly force. And that was the end of it.

As the Klan found out, it’s not so much fun when the rabbit’s got the gun.

The NRA’s proud history of fighting the Klan has been airbrushed out of the record by those who were complicit with the KKK, Jim Crow and racial terror, to wit: the Democrats.

In the preface to “Negroes With Guns,” Williams writes: “I have asserted the right of Negroes to meet the violence of the Ku Klux Klan by armed self-defense — and have acted on it. It has always been an accepted right of Americans, as the history of our Western states proves, that where the law is unable, or unwilling, to enforce order, the citizens can, and must act in self-defense against lawless violence.”

Contrary to MSNBC hosts, I do not believe the shooting in Florida is evidence of a resurgent KKK. But wherever the truth lies in that case, gun control is always a scheme of the powerful to deprive the powerless of the right to self-defense.

Elite Media, Firearms, Lies, True Talking Points

Daily Caller: 8 Ways the Elite Media Doesn’t Understand Gun Owners

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The Daily Caller:

There is a cavernous disconnect between liberal journalists (who don’t even recognize their own biases) and the plight of gun owners. Here are the top eight things anti-gun journalists don’t seem to understand about us.

1. ‘Shootings Are Caused by Guns’

One aspect of Lepore’s story revolves around a high school shooting. Both parents of the shooter have been in and out of jail for violent crimes, including

against each other. The mother is a volatile alcoholic. The father was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting another woman. Reminds you of your home, right?

Then one day their son steals his uncle’s gun, takes it to school and commits an atrocity. It’s a sad story. It would perhaps bring some resolution if a preventative measure could be found. Lepore tries to find a tenable link between gun owners and mass shootings, but her reasoning is dubious at best.

Journalists always want to point the finger at gun owners after such tragedies, as if there’s some way to legislate away the actions of a madman intent on mayhem without expunging the freedoms of law-abiding Americans. They ignore the failures of liberal social programs and instead want to create “

gun free zones,” forgetting that this is in fact where most mass shootings occur (even in highly firearm-restrictive European countries). And, perhaps most frustrating of all, they deny that an average armed citizen can halt a mass shooting. It’s happened, notably at a church in Colorado, a high school in Mississippi, at the Appalachian State law school and elsewhere.

2. That Is Not an AK-47


3. There Is No ‘Gun Show Loophole’If journalists want us to take them seriously, they should at least learn a little about the firearms they so irrationally fear. When we read about an “AK-47” used in a crime that turns out to have been a regular old bolt-action, or when journalists use such terms as “.12-caliber shotgun”, “automatic revolver” or “spray fire assault rifle,” he reveals his ignorance. He entirely discredits himself. And that’s one of the reasons why so many of us tend toward media skepticism even when it comes to non-gun issues.

You can’t just single out a freedom you don’t like and call it a “loophole.” In the United States, we have the right to own firearms. We have the right to sell firearms. If I want to walk across the street and sell my 1911 to a neighbor right now, I have that freedom, as long as he’s legally able to buy a gun and I’m a legal seller. These same transactions occur at gun shows between private sellers. To require a background check between such individuals would essentially end all private transactions—and that is of course the goal of those who push such legislation. So please, journalists, quit griping about gun shows and we won’t touch your “Free Speech Loophole.”

4. The Collective Rights Argument Is Over

Lepore’s article once again drags out the old argument that, unlike every other freedom guaranteed under the Bill of Rights, the Founding Fathers intended the Second Amendment to be a collective right. Last time I checked, the Supreme Court looked into this issue and ruled that the U.S. Constitution guarantees an individual right to gun ownership. Can we move on?

5. We’re Winning Because Shooting Is Fun

Gun rights and pride in gun ownership hit a marked decline in the early to mid-1990’s, but since then things have changed. Gun owners have adjusted their strategy. We’re back on offense, and journalists don’t seem to understand what happened.

Personally, I believe we almost began apologizing for guns during the Clinton Administration. However, at some point we decided to get back to being honest: Shooting guns is an important freedom, we aren’t sorry about it and shooting them is good wholesome entertainment. That’s a message that resonates with the public, if not anti-gun journalists. The media establishment seems baffled by the Brady Campaign’s financial woes. And poll after poll that indicates growing support for gun ownership.

Namely we win because shooting is fun. If you take a rookie shooter to the range, their smile upon that first shot is practically blinding. Despite what they may have read about guns in the media, they just learned how much fun it is to send a round downrange. And there’s nothing a New York City journalist can do to convince them otherwise.

6. Gun Ownership Is Not Declining

Firearms and ammo manufacturers make up practically the only industry that’s actually doing well during this tough recession. Gun buyers are so active that Ruger had to quit taking orders for certain guns. We’ve set sales and NICS check records. And yet journalists buy into the strategy of anti-gunners to portray gun owners as a fringe group. A dying breed.

Lepore makes this argument in her New Yorker piece, but given that she did not cite the source of her information, I’m not sure how she drew that conclusion. Gun ownership is up and, perhaps not coincidentally, the violent crime rate is down.

7. Guns Save Lives

Lazy journalists love to drag out the old saying, “You’re more likely to shoot a family member than an intruder.” Find some new facts—that one’s been discredited. It counted illegally possessed guns and gang members right along with the legitimate homes. And it only took into account incidents in which shots were fired.

According to a study by Florida State criminologist Gary Kleck, guns are used in lawful self-defense 2.5 million times per year. However, most times the mere presence of a firearm is enough to frighten away the miscreant without shots being fired. Bad guy kicks the door down. Little old lady points a .22 at him. Bad guy runs away. The incident may not even be reported to police. You see, journalists, unlike the way you insist on portraying us, we don’t really want to shoot anybody. But, if we have to, we’d rather be prepared to protect ourselves than wait for the police and hope for the best.

8. The Brady Campaign Is Full of Lies

Note to the media: Quit citing hugely inflated Brady Campaign statistics to undermine our gun rights. The Brady Bunch is not some credible non-profit just out there seeking the truth, but an extreme anti-gun group with a complete willingness to lie to meet objectives. At the very least, please admit that the Brady’s anti-gun bias is as great as the NRA or NSSF’s pro-gun views. Instead, you act as if Sarah Brady preaches the gospel, then you bury a few facts from NRA deep in the story, hinting that they must be taken with a grain of salt, or you’ll ignore the pro-gun side altogether. That’s lazy journalism, and we notice.

Thanks to Kyle Wintersteen and Guns & Ammo for writing this article!

Firearms

Gun carrying man ends stabbing spree at Salt Lake grocery store

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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith’s store.

Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith’s employee Dorothy Espinoza says, “He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people.”

Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. “There is blood all over. One got stabbed in the stomach and got stabbed in the head and held his hands and got stabbed all over the arms.”

Then, before the suspect could find another victim – a citizen with a gun stopped the madness. “A guy pulled gun on him and told him to drop his weapon or he would shoot him. So, he dropped his weapon and the people from Smith’s grabbed him.”

Video HERE.

Corporatism, Firearms

Bank of America to gun company: Find another bank, it’s for political reasons…

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Via The Daily Caller:

McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, McMillan Firearms Manufacturing and McMillan Group International have been collectively banking with Bank of America for 12 years. But no more: In a recent meeting, the mega-bank told the firearms company that its business is no longer welcome.

Operations director Kelly McMillan told the Daily Caller that his company has never been late on a payment and has never bounced a check. The debt outstanding on its line of credit is at 61 percent.

But at the bank’s request, he said, the McMillan group of companies would soon be paying off its credit line and closing its accounts.

On Thursday, the Director of Operations Kelly McMillan explained on McMillan’s Facebook page:

Today Mr. Ray Fox, Senior Vice President, Market Manager, Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking [of Bank of America] came to my office. He scheduled the meeting as an ‘account analysis’ meeting in order to evaluate the two lines of credit we have with them. He spent 5 minutes talking about how McMillan has changed in the last 5 years and have become more of a firearms manufacturer than a supplier of accessories.

At this point I interrupted him and asked, ‘Can I [possibly] save you some time so that you don’t waste your breath? What you are going to tell me is that because we are in the firearms manufacturing business you no longer what my business.’

‘That is correct’ he [said].

I replied ‘That is okay, we will move our accounts as soon as possible. We can find a 2nd Amendment friendly bank that will be glad to have our business. You won’t mind if I tell the NRA, SCI and everyone one I know that BofA is not firearms industry friendly?’

‘You have to do what you must’ he said.

‘So you are telling me this is a politically motivated decision, is that right?’

Mr Fox confirmed that it was. At which point I told him that the meeting was over and there was nothing let for him to say.

The Blaze is reporting that Bank of America is denying all of this on their Facebook page. Who do you believe?

Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Elite Media, Firearms, Russia, True Talking Points

Steven Crowder vs Propagandist from Russia Today on American Self Defense Laws (video)

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Lots of people watch RT online. It is very popular. But what most Americans do not understand is that the “hip and flashy” RT is actually “Russia Today” which is a mouth piece for chief oligarch Vladimir Putin.

You will see that every turn around, misdirection and myth about the laws and about the Trayvon shooting is employed by the “reporter”. When Crowder gets done deconstructing all of her BS at the end you can hear her contempt for him.

Culture War, Firearms, Gangsta Govt

Wisconsin Police Losing Multiple Lawsuits for Violating Gun Owners Civil Rights

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Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The city of West Allis has agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit prompted by one of the first tests of Wisconsin residents’ right to openly carry guns.

Brad Krause was planting a tree in his backyard in August 2008 — while wearing a holstered handgun — when police arrived, drew their weapons and arrested him.

In February 2009, a municipal judge found Krause not guilty of disorderly conduct, and in April of that year state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a memo advising law enforcement agencies that the mere fact of wearing a gun, by itself, would not support a charge of disorderly conduct.

Krause sued the city in federal court in 2010.

“This is a clear victory for Mr. Krause and Wisconsin residents who wish to assert their rights under the state and federal Constitution to bear arms lawfully,” said his attorney, John Schiro.

In reaching the settlement, the city did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Several other gun rights advocates arrested for openly wearing their weapons in public, assisted by Wisconsin Carry Inc. and a Georgia attorney who specialized in such cases, have won similar lawsuits against other Wisconsin municipalities. Settlements ranged from $6,500 or $7,500 to $10,000.

 

Police engaged in perpetual harassment of Mr. Krause:

But after his acquittal, and even after the Van Hollen memo, Krause contends, he was warned by West Allis police that if he wore a gun in the city he would be arrested again.

In fact, when TV reporters were interviewing Krause in West Allis about the Van Hollen memo on April 21, 2009, two squad cars pulled up with their emergency lights on, and officers began to question Krause, according to his lawsuit.

“During the questioning, one officer stated that had television camera not been filming, Plaintiff would have been taken to the ground at gunpoint, disarmed, and possibly arrested,” the suit reads.

Now keep this in mind, the officers knew who this citizen was, knew he was not a threat, and yet they put him at gunpoint anyways, meaning that they were looking for an excuse to pull the trigger and take his life.

 

Self defense shootings in Detroit are up 79% as the police has been cut from 5,000 to 3,000 – LINK.

2012 Primary, Firearms, Mitt Romney

2004: Romney for permanent gun ban

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Of course the so called “assault weapon ban” did not target guns used by criminals or actual assault weapons at all. They target self loading rifles popular with collectors, enthusiasts and sportsman while showing you a picture of a machine gun.

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20061214165906/http:/www.mass.gov/?pageID=pressreleases&agId=Agov2&prModName=gov2pressrelease&prFile=gov_pr_040701_assault_weapons_ban.xml

MITT ROMNEY 
GOVERNOR
KERRY HEALEY 
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 1, 2004

CONTACT:
Shawn Feddeman
Nicole St. Peter
(617) 725-4025

 

ROMNEY SIGNS OFF ON PERMANENT ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN
Legislation also makes improvements to gun licensing system

In a move that will help keep the streets and neighborhoods of Massachusetts safe, Governor Mitt Romney today signed into law a permanent assault weapons ban that forever makes it harder for criminals to get their hands on these dangerous guns.

“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony with legislators, sportsmen’s groups and gun safety advocates.  “These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense.  They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.”

Like the federal assault weapons ban, the state ban, put in place in 1998, was scheduled to expire in September.  The new law ensures these deadly weapons, including AK-47s, UZIs and Mac-10 rifles, are permanently prohibited in Massachusetts no matter what happens on the federal level.

“We are pleased to mark an important victory in the fight against crime,” said Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.  “The most important job of state government is ensuring public safety.  Governor Romney and I are determined to do whatever it takes to stop the flood of dangerous weapons into our cities and towns and to make Massachusetts safer for law-abiding citizens.”

The new law also makes a number of improvements to the current gun licensing system, including:

  • Extending the term of a firearm identification card and a license to carry firearms from four years to six years;
  • Granting a 90-day grace period for holders of firearm identification cards and licenses to carry who have applied for renewal; and
  • Creating a seven-member Firearm License Review Board to review firearm license applications that have been denied.

“This is truly a great day for Massachusetts’ sportsmen and women,” said Senator Stephen M. Brewer.  “These reforms correct some serious mistakes that were made during the gun debate in 1998, when many of our state’s gun owners were stripped of their long-standing rights to own firearms.  I applaud Senate President Travaglini for allowing the Senate to undertake this necessary legislation.”

“I want to congratulate everyone that has worked so hard on this issue,” said Representative George Peterson.  “Because of their dedication, we are here today to sign into law this consensus piece of legislation.  This change will go a long way toward fixing the flaws created by the 1998 law.  Another key piece to this legislation addresses those citizens who have applied for renewals.  If the government does not process their renewal in a timely fashion, those citizens won’t be put at risk because of the 90 day grace period that is being adopted today.”

“Never before has there been such bi-partisan cooperation in the passage of gun safety legislation of this magnitude in this nation,” said John Rosenthal, co-founder and chair of Stop Handgun Violence.  “I applaud the leadership of the Governor, Senate President, House Speaker and entire Legislature for passage of this assault weapons ban renewal.  They have shown that Massachusetts can continue to lead the nation in protecting the public and law enforcement from military style assault weapons.”

2012 Primary, Firearms, Lies, Obama, Treason

Chief of Criminal Division pleads the 5th regarding Operation Fast and Furious…

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Fox News:

The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.

Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.

Cunningham was ordered Wednesday to appear before Chairman Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee regarding his role in the operation that sent more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. Guns from the failed operation were found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry.

The letter from Cunningham’s Washington DC attorney stunned congressional staff. Last week, Cunningham, the second highest ranking U.S. Attorney in Arizona, was scheduled to appear before Issa‘s committee voluntarily. Then, he declined and Issa issued a subpoena.

Cunningham is represented by Tobin Romero of Williams and Connolly who is a specialist in white collar crime. In the letter, he suggests witnesses from the Department of Justice in Washington, who have spoken in support of Attorney General Eric Holder, are wrong or lying.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/20/federal-official-in-arizona-to-plead-fifth-and-not-answer-questions-on-furious/

Culture War, Firearms, True Talking Points

Americans buy record numbers of guns for Christmas

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armed, disarmed

UK Telegraph:

According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.

It was the highest number ever in a single month, surpassing the previous record set in November.

On Dec 23 alone there were 102,222 background checks, making it the second busiest single day for buying guns in history.

The actual number of guns bought may have been even higher if individual customers took home more than one each.

Civility, Firearms, Gangsta Govt

Westerners Defy Reckless Federal Bureaucrats With Threat of Mass Force

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Larry Pratt:

For example, over near Deming, New Mexico is the Gila National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service wanted to make almost all of it off limits for people — until the militia of Luna County intervened. They told the feds that they would resist any effort by the Forest Service to restrict access to visitors. The result? Visitors have continued to access all of the Gila National Forest!

In the Southeast corner of the state, many landowners have working oil wells on their property. The EPA told the oil operators they would have to stop operating their wells because there was too much risk of harming the environment. At a town hall meeting convened by the EPA, a woman in her 60s rose to address the feds. She pointed out that her land had been in her family for over 200 years, and she was not about to let some official from an unconstitutional bureaucracy tell her what she could or could not do with her land.

The woman ended by warning the feds that her family has many guns and a huge supply of ammunition, and they would use all of it if needed to keep the EPA off of their land. The locals who had packed out the hearing room jumped to their feet with a shout and prolonged applause. That was in August of this year. As of November, oil is still being pumped at full tilt.

In Otero County, villages in the mountains are surrounded by forests. The county commission voted to establish an 80,000 acre plan to manage forest overgrowth. Residents wanted to cut fire breaks to protect their homes in Cloudcroft, but the Forest Service said, “No.” The residents responded that they had to for safety’s sake and were going to construct the fire break in spite of the Forest Service. Residents were told that if they cut down any trees, they would be arrested. But Sheriff Raymond Cobos told the Forest Service that if they made any arrests, they would be arrested for false arrest.

Not only were the trees cut down with no opposition from the feds, the first tree was cut down by Congressman Steve Pearce (R-2ndDistrict). Would that there were many more like Rep. Pearce. The folks in the Second District are blessed with a constitution-supporting congressman and a number of constitutional sheriffs backed by the militias of their counties. This is the way that local governments can push back and help the feds to live within the limitations that have been placed upon them in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.

Read more HERE.

Culture War, Firearms

Liberty University OKs concealed guns on campus

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News Advance:

Liberty University enacted a policy allowing visitors, students and staff who have concealed weapons permits to carry guns on campus.

The policy, approved Friday by the Board of Trustees and announced to students Wednesday, replaces a complete ban of firearms on university grounds.

Visitors are now permitted to store their weapons in locked cars, while students can apply for permission from campus police to carry a gun on the outdoor grounds or in a locked car. Both groups must have concealed-weapons permits and are prohibited from bringing firearms into any campus building, including dormitories, stadiums and academic halls.

The policy also permits some faculty and staff to carry weapons inside buildings, with permission granted on a case-by-case basis by campus police.

Dirty Tricks, Firearms, Obama, Treason

Government Emails: Use “Fast and Furious” to argue for gun restrictions

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UPDATE:  Eric Holder lied to Congress & threatened with impeachment!

Holder: Lying has to do with your state of mind …..

Wow, talk about Clintonian answers. Holder didn’t mean to lie when what he said to Congress wasn’t true repeatedly…

In the document dumps the Justice Dept has delivered to Congress, there is not one email from Eric Holder on the issue, in spite of his deputies and chief of staff being all over it – Video Link

*****Original Story*****

First of all, we would like to show appreciation to CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson. Her courage in the face of derision and implied threats to get this story right has earned her great respect. If we had an award for Reporter of the Year it would go to Sharyl Attkisson.

Please examine our other operation gunrunner news HERE.

CBS News:

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

PICTURES: ATF “Gunwalking” scandal timeline

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.” But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3”. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

“Bill – can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.”

On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as “(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue.” And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: “Bill–well done yesterday… (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case.”

This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 “disappointing and ironic.” Keane says it’s “deeply troubling” if sales made by gun dealers “voluntarily cooperating with ATF’s flawed ‘Operation Fast & Furious’ were going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles.”

Read more of the emails HERE.

UPDATE – Michelle Fields at the Daily Caller with New York Democratic Party Luminaries: None of them knew what “Fast & Furious” was – LINK /w video

2012 Primary, Firearms, Lies, Mitt Romney

Gun Owners of America on Mitt Romney

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Mitt Romney and Gun Control

In the recent Presidential debate, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said America’s voters did not need to “settle” for the moderate candidate.  Amen to that.

And gun owners do NOT want candidates who talk out of both sides of their mouths.

As the Gun Owners of America’s Board of Directors looks at the Republican candidates running to unseat radical anti-gun President Obama, we see several who have strong pro-gun backgrounds.  Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman all have solid pro-gun records and deserve a hard look from pro-gunners.

At least one frontrunner candidate stands in contrast with a decidedly mixed record on the gun issue.  While Mitt Romney likes to “talk the pro-gun talk,” he has not always walked the walk.

“The Second Amendment protects the individual right of lawful citizens to keep and bear arms. I strongly support this essential freedom,” Romney assures gun owners these days.

But this is the same Mitt Romney who, as governor, promised not to do anything to “chip away” at Massachusetts’ extremely restrictive gun laws.

“We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them,” he said during a gubernatorial debate.  “I won’t chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety.”1

Even worse, Romney signed a law to permanently ban many semi-automatic firearms.  “These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense,” Romney said in 2004. “They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.”2

Romney also spoke in favor of the Brady law’s five day waiting period on handguns.  The Boston Herald quotes Romney saying, “I don’t think (the waiting period) will have a massive effect on crime but I think it will have a positive effect.”3

Mitt Romney doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.”

And that makes it all the more troubling that Romney refuses to answer GOA’s simple candidate questionnaire.  In our more than 36 years of experience, a candidate is usually hiding anti-gun views if he or she refuses to come clean in writing with specific commitments to the Second Amendment.

Today, Romney may be a favorite “Republican Establishment” candidate of the national press corps.  But that is exactly what gun owners DON’T need in a new President. We need someone who will stand by true constitutional principles and protect the Second Amendment.

 

[1] Mitt Romney in the 2002 Massachusetts Gubernatorial debate.  Part of the quote can be read in this article at Scot Lehigh, “Romney vs. Romney,” Boston Globe (January 19, 2007) at: http://mittromney4potus.blogspot.com/2007/01/context.html

[2] “Romney signs off on permanent assault weapons ban,” July 8, 2004, at: http://www.iberkshires.com/story.php?story_id=14812

[3] Mitt Romney, quoted by Joe Battenfeld in the Boston Herald, Aug. 1, 1994.

2012 Primary, Firearms, Newt

Gun Owners of America on Newt Gingrich

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Prior to the “Republican Revolution” of 1994, Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia had earned an A rating with Gun Owners of America.  But that all changed in 1995, after Republicans were swept to power and Gingrich became Speaker of the House.

The Republicans gained the majority, thanks in large part to gun owners outraged by the Clinton gun ban.  And upon taking the reins of the House, Speaker Gingrich said famously that, “As long as I am Speaker of this House, no gun control legislation is going to move in committee or on the floor of this House and there will be no further erosion of their rights.”

His promise didn’t hold up, however, and his GOA rating quickly dropped to well below the “C-level.”  In 1996, the Republican-led Congress passed the “gun free school zones act,” creating criminal safe zones like Virginia Tech, where the only person armed was a murderous criminal.  Speaker Newt Gingrich voted for the bill containing this ban.[1]

The same bill also contained the now infamous Lautenberg gun ban, which lowered the threshold for losing one’s Second Amendment rights to a mere misdemeanor.[2] Gun owners could, as a result of this ban, lose their gun rights forever for non-violent shouting matches that occurred in the home — and, in many cases, lose their rights without a jury trial.

While a legislator might sometimes vote for a spending bill which contains objectionable amendments, that was clearly NOT the case with Newt Gingrich in 1996.  Speaking on Meet the Press in September of that year, Speaker Gingrich said the Lautenberg gun ban was “a very reasonable position.”[3] He even refused to cosponsor a repeal of the gun ban during the next Congress — despite repeated requests to do so.[4]

Also in 1996, Speaker Gingrich cast his vote for an anti-gun terror bill which contained several harmful provisions.  For example, one of the versions he supported (in March of that year) contained a DeLauro amendment that would have severely punished gun owners for possessing a laser sighting device while committing an infraction as minor as speeding on a federal reservation.[5] (Not only would this provision have stigmatized laser sights, it would have served as a first step to banning these items.)  Another extremely harmful provision was the Schumer amendment to “centralize Federal, State and Local police.”[6]

Final passage of H.R. 3610, Sept. 28, 1996 at:  http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1996/roll455.xml . Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) warned his colleagues about the hidden dangers in H.R. 3610, and in regard to the Kohl ban, noted that it would “prohibit most persons from carrying unloaded firearms in their automobiles.”

See Gingrich’s vote at: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1996/roll455.xml .

[3] Associated Press, “Gingrich Favors Handgun Ban for Domestic Abuse Convicts,” Deseret News, Sept. 16, 1996.  The full quote reveals how much Speaker Gingrich had adopted the anti-gunners’ line of thinking:  “I’m very much in favor of stopping people who engage in violence against their spouses from having guns,” the Georgia Republican said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think that’s a very reasonable position.”  But the fact that this gun ban covers misdemeanors in the home is primary evidence that NON-violent people have been subjected to lifetime gun bans for things like:  shouting matches, throwing a set of keys in the direction of another person, spanking a child, etc.

[4] See H.R.1009, “States’ Rights and Second and Tenth Amendment Restoration Act of 1997,” introduced by Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID).

H.R. 2703, March 14, 1996 at: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1996/roll066.xml .

S. 735, April 18, 1996 at:  http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1996/roll126.xml .

2012 Primary, Firearms, Rick Perry

Gun Owners of America on Rick Perry

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As Governor of Texas for a decade, Rick Perry has shown himself to be a tough defender of the right to keep and bear arms.

In his private life, Gov. Perry carries concealed and knows how to use his weapon.  While jogging with his dog last year, he used his .380 Ruger to shoot and kill a cayotte that was menacing his pet.

“Don’t attack my dog or you might get shot … if you’re a coyote,” he told the Associated Press.

As for his public record, Gov. Perry has a near-perfect gun record, having signed dozens of pro-gun bills into law.  Here’s his record as governor:

2001

Signed Senate Bill 766, which prohibits lawsuits against gun ranges, gun manufacturers, and distributors for anything carried out in lawful operation.

2004

Signed concealed handgun reciprocity agreements with Georgia and Montana.

2005

Signed House Bill 225 (Driver) which extends the renewal period for a concealed handgun license from four to five years without an increase in renewal fee.  The bill also included a provision that a person from any state can qualify for a Texasconcealed handgun license (CHL).

Singed House Bill 322 (Hupp) which reduces all fees for a concealed handgun license for military members and veterans by 50 percent and lowers the age from 21 to 18 for members of the military or veterans to obtain a concealed handgun license.

Signed House Bill 685 (Rose) which exempts military members and veterans from taking the range portion of the concealed handgun licensing process if they had been weapons certified in the military within the past five years prior to application for the license.

Signed House Bill 1483 (Frost) which expanded methods by which applicants for a concealed handgun license may pay the fees to include personal check, cash, and credit card. Currently only cashiers checks and money orders are accepted.

Signed House Bill 823 (Keel) which allows for concealed carry in a privately owned vehicle, without having to obtain a permit from the government.

Signed House Bill 1038 (Isett) which reduces the fee for renewal of a canceled handgun permit for senior citizen by 50 percent. The current renewal fee for a senior citizen is $70 for a four-year renewal period and this bill will reduce that fee to $35 for those 60 years of age or older.

Signed Senate Bill 734 (Williams) which restricts the ability of a city to prohibit the discharge of firearms on large pieces of land in their extraterritorial jurisdiction.

2007

Signed House Bill 233 (Ritter) which waives CHL fees for active duty military.

Signed House Bill 991 (Rose) which protected the privacy and safety of CHL holders by restricting access to such records, thus keeping names of permit holder from being made public.

Signed House Bill 1815 (Isett) which expands constitutional carry by allowing the carrying a handgun on one’s own premises or premises under one’s control, and between a premises and a car under one’s control, as well as in a vehicle under one’s control.  Defines premises to include recreational vehicles such as a motor home.

Signed House Bill 1839 (Bonnen) which eases renewal requirements after the third renewal of a CHL.

Signed Senate Bill 112 (Carona) which prohibits the seizure by police of lawfully carried and possessed firearms during a disaster.

Signed Senate Bill 322 (Duell), not allowing foster homes to prohibit firearms and ammunition.

Signed Senate Bill 378 (Wentworth), a castle doctrine bill removing the requirement to retreat before using deadly force against an attacker in one’s home, auto or place of business.

Signed Senate Bill 535 (Hegar) which prohibits the Lower Colorado River Authority from adopting rules against concealed carry or self-defense.

2009

Signed House Bill 2664 (Ritter), creating a defense to prosecution for the offense of unlawful carrying of a handgun by a license holder on the premises of certain businesses.

Signed Senate Bill 1188 (Estes) which expands the number of states from which Texans can purchase long guns.

Signed Senate Bill 1236 (Seliger), requiring that a person charged with a domestic violence misdemeanor offense be notified that upon conviction they may lose their right to possess a firearm.

Signed Senate Bill 1742 (Shapiro) which expands the authorities of cities to regulate the discharge of firearms outside of city limits (GOA opposes).

2011

Signed House Bill 25 (Guillen), extending the right to carry on a boat or watercraft with the necessity of a CHL.

Signed House Bill 1595 (Isaac) which protects shooting ranges from frivolous lawsuits.

Signed House Bill 2127 (Garen) which restricts the ability of certain cities to prohibit shooting.

Signed House Bill 2560 (Sheffield) which allows foster parents with a CHL to carry in an automobile with children present.

Signed Senate Bill 321 (Hegar) which allows Texans with a concealed carry permit to keep their firearm in locked glove boxes in their automobile while at place of employment.

Education, Firearms, Health Law

Gabby Giffords & Mark Kelly: If Loughner received treatment, this probably never would have happened

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Truer words could not be spoken.

gabby giffords
Cong. Giffords

Above is a photo of Congressman Giffords from her recent interview. She looks as lovely as ever. What a remarkable recovery she has had and indications are that she will continue to improve.

Everyone knows her story, but the key part of this story which consistently goes under reported is just how preventable the shooting was.

In short the college administration, members of the faculty, as the campus police knew Loughner was schizophrenic, or at least had serious mental issues severely impacting his ability to perceive reality correctly. The local sheriff’s department also knew it. Loughner’s mother is a supervisor in the county parks department and there have been reports that she used her contacts in county government to help keep Loughner out of serious trouble.

The State of Arizona has a toll free line that can be issued to have someone forcibly evaluated so that they are not a danger to themselves and others. The campus police, the sheriff’s department, parents, teachers etc could have called that number as there is no way (judging by police reports) that Loughner could have passed such an exam. One single examination saying he was unfit and properly reported would have prevented Loughner from being able to buy any kind of gun, but all the laws in the world do no good when the people on the ground do not do their duty. That may seem like a harsh indictment, but the trial will likely reveal the numerous contacts Loughner had with police agencies while he was having a psychiatric episode.

For the schizophrenic the senses do not perceive reality correctly and the cognitive skill center to the brain is compromised. While you are I or even a teenager could examine a modestly complex problem and easily come up with the same solution, the schizophrenic would come up with a solution that is beyond irrational and believe it as surely as 2+2=4. This is not easy for someone who has no experience in dealing with the mentally ill to grasp, but in short it is likely that Loughner did what he did because in his own very ill mind reason demanded it.

ABC:

The man arrested at the shooting, Jared Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting. He’s being forcibly medicated with psychotropic drugs at a Missouri prison in an effort to make him mentally competent to stand trial.

In Monday’s broadcast, Giffords and Kelly both expressed their concern that Loughner did not get the help he needed.

“If he had received some treatment, this probably never would have happened,” Kelly said.

ATF, Firearms, Obama, Treason

Proof the ATF & White House Intended to Send American Guns to Drug Lords in Mexico – UPDATED

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UPDATE – Los Angeles Times: Sr. Justice officials knew of ATF gun-running op. Emails...

CBS News Online: ATF Fast and Furious: New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010 – LINK

ABC News Online: Fast and Furious: GOP Says Eric Holder is ‘Either Incompetent’ or ‘Misleading Congress’ – LINK

Fox News: House Republicans Request Special Counsel to Probe Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’ – LINK

Weekly Standard: CBS News Reporter Says White House Screamed, Swore at Her Over Fast and Furious – LINK

Investors Business Daily: Cash for Cartels – LINK – See more below.

CBS News Silences Fast and Furious Reporter – LINK

Arizona Sheriffs Association: Attorney General Holder Lied Under Oath. Special Prosecutor Needed – LINK

Video: Allen West asks for Eric Holder’s resignation – LINK

Obama: We’re working on gun control “under the radar” – LINK

***** Original Story*****

Bill Newell, the former Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Phoenix Field Office has said over and over again under oath, that at no point didn’t ATF allow guns to be trafficked into Mexico.

July 26, 2011:

“At no time in our strategy was it to allow guns to be taken to Mexico,” Newell said, adding at no time did his agency allow guns to walk.

This map along with the other documents released today prove otherwise and now over 200 people are dead as a result. Remember this was all an effort to create an excuse to pass more sweeping gun control laws. Any administration capable of this is capable of anything.

Via CBS News:

WASHINGTON – Late Friday, the White House turned over new documents in the Congressional investigation into the ATF “Fast and Furious” gunwalking scandal.

The documents show extensive communications between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell – who led Fast and Furious – and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O’Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the phone. Such detailed, direct communications between a local ATF manager in Phoenix and a White House national security staffer has raised interest among Congressional investigators looking into Fast and Furious. Newell has said he and O’Reilly are long time friends.

Newly-released White House documents (pdf)

ATF agents say that in Fast and Furious, their agency allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to be sold to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. At least two of the guns turned up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

ATF Manager says he shared Fast and Furious with the White House

The email exchanges span a little over a month last summer. They discuss ATF’s gun trafficking efforts along the border including the controversial Fast and Furious case, though not by name. The emails to and from O’Reilly indicate more than just a passing interest in the Phoenix office’s gun trafficking cases. They do not mention specific tactics such as “letting guns walk.”

A lawyer for the White House wrote Congressional investigators: “none of the communications between ATF and the White House revealed the investigative law enforcement tactics at issue in your inquiry, let alone any decision to allow guns to ‘walk.'”

ATF Fast and Furious: Who at the White House knew?

Among the documents produced: an email in which ATF’s Newell sent the White House’s O’Reilly an “arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up.” The chart shows arrows leading from Arizona to destinations all over Mexico.

Newell email (09.03.10) (pdf)

Arizona Gunrunner Impact Team chart (pdf)

In response, O’Reilly wrote on Sept. 3, 2010 “The arrow chart is really interesting – and – no surprise – implies at least that different (Drug Trafficking Organizations) in Mexico have very different and geographically distinct networks in the US for acquiring guns. Did last year’s TX effort develop a similar graphic?”

O’Reilly email (09.03.10) (pdf)

The White House counsel who produced the documents stated that some records were not included because of “significant confidentiality interests.”

Also included are email photographs including images of a .50 caliber rifle (left) that Newell tells O’Reilly “was purchased in Tucson, Arizona (part of another OCDTF case).” OCDTF is a joint task force that operates under the Department of Justice and includes the US Attorneys, ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE and IRS. Fast and Furious was an OCDTF case.

An administration source would not describe the Tucson OCDTF case. However, CBS News has learned that ATF’s Phoenix office led an operation out of Tucson called “Wide Receiver.” Sources claim ATF allowed guns to “walk” in that operation, much like Fast and Furious.

Congressional investigators for Republicans Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have asked to interview O’Reilly by September 30. But the Administration informed them that O’Reilly is on assignment for the State Department in Iraq and unavailable. [How convenient]

UPDATE II – Cash for Cartels

Investors Business Daily:

The funneling of thousands of American guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in the operation known as Fast and Furious was not a botched sting operation or the result of bureaucratic incompetence. It was not designed to interdict gun trafficking, but to facilitate it.

We now know that it involved not just the use of straw buyers, but also agents of the federal government purchasing weapons with taxpayer money, ordering the licensed dealers to conduct the sales off the books, then calling off surveillance of the gun traffickers and refusing to interdict the transfer of the weapon or arrest the people involved.

According to documents obtained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), agent John Dodson was ordered to buy semiautomatic Draco pistols and was provided a letter by ATF group supervisor David Voth authorizing FFLs (federal firearms licensees) to sell Dodson the guns without filling out the required form.

A copy of the letter obtained by David Codrea of the Gun Rights Examiner tells dealers to “accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62X39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson” to be used “in the furtherance of the performance of his official duties.”

Scribbled on the letter is this note: “Picked up guns 6/10/10. Paid cash.”

According to Fox News, Dodson then sold the guns to known illegal buyers who took them to a stash house. Voth disapproved Dodson’s request for 24-hour surveillance and ordered the surveillance team to return to the office.

Dodson stayed behind, against orders. A week later, when a vehicle showed up to transfer the weapons to their ultimate destination, he called for an interdiction team to move in, seize the weapons and arrest the traffickers. Voth refused, and the guns disappeared without surveillance.