Posts Tagged ‘anti-gun asshattery’

Anonymous Baltimore gun tip reward line creates new dangers

Posted: December 3, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's backing of an anonymous gun "snitch" program could increase the targeting of young black males by law enforcement at a time when the Obama administration is trying to turn down the heat.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s backing of an anonymous gun “snitch” program could increase the targeting of young black males by law enforcement at a time when the Obama administration is trying to turn down the heat.
Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Clear Channel and Metro Crime Stoppers have teamed up on a “gun tip hotline,” to “get the illegal, functioning fire arms off the streets of Baltimore City,” NBC’s WBAL TV 11 reported Tuesday. The program will reward anonymous tipsters with $500 for each “illegal” gun recovered, and $500 for each felony arrest.

“This is to promote a gun bounty program that Metro Crime Stoppers is promoting and it’s asking people to turn in their guns,” Steve Ginsburg of Clear Channel explained. “We’ll be running it on five billboards around the city for a year that Clear Channel is donating space for.”

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Anthony Batts were on hand at the media event, which appeared to draw about as many onlookers, assuming they weren’t all speakers, staffers and reporters, as there are news accounts at this writing. Both spoke with high expectations for the program to do what it promises.

How those expectations can be substantiated with real world results was unstated. Such programs have been implemented in other major urban centers over the years, and while wildly successful figures are claimed, such as “an average conviction rate of approximately 95% on cases solved by a tip to the program,” a means to validate how those rates were established and what they mean in terms of real numbers and real reductions in violent crimes remains unclear.

What is clear is the promise of a reward and the guarantee that the person receiving it will not have to provide their name lends itself to the potential for abuse. Not only could gangland competitors be effectively removed, an opportunistic criminal could reap rewards for phoning such a calculated tip in, including the possibility of exploiting unsuspecting police to permanently eliminate reported rivals. Also unstated is what safeguards are in place to ensure rogue law enforcement officers don’t themselves create a tip to do an end run around Fourth Amendment protections, artificially establishing phony “probable cause” opportunities for stops, searches and seizures that would otherwise not present themselves.

Of minor relative importance, but nonetheless noteworthy, particularly if claimed success rates actually result in significant aggregated numbers, is the issue of rewards being taxable income. Crime Stoppers in Metro Richmond punt that ball, advising “enquiring minds” that they’ll remain anonymous, but avoiding disclosure if they will be in violation of federal or state laws for failure to report money received.

Of more significance, particularly with national focus on events in Ferguson and a renewed concern with demographics targeted by law enforcement, is if paid, anonymous “snitch” line programs will have a disproportionate impact on suspects of color, and if that impact will include further incidents where deadly force ends up applied. That would hardly be consistent with responsive statements made by Mayor Rawlings-Blake about “very little, if any, trust between communities of color and the elected officials [and] a lack of transparency.”

A law enforcement net that predominantly ensnares young black men would also seem to negate Clear Channel’s public commitment to a “ZERO TOLERANCE policy that prohibits discrimination [and] extends beyond our employees.” With accusations of iHeartRadio being iHateRadio for its association with Rush Limbaugh, and with those resulting in petitions and boycotts, the corporation could be inviting further “progressive” and minority ire if tip line abuses result in informant-precipitated minority homicides by police, even if officers involved are later absolved of wrongdoing like Officer Darren Wilson.

http://www.examiner.com/article/anonymous-baltimore-gun-tip-reward-line-creates-new-dangers?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Nevada grassroots gun rights group challenges invalid Bloomberg signatures

Posted: December 2, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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A statewide group promoting the right to keep and bear arms in Nevada filed a challenge to a “gun control” measure instigated by Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown organization, the Associated Press reported Monday. Nevadans for State Gun Rights notified Secretary of State Ross Miller of irregularities the group maintains should disqualify ballot measure-supporting signatures submitted by Nevadans for Background Checks.

The letter to Sec. Miller, signed by Nevadans for State Gun Rights President Don Turner, contained three requests for invalidation. The first noted petitions delivered after the required submission date. The second pointed out the lack of required affidavits for each page of signatures submitted, and that it specified the wrong county. The third showed an example of an affidavit signed and dated before all the signatures appearing on it had been obtained.

The irregularities uncovered add to concerns gun rights activists have noted for the entire ballot effort, which bears all the hallmarks of the I-594 initiative steamrolled through Washington State with a significant out-of-state and billionaire-funded political war chest. Far from being a group springing up from the grassroots, Nevadans for Background Checks is a documented front group backed by the Everytown for Gun Safety organization. The corporation name was reserved with the Nevada Secretary of State by the same New York law firm that represented Everytown’s trademark registration.

The Political Action Committee was headed by the Everytown treasurer, who also directed the I-594 Action Fund in Washington State.

Significantly, reporting that outside influence and control was neglected in local network television affiliate news reports when the signatures were submitted in November. As credible polling by Gallup shows “TV is Americans’ main source of news,” the effects of withholding such information from the electorate on important issues brought before them for a vote raises questions of proper compliance with Federal Communications Commission regulations.

http://www.examiner.com/article/nevada-grassroots-gun-rights-group-challenges-noncompliant-bloomberg-initiative?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Homeless woman’s stun gun a right-to-bear-arms case

Posted: November 29, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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BOSTON — Jaime Caetano was beaten so seriously by her former boyfriend that she ended up in the hospital. So when a friend offered her a stun gun to protect herself, she took it.

Caetano, who is homeless, never had to use it but she now finds herself at the center of a Second Amendment case headed to the highest court in Massachusetts.

The Supreme Judicial Court is being asked to decide whether a state law that prohibits private citizens from possessing stun guns infringes on their right to keep and bear arms. In an unusual twist, the court is also being asked to examine whether the Second Amendment right to defend yourself in your own home applies in the case of a homeless person.

Police found Caetano’s stun gun in her purse during a shoplifting investigation at a supermarket in 2011. She told police she needed it to defend herself against her ex-boyfriend, against whom she had obtained multiple restraining orders.

During her trial, Caetano, 32, testified that her ex-boyfriend repeatedly came to her workplace and threatened her. One night, she showed him the stun gun and he “got scared and left me alone,” she said.

She was found guilty of violating the state law that bans private possession of stun guns, devices that deliver an electric shock when pressed against an attacker.

In her appeal, her lawyer, Benjamin Keehn, argues that a stun gun falls within the meaning of “arms” under the Second Amendment. Keehn wrote in a legal brief that the state’s ban “cannot be squared with the fundamental right to keep and bear arms.” He also argues that self-defense outside the home is part of the core right provided by the Second Amendment.

Massachusetts is one of five states that ban stun guns and Tasers for private citizens, said Eugene Volokh, a constitutional-law professor at UCLA who has written extensively about Second Amendment issues. The devices are used by law-enforcement agencies around the country.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2025125177_stungunxml.html

‘Progressives’ with environmental objections to guns silent on amnesty impacts

Posted: November 28, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery, anti-gun idiocy
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Why would an environmental impact study be required for administration action authorizing possession of guns in national parks, but not for action authorizing the presence and activities of millions of foreign nationals?

Why would an environmental impact study be required for administration action authorizing possession of guns in national parks, but not for action authorizing the presence and activities of millions of foreign nationals?

MVM is hiring. The government contractor is seeking qualified nationwide transport specialists on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security to escort “Unaccompanied Children” by ground and air.

The company, boasts of “provid[ing] specialized services to both public and private sector clients. From protecting the children of King Hussein of Jordan, to supporting U.S. Embassies throughout the world, MVM has performed with distinction.” That distinction, especially for a “secret contractor” that has been embroiled in controversy, is no doubt enhanced by a leadership that includes politically-connected former careerists from the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

The thing is, transporting these children, sheltering them, feeding them, clothing them, bathing them and dealing with the waste they generate will all have an environmental impact, and while seemingly negligible compared to the totality of things, that’s added to the millions of heretofore illegal aliens already in the country now empowered to stay, and to those on their way, attracted by seeing “migrants” who came before them rewarded for lawbreaking. Their long-term impact as an aggregate on the environment and on the resources needed to provide energy, sustenance and disposal, can hardly be considered negligible. Nor can the immediate and continuing impact of environmental destruction left in their wake.

http://www.examiner.com/article/progressives-with-environmental-objections-to-guns-silent-on-amnesty-impacts?CID=examiner_alerts_article

The Eight Dumbest Anti-Gun Political Statements of All Time

Posted: November 27, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery, anti-gun idiocy
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California Attorney General Seeks En Banc Review of Ninth Circuit’s Denial of her Request to Intervene in Peruta Case

Posted: November 27, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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Today, November 26, California Attorney General (AG) Kamala Harris filed a request for en banc review of the Ninth Circuit’s denial of her request to intervene in the NRA supported case of Peruta v. San Diego, which produced a landmark decision striking down as a violation of the Second Amendment San Diego County Sheriff William Gore’s policy of refusing to issue licenses to carry firearms in public unless an applicant could demonstrate a special need for one.

The AG’s latest request comes after the Court denied the AG’s and several gun ban advocacy groups’ requests to join the case once they learned Sheriff Gore had decided not to further appeal the case.  The anti-gun rights groups have also filed a similar request for en banc review of the Ninth Circuit’s denial of their requests to intervene in the case.

If Harris is successful in overturning the Court’s order and is allowed to intervene in the Peruta case, all Ninth Circuit judges will then vote on whether to re-hear the Peruta case itself before an 11 judge en banc panel. If they decide to do so, the panel will either uphold the current decision supporting the Second Amendment or overturn it. The court could, however, simply vote not to rehear the case, thereby allowing the three-judge panel decision to stand.

http://www.nraila.org/legislation/state-legislation/2014/11/california-attorney-general-seeks-en-banc-review-of-ninth-circuit%E2%80%99s-denial-of-her-request-to-intervene-in-peruta-case.aspx

Obama’s DREAMer poster girl portends nightmare for gun owners

Posted: November 26, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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“President Obama’s action is personal for me‏,” the subject of a Monday White House distribution list email signed by “Astrid Silva, DREAMer,” declares. “President Obama’s action on immigration offered me the chance to give back — to do right by the law, and contribute to this country that has given me so much. And his actions last week will give that opportunity to so many people who are Americans in their hearts, but not on paper.”

“Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger –- we were strangers once, too,” the president sermonized from Exodus in last week’s announcement on executive actions in which he “granted” special privileges to criminal aliens not available to legal immigrants who follow the rules, spending time and money to do things lawfully. When you’re a “progressive” with the self-anointed power to bypass the representatives of the people, the “wall of separation” only blocks infidels.

The administration’s “legitimate news media” partners were quick to pick up on all the right talking points to help spread the word. International Business Times talked about Silva’s “inspiring life story” and how Harry Reid was moved by her “heartfelt letters.” MSNBC did a sympathetic and supportive profile on the “passionate activist for immigration reform.” The Washington Post told readers how “A number of people [from Silva’s Dream Big Vegas activist group] burst into tears after the president mentioned her.”

Makes you feel like joining them, doesn’t it? Assuming anecdotes and emotional manipulation by a cynical politician and seasoned propagandists are all we need know about “the heart of a stranger”?

Is there a way to learn more?

Not from Silva’s Twitter account, unfortunately. Her Tweets are protected. For someone the nation is supposed to adopt and embrace with feel-good liberalism and tear-welling, sob sister sympathy, a lot of direct information about her seems to be “protected” as well, meaning we need to make inferences based on the company she keeps.

Problematically, the dreambigvegas.org link she posts doesn’t work. But fortunately, now that USA Today (a Gannett publication!) has given Astrid a chance to come out of the journalistic shadows, we learn she is also “the immigrant organizer for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. And talk about the company they keep. It’s almost like the Community Organizer in Chief had an imperial agenda besides bringing us all together in Kumbaya harmony.

We would be nowhere without all the PLANistas who fight everyday for reform and will continue to fight until there is a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million. We are ready for this fight.

No kidding.

You don’t say.

And what do the Reconqui… uh… PLANistas think about gun rights?

They’re stumping for so-called “background checks,” that is, for the billionaire-funded confiscation-enabling registration fraud. Even gun owners in their ranks are all for more mandates and controls, like “Left-leaning political activist Launce Rake,” who opposes Constitutional carry.

That last story evidently took place at Clark County Shooting Park, the locale that prompted NRA’s Wayne LaPierre to call earmarked pork-bringer Harry Reid “a true champion of the Second Amendment.” And speaking of that tie-in, we can return to another of Astrid’s passions, Dream Big Vegas, or at least to their Twitter feed, which while not updated for a while does have a most curious post, at least as far as this column is concerned.

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-s-dreamer-poster-girl-portends-nightmare-for-gun-owners?CID=examiner_alerts_article

More Guns for Gabby, While Vets Lose Theirs

Posted: November 25, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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We all know that Gabby Giffords was injured in a murderous attack by a deranged Democrat activist. We know that she suffered serious brain trauma and needed more than a year to regain even partial mobility and speech. We also know that she has staged a remarkable recovery becoming the figurehead of a gun control operation started by her husband, Mark Kelly. Rep. Giffords and Capt. Kelly often point out that they are not anti-gun and make show of buying, owning, and shooting guns.

Since we know all of that about Gabby Giffords, let me tell you about someone you don’t know; or maybe you do. We’ll call him Larry to protect his privacy. As with so many working-class American gun owners, Larry is a patriot, and when others were burning draft cards, he volunteered for the US Army. He suffered a traumatic brain injury from grenade shrapnel in Vietnam and, like Gabby, had to relearn simple things like walking, talking, and feeding himself. He never completely recovered, and the couple made due with Larry’s small disability pension and what his wife earned cleaning other people’s houses. One of his few joys has been getting out into nature and hunting – for the solitude he finds, and for meat – or just tinkering and plinking.

Age and health issues caught up with Larry’s wife a few years ago, putting the family in crisis. Larry’s VA benefits advisor told them that they could get more help from the government based on problems Larry was having managing their money. By agreeing that Larry was unable to handle his financial affairs, and having his wife appointed fiduciary for him, his disability payment would go up by an extra thousand dollars a month.

The couple grasped at the opportunity. A few weeks later I got a tearful call from Larry and his wife, looking for my advice. A letter had arrived from the VA informing them that Larry’s disability status was being upgraded. Then the letter said that Larry’s name would be forwarded to the FBI for inclusion in the National Instant Check System as someone who is “mentally incompetent,” and that he would be prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition. The VA advised that all firearms and ammunition in the home must be removed, and that ever allowing Larry to have access to a firearm or ammunition would be a federal felony.

No one suggested that Larry is a danger to himself or anyone else. No one suggested that he is violent or unstable, or that anyone in the world will be safer or better off if Larry is not allowed to have access to firearms, but in order to get the help they needed, Larry must lose his right to arms for the rest of his life

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/more-guns-gabby-while-vets-lose-theirs

Tallahassee Democrat Calls For Handgun Ban, Repeal of 2nd Amendment

Posted: November 25, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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On November 22 the Tallahassee Democrat called for the repeal of the Second Amendment and a total ban on handguns and “assault rifles.”

For those who respond by saying that taking guns from law-abiding citizens will only leave them in the hands of criminals the Democrat says, “That’s a chance worth taking.”

The anti-Second Amendment piece was written by Democrat columnist Gerald Ensley, who argues that attacks like the one at FSU on November 20 prove the need for repealing the Second Amendment and banning certain categories of guns.

Ensley wrote:

I’m not talking about gun control. I’m not talking about waiting periods and background checks. I’m talking about flat-out banning the possession of handguns and assault rifles by individual citizens. I’m talking about repealing or amendment the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/23/Tallahassee-Democrat-Calls-For-Handgun-Ban-Repeal-of-2nd-Amendment

Scott Walker trial balloon from NRA director ignores amnesty danger

Posted: November 24, 2014 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshattery
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Scott Walker shakes hands with Democrat challenger Mary Burke. While the two may have differed on guns, their agreement on amnesty means the long game is in her favor.
Scott Walker shakes hands with Democrat challenger Mary Burke. While the two may have differed on guns, their agreement on amnesty means the long game is in her favor.
Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images

On the surface, Scott Walker seems like a gun owner’s dream candidate for president. The Wisconsin governor is backed by the National Rifle Association, which lauds his signing into law concealed carry and castle doctrine legislation. The “On the Issues” political leadership website notes Walker opposes restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms.

It’s unsurprising then, that NRA Director Grover Norquist has co-authored a piece for Reuters explaining “What makes Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker a good choice for 2016.” But in this case, Norquist is wearing a different hat – that of president of Americans for Tax Reform, teaming with ATR’s director of state affairs, Patrick Gleason.

So what’s not to like? Don’t both issues track with greater freedom? Where’s the conflict?

Wearing that different hat, Norquist campaigned for and endorsed Bob Dold for Congress, in spite of the “Republican’s” support for restricting gun purchases and possession which was known at the time. The unsuitability of Dold’s Democrat opponent notwithstanding, NRA Director Norquist chose his priorities and endorsed a known gun-grabber who went on to accept an award from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

There’s an issue besides taxes Norquist has yet another hat for: immigration. Just like Barack Obama, Norquist endorses rewarding alien nationals who have broken U.S. law by entering and remaining in this country illegally with a “pathway to citizenship.”

And Walker agrees with him. Again, per “On the Issues,” he endorses that pathway reward. He wants to increase the legal influx of foreigners as well, and has flip-flopped on an Arizona-style bill that would allow police to stop suspected illegal immigrants. And while he has also supported Arizona’s attempts to deny state benefits to illegals, his pathway policy would soon render that a moot point.

So what does that have to do with gun rights?

Data compiled by the Pew Research Center shows overwhelming preference among “unauthorized immigrants” for the Democrat party. And the Democrats, as part of their official party platform, call for “strengthening our background check system … reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole.”

“Immigration reform will add over 8,000,000 anti-gun voters to the voting rolls,” Gun Owners of America warned its members and supporters in a January 24 alert. “There may be as many as 11.5 million persons illegally in the United States … [I]f illegal immigrants were given citizenship, they would vote for liberal, anti-gun candidates by an 8-to-1 margin.”

Is it any wonder Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson insists all illegal aliens “have earned the right to be citizens”?

The problem is, GOA is alone among national gun rights advocacy organizations to make the connection, and to insist it be a factor in determining whether or not a politician truly supports the right to keep and bear arms. Why the “gun control” groups keep quiet about illegal immigration is understandable. Those in it for the long haul, who hope and believe Americans can be disarmed within a generation, recognize that this can give them an unbeatable political majority within a decade or two, to remake the legislatures and courts and reverse all the legislative and judicial victories gun owners have gained to date. But why the National Rifle Association has avoided recognizing and warning members of this real threat, opting to avoid it altogether with a “single issue” explanation, is harder to understand.

http://www.examiner.com/article/scott-walker-trial-balloon-from-nra-director-ignores-amnesty-danger?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Pay attention to the last paragraph-why is it that only GOA is advocating for pro gun politicians to also be opposed to amnesty,and allowing illegals to remain here,and become citizens.

Anyone with just a bit of common sense knows that these “new citizens” will vote predominately Democrat-and allowing over 5 million of them to become citizens is simply adding 5 million more Democrat voters to the rolls-this is EXTREMELY dangerous to gun rights.

The ONLY reason more gun control schemes have no become law is because of the GOA and similar groups-although with JPFO being taken over by Gottleib-both they and the Second Amendment Foundation could end turning into a mini NRA,and giving up gun rights in “compromises” with lawmakers-

FUCK THAT!
We need to have pro-gun groups who do not compromise,who do not surrender ANY part of our right to keep and bear arms. No retreat-no surrender-we do not give up ANY part of our gun rights in ANY “compromise”.
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