December 14th 2010, Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a firefight with Mexican narco-terrorist on our southern border. Found at the scene were two rifles. Not being a abnormal situation until the serial numbers on the rifles were traced. The numbers were traced back to a Arizona gun shop. A gun shop that was selling guns to straw purchasers. The gun shop owner was suspicious and contacted the ATF. The ATF demanded that the shop owner, against his better judgment, continue with the sale.
The ATF in Arizona was operating a sting operation called project gunrunner. The Phoenix office informed the gun dealer that they would be following the purchaser and would make sure that the guns were intercepted. Well the joke was on ATF. Shortly after the purchase they lost track of the buyer and the guns ended up in Mexico.
This has been going on since 2009, with a few thousand guns ending up in Mexico in the hands of drug runners and other criminals. All with the knowledge of higher ups in the Justice department. Just how high up is something that Senator Chuck Grassley wants to know. I received my regular update from the Senator and he goes into pretty good detail about the investigation. You can see the letter here
http://grassley.senate.gov/about/Justice-Department-Stonewalls-While-More-Evidence-Against-the-Agency-Piles-Up.cfm
The story of "gunrunner" was first uncovered by National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and independent blogger Mike Vanderboegh of sipsey street irregulars who joined forces to unearth details in the story before anybody else. They were asking question long before CBS's Sharyl Attkisson Broke the news in the national media. David and Mike talked to ATF whistle blowers in late December and assigned the ATF's operation as "project gunwalker" because of the ATF idea of letting guns "walk". They have compiled a very large file on the project that is available here.
Part one
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker
Part two
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker-part-two
Part three
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker-part-three
This is a time line from first learning of the scandal to the latest story.
This was brought to the Attention of Senator Grassley the ranking member of the Justice Committee. He had questions and met with several of the whistle blowers. It was time to start a investigation. A investigation that was a\stonewalled at every turn by the Justice department. From Senator Grassley's update,
After ten letters to the Justice Department or the ATF to get to the bottom of this ill-advised strategy, I have received five responses—two that provided false information, one that provided no information, one that sought to deter me from seeking information from other sources, and one that partially responded to my concern about attempts to prevent communications between whistleblowers and Congress.
It seems that Attorney General Holder and company have a lot to hide. Even acting director of ATF got into the mix.
Through witness testimony, and reams of documents given to us through anonymous sources, we’ve learned that ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson was intimately involved in the ATF’s operation along the Southwest Border, even lauding it as an extremely successful operation.
Extremely successful? They allowed nearly 3 thousand weapons to cross the border and end up in the hands of criminals, Including the criminals that killed Agent Terry and ICE agent Jamie Zapata. That's not my definition of success.
Now Congressman Darrell Issa has joined in the investigation as the chairman of the house oversight committee. Between the two, they have put Holder through the ringer this week, Demanding answers and getting useless drivel. The truth will come out and it's not going to be pretty. The big question is which one is going to fall on their sword. Will it be Melson? or Holder.
Either way, there is going to be a price to pay for this screwed up operation. A operation I believe was successful in reaching one of their goals. Holder stated right after the election that he wanted to re-instate the Clinton gun ban that expired in 2004. Letting these guns cross the border and retrieved and traced, they could prove that American gun dealers were supplying weapons. This would give them the ammo they needed to revive a new and improved gun ban. It's too bad for them that two Americans lost their lives not to mention all of the innocent victims in Mexico. And just how long will it be before we find mass graves on our side of the border?
2nd Amendment, Iowa carry laws and Veterans concerns. Also anything else we want to talk about.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Gun control should be taken personally
Davd Codrea, writer for Guns magazine brings up a very important point in this months rights watch column. We are all subject to the vagaries of some activist judges that are anti-gun and anti-freedom.
Tea Party organizer Walter Reddy had his guns taken away from him by a Connecticut judge for one year, even though he had committed no crime. This is a lnk to the original article.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/7201-railroading-of-walter-reddy-patriots-legally-owned-guns-seized
Some of the main points of the story are,
• Walter Reddy has no criminal record of any kind.
• Reddy was never charged with a crime, but his legally held guns were taken from him anyway. He is, however, a widely known constitutional political activist and persistent critic of big government.
• Reddy repeatedly asked for an opportunity to get a lawyer before a February 25 hearing on possession of his guns, and was denied his request.
• The chief witness brought by the state against Reddy explicitly stated that Reddy had never acted in a threatening or violent way.
• No other witness even attempted to claim that Reddy was threatening or violent.
And yet the city sent a SWAT team for 1 shotgun and 1 antique revolver. Nothing like a little overkill. How many are they going to send to your house, or mine? Especially since I own more than two firearms.
From the article,
“It doesn’t matter that he has committed no crimes, and has not been charged with a crime. [Connecticut Superior Court Judge Bruce Hudock] told him at a hearing that Reddy had no right to an attorney and that ‘I’m ready to rule’ to take his guns away before the patriotic organizer had the chance to say one word in his defense.”
What happened to the Constitution and the principle that we are "innocent until proven guilty"? No right to a attorney? Where do these asshat judges come from? The very idea that a judge can just take someones guns without due process should anger every freedom loving person in the country.
How much longer are we the law abiding going to let this go on. It's time we started standing up against such tyranny. You would think that with 60 million gun owners in this country we would have a say in these matters.
A second travesty that David brings us happened at the University of Kentucky. You can read the original article here, http://gunowners.org/a04272011.htm
Kentucky Revised Statutes sec. 27.020 seems to prevent a state institution like the University of Kentucky from interfering with the Second Amendment rights of a concealed carry permit holder. That section holds, in part, that “[n]o person or organization, public or private, shall prohibit” a concealed carry permit holder from transporting a firearm in his vehicle in accordance with law.
From David's article,
"Michael Mitchell, a graduate student and former anesthesia technician, was fired by the University of Kentucky for keeping a gun in his car a mile away from the university hospital where he was employed,"
Over a mile away and not on university property. Why is it any business of the university what he does when not on their property. Even though I believe denying a persons rights just for crossing some line on a map is just wrong. Do these people that run the university not know that slavery was abolished? They might be able to dictate to you while on their property, but that is where it is supposed to end. More tyranny against the law abiding citizen facilitated by a activist judge that should be removed from the bench. Until honest citizen stand up for their rights afforded by the Constitution we will see more and more of this type of activity.
Tea Party organizer Walter Reddy had his guns taken away from him by a Connecticut judge for one year, even though he had committed no crime. This is a lnk to the original article.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/7201-railroading-of-walter-reddy-patriots-legally-owned-guns-seized
Some of the main points of the story are,
• Walter Reddy has no criminal record of any kind.
• Reddy was never charged with a crime, but his legally held guns were taken from him anyway. He is, however, a widely known constitutional political activist and persistent critic of big government.
• Reddy repeatedly asked for an opportunity to get a lawyer before a February 25 hearing on possession of his guns, and was denied his request.
• The chief witness brought by the state against Reddy explicitly stated that Reddy had never acted in a threatening or violent way.
• No other witness even attempted to claim that Reddy was threatening or violent.
And yet the city sent a SWAT team for 1 shotgun and 1 antique revolver. Nothing like a little overkill. How many are they going to send to your house, or mine? Especially since I own more than two firearms.
From the article,
“It doesn’t matter that he has committed no crimes, and has not been charged with a crime. [Connecticut Superior Court Judge Bruce Hudock] told him at a hearing that Reddy had no right to an attorney and that ‘I’m ready to rule’ to take his guns away before the patriotic organizer had the chance to say one word in his defense.”
What happened to the Constitution and the principle that we are "innocent until proven guilty"? No right to a attorney? Where do these asshat judges come from? The very idea that a judge can just take someones guns without due process should anger every freedom loving person in the country.
How much longer are we the law abiding going to let this go on. It's time we started standing up against such tyranny. You would think that with 60 million gun owners in this country we would have a say in these matters.
A second travesty that David brings us happened at the University of Kentucky. You can read the original article here, http://gunowners.org/a04272011.htm
Kentucky Revised Statutes sec. 27.020 seems to prevent a state institution like the University of Kentucky from interfering with the Second Amendment rights of a concealed carry permit holder. That section holds, in part, that “[n]o person or organization, public or private, shall prohibit” a concealed carry permit holder from transporting a firearm in his vehicle in accordance with law.
From David's article,
"Michael Mitchell, a graduate student and former anesthesia technician, was fired by the University of Kentucky for keeping a gun in his car a mile away from the university hospital where he was employed,"
Over a mile away and not on university property. Why is it any business of the university what he does when not on their property. Even though I believe denying a persons rights just for crossing some line on a map is just wrong. Do these people that run the university not know that slavery was abolished? They might be able to dictate to you while on their property, but that is where it is supposed to end. More tyranny against the law abiding citizen facilitated by a activist judge that should be removed from the bench. Until honest citizen stand up for their rights afforded by the Constitution we will see more and more of this type of activity.
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