NRA: Senator Grassley Presses BATFE On Project Gunrunner
From our friends at the NRA:
Pointing to documentation that guns used by Mexican nationals in a shootout with Border Patrol agents were allowed to be sold under suspicious circumstances with the knowledge of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is calling on the agency to fully respond to his inquiries into the case.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in that encounter on Dec. 14 of last year.
Grassley has called the response of BATFE to his original letter on inquiry “little more than delay and denial.”
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich responded to Grassley on Feb. 4 denying the allegations. Read more
Firing Back: Bloomberg Blames Congress – Where Does New York City End?
Where does New York City end? Isn’t the border on the Hudson River? Apparently, the honorable Mayor Michael Bloomberg seems to think he knows what is best for the rest of the country. Not only did he send a team out to Arizona gun shows, post videos (heavily edited mind you) online and even draft a post for the Huffington Post, but he is even blaming Congress for gun sale loophole.
In an article for the good old Huff and Puff, Bloomberg’s actions were described:
“Citing findings from a recent investigation of Arizona gun-show sales, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered a harsh indictment Monday of Congress’ failure to close gun-control loopholes that allow individuals to buy weapons from private sellers without a background check.”
“Gun control loopholes” – could that be a new statement we hear? We’re also seeing “gun sale loopholes.” In other words, Bloomberg isn’t looking to just close the nefarious “gun show loophole,” but we think he’ll aim at all private sales of firearms – something that could prove difficult.
But what is so bothersome is that Bloomberg is over reaching his authority. He’s mayor of a city, albeit the nation’s largest, and that’s it. He’s not in Congress and he doesn’t even represent the people of the State of New York, just the people of the City of New York. And yet, he’d like to change the laws not only for the 20 million in the New York area but for the 350 million throughout the country. So where does he think New York ends? More importantly, where does he think his power ends?
Firing Back: Bloomberg, Gun Shows and Media Lies and Misinformation
It seems the news this week is that Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City was concerned with a gun show in Arizona. Maybe a look at a map should show that Arizona is a long ways from the Big Apple. But as Bloomberg is also head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, we shouldn’t be too surprised.
The Associated Press noted this in its coverage:
“Officials say a New York City undercover investigation at an Arizona gun show found that private sellers didn’t always require background checks of buyers.”
Well, there is a bold statement. The truth is that private sellers of guns in most states are NOT required to do background checks. This isn’t limited to gun shows. While some cities and even some states require purchase permits or gun registration, many states don’t require background checks on gun sales. But yet AP didn’t bother to report this fact, or even make it clear. Instead, the story implies that someone may have broken the law at the gun show – and yet no laws were broken.
The New York Times quoted John Feinblatt, advisor to Bloomberg:
“The background check system failed in Arizona, it failed in Virginia and it fails in states around the country.”
That point is again debatable as private sales aren’t required to be reported. So again, some handy misinformation on the facts from Mayors Against Illegal Guns. However, the Times did clarify this point:
“Private, unlicensed sellers are not required to run federal background checks, but it is a violation of federal law to sell guns to people if sellers suspect they are felons or mentally ill or are otherwise prohibited from buying.”
The New York Daily News on the other hand, had a biased headline: “Arizona gun dealers still selling semiautomatic weapons to buyers without brackground checks.” In the story, the paper claries a few points – but with a bit of misinformation:
“Gun shows are exempt from background checks, but vendors can’t legally sell to anyone they think is prohibited from buying them.”
This implies the “gun show loophole,” but actually the article never notes that it is actually private sales that are exempt from background checks.
This story won’t die anytime soon. In fact, we think unfortunately it is just getting started.
Firing Back: NRA is Really a Secret Cabal Says The Cap Times
This week The Cap Times (Your Progressive Voice) ran a story titled “NRA-led gun lobby wields powerful influence over ATF, U.S. politics.” That headline alone suggests that the NRA is a secret, sinister – dare we say insidious group secretly controlling the world (cue sound of evil laughter). The only thing is that we’re not laughing.
The story, which we do recommend everyone read, is the usual biased take on the National Rifle Association. It tries to present this as a group with too much power – yet only at the end notes that membership has tripled since 1978, which should suggest that many people actually care about this issue.
Yet the point of this article is that the NRA helped George W. Bush win the White House in 2000 over Vice President Al Gore. Again, it would seem that maybe guns are an issue – but the spin of this “story” is that the NRA somehow plays dirty or uses “money” to campaign.
And here is the interesting part. The story actually notes that the NRA has become more political, and even draws the conclusion that it was in response to the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the shifting role of the ATF.
So the question we have is simple: what is so wrong with the NRA being political? Consider that progressive groups such as Move.org, and even anti-gun groups such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence are extremely political. Is it simply that so-called progressives don’t like the power. Maybe they’re just envious. That has to be it!
Firing Back: NRA Wants Child To Kill Each Other
Does the headline above make any sense? It does if you believe the liberal media hype that is being spewed in editorials such as the one for Scripps Howard News Service in an editorial written by Dan K. Thomasson. In response to the National Rifle Association’s attempts to overturn a Texas law that restricts the carrying of a concealed weapon to those 21-years or older, he writes:
“If the NRA has its way, that area of violence in our urban sprawl will get much larger with innocent children the victims of gang and individual crime.”
Thomasson also notes incidents of gang related crimes in Washington, D.C. Last time we checked Washington, D.C. was thousands of miles from Texas. So why does an incident where teenage gang members – who had guns illegally – attacked other teens should have any bearing on the law in Texas? Read more
Firing Back: Brady Campaign is Off Base When Saying NRA and Militias are “Soulmates”
Responding to a Time magazine cover story titled “The Secret World of Extreme Militias,” Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign says in an editorial for Opposing Views, it “sounds an alarm that cannot be ignored.” He sees that the militias views are “indistinguishable from the long-held constitutional ideology of the National Rifle Association.”
As we noted in our book, America’s Road to Fascism: From the Progressives to Era of Hope and Change, the timing of this coverage is fascinating. When the first reports about the resurgence of “militias” came out, it was timed with the push for health care reform – almost to make a “guild by association.” Any politician who declares him or herself to be “right-wing” suddenly could be cast with the so-called “right-wing extremists.” Read more
Firing Back: Politicians and Guns – Does the Liberal Media Get it?
Apparently the liberal media will always find a way to get upset about guns, even when there isn’t much of a story. The most recent example is how gossip site TMZ reported that Levi Johnston – father of Sarah Palin’s grandson – stopped in a gun shop while on the campaign trail. Not much of a story there, especially given that this stop took place in Alaska! That in turn was picked up by liberal rag the Huffington Post. Each offered snide comments on the issue – and TMZ even Photoshopped (badly) a rifle on a photo of Johnston. Our “friends” at the Huff and Puff have noted how guns (gasp!) have turned up at various political rallies, as if it somehow indicative of a plot to overthrow the government – instead of merely being an expression of the state’s understanding of the Second Amendment.
All this begs the question, does the liberal media not get it? Read more
Firing Back: Fine Guns are Like Fine Art Too
Perhaps one problem with firearms in this country is that movies, TV shows and video games only depict the worst side of guns. Seldom are guns shown in movies or TV shows where someone defends their home from a break in. If anything, usually the bad guy loses control of his big, mean gun and the homeowner gains the upper hand. This is seldom the reality. Read more
Firing Back: Do Rappers Get a Pass?
Guns aren’t suppose to be easy things to get in California, nor do convicted felons have the right to own firearms. Yet last week rap mogul Suge Knight, who has a rap sheet to match his rap career and has been in and out of jail, was suddenly off the hook for threatening a man, supposedly with a gun. His manager was quoted on CNN as saying “Suge Knight is a businessman. He is not a person who would carry a gun or flash a gun at anybody. That’s not Suge Knight.” But this is the Suge Knight that has spent time in prison right?
This is just the latest example of the hoodlum mentality that exists in the “hip hop” or rap culture. These nursery rhyme spouting wannabe gangsters (or is it ganstas) use guns as fashion accessories, and when arrested get a slap on the wrist, typically serving less time in prison than their songs spent on the Top 40 charts.
Meanwhile, a blind man is fighting to get his guns back – guns which were stolen from him during a burglary of his home. Once again it seems that the rich and semi-powerful (or at least those who can afford better lawyers) get an easier ride when it comes to guns. Maybe someone should rap about that.
Firing Back: So Long New York City
FirearmsTruth is saying goodbye to New York City. As a writer, who has lived and worked in the Big Apple for 18 years, I’ve loved my time here. But with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in office for his third term the city has become extremely unfriendly. This is especially true when it comes to firearms.
As a gun collector and author of history and militaria I find it impossible to do my work in New York City. The mayor and his ilk would like to see all guns banned. The city makes it difficult, dare I say nearly impossible to obtain permits and they’re continuing adding to the guns that you can’t own. So I’ve had enough.
For this reason, among others, I’m packing up and moving. FirearmsTruth will be back posting on Monday.
