Who Guards the Guards: “Guns missing from Pine County Sheriff’s Office”
So far the year started off without stories like this one, but this week The Duluth News Tribune and other local outlets offered another story we hate to hear about – “Guns missing from the Pine County Sheriff’s Office.” The paper paints an even worse picture:
The ongoing firearms investigation is one of 11 internal investigations involving 15 sheriff’s office employees conducted over the past year. The investigations included complaints of domestic violence, sexual harassment, excessive force, abuse of authority, failure to follow policies and order, and failure to perform assigned duties. The investigations produced disciplinary actions ranging from oral reprimands to termination.
All of this is very upsetting, but the issue of the guns is the one we find very disturbing as it sort of takes aim at the argument that only police should have guns. In this case at least a dozen or so guns would now be in the hands of the bad guys near Duluth if “only the police” had guns.
Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea: ‘Bloggers’ Continue To Beat Media At Their Own Game On ‘Gunwalker’
Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea:
“On February 2, 2011, at approximately 1500 hours, ATF Special Agent Gary Styers was contacted telephonically by Robert Donovan and Brian Downey, representing United States Senator Chuck Grassley and the Senate Judiciary Committee,” a pdf file of an ATF memorandum posted on Dec. 14 on the Senate Judiciary Committee website begins.
As usual, the “Authorized Journalists,” those with “professional” reporters, and staffs, and budgets, and insider access, connections, T&E accounts, etc., have not made the memorandum available to their readers and viewers.
And, as has happened so many times since the reporting on “Project Gunwalker” began (with very little notice and much resistance) almost a year ago, Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner continue to beat them to the punch.
Continue reading on Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/bloggers-continue-to-beat-media-at-their-own-game-on-gunwalker
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance.
Al Sharpton: “How to End Violence? Get Guns Off of the Street”
Writing for The Huffington Post this week the Rev. Al Sharpton asked the question and answered it, “How to End Violence? Get Guns Off of the Street.”
In this op-ed, which basically notes a recent shooting in New York City, he notes a few points. Let’s take a look at a few of these:
“The trafficking of guns in this country is it an astronomical level.”
“This week in NY, eight NYPD officers were charged with helping to run a gun-smuggling ring in a city already grappling with unresolved shootings.”
“Gun supporters and advocates always champion the 2nd Amendment and our right to bear arms. But this right doesn’t mean that everyone should possess a weapon. It doesn’t mean guns should be so readily accessible to the least stable among us. And it doesn’t mean that we don’t need stricter gun laws to keep them out of the hands of criminals and those with a complete disregard for human life.”
“Get guns out of the community and stop them from ever finding their way back in.”
We took those points out, because they show the problem with gun control in general. Let’s consider that if we “get guns out of the community,” it is still impossible to “stop them from ever finding their way back in.”
Sharpton defeats his own point when he states “eight NYPD officers were charged with helping to run a gun-smuggling ring.” In other words, as long as there are guns there will be those who will break the law. Perhaps Sharpton should try to address the thug mentality that exists in many of the communities that have this violence and crime. It isn’t a gun issue as much as it is a crime and lifestyle issue.
Violence did not begin with guns and getting rid of guns won’t solve the problem. As long as there is a gang problem, a lifestyle that embraces the gang culture and the criminal element there will be violence.
Finally, is the “trafficking of guns in this country” really as “an astronomical level?” We don’t see it. This is just another way that the blame for local problems is pushed to somewhere else. Typical for those who can’t see that the problems are made at the community level, not the national level.
Slate’s Dear Prudence Offers Advice on “Weapon of Choice”
In responding to a letter about an impasse over whether a family should buy a gun, Slate’s Dear Prudence “Advice on Manners and Morals” column offered some insight. But we can’t help but say that this doesn’t really solve the impasse.
Prudie writes:
“Talk about being held up at gunpoint! You can’t start a family because your husband refuses to discuss the impasse you’re at over firearms. His obstinacy—is he seething about this?—is hardly making the case that you’ll be safer with a gun in the house. You two come at this with strong but rather inchoate views: You’re a pacifist who loathes guns. He’s a Second Amendment purist who needs protection from the hordes stalking your city.”
Why are these obnoxious puns necessary? The wife was never actually at gun point, but look at how each party is described. “A pacifist who loathes guns,” compared to “a Second Amendment purists who needs protection from the hordes…”
This statement suggests one side is reasonable, and living in reality, as if suggesting that to “loath” guns is reasonable. Whereas, the husband is painted as frankly a bit delusional, “needs protection from the hordes stalking the city.”
Finally, Prudie offers advice such as moving, getting an alarm system and better doors and windows. We pretty much has to suspect that this letter was real. But the advice is nonsense nonetheless.
The Knox Report: Guitars, Guns, and Federal Excesses
By Jeff Knox
On August 24, 2011, federal agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service raided offices and production facilities of the Gibson Guitar company. They sent workers home and confiscated several pallets of wood along with computer files and numerous guitars (amounting to about $2 million in lost production and property). This was the second raid on Gibson in as many years over questions about some of the wood the legendary guitar makers use in their products. The timing of the latest raid is convenient for the government as they are currently trying to convince a federal judge to indefinitely delay a lawsuit from Gibson demanding the return of some half-million dollars worth of ebony wood seized by federal agents back in 2009. No charges have ever been filed against the company regarding that raid, but the government has continued to refuse to return the seized wood which they suspected might have been illegally harvested in Madagascar. Read more
Detroit Buyback Yields Guns and Grenades
Just how bad are things in Detroit? In a recent buyback one man turned in two grenades. Now, this is interesting in several ways – several ways that the media doesn’t note. Hand grenades, at least those that work, are not the sort of thing you buy at a gun show, or a gun shop. In other words, these had to be obtained through a black market.
What the media doesn’t note is that if one can buy grenades, wouldn’t you think it is fairly easy to buy illegal firearms. The point is that tighter gun control won’t work, because this shows that in violent prone areas if criminals can get their hands on grenades somehow, guns won’t be much of an issue.
The story added a line we thought was interesting too:
“The guns bought will be melted down – meaning fewer will be on the streets and involved in crimes.”
This is misleading and we have to question the due diligence in the reporting. That line implies that the guns handed in may have been used in crimes, and were actually “on the streets,” as opposed to tucked in a closet, stored in a drawer or under a bed. What we are saying is that this particular sentence is practically a lie, it sounds good but there is no credible evidence to it. But this is true of all gun buybacks too. They sound good, but there is no evidence they do any good.
New Jersey Star Ledger Editorial Offers Misleading Information in Editorial
To make its point, Daniel Vice in a guest opinion column uses extreme examples to make a point on gun violence for The New Jersey Star Ledger. This is not only inaccurate but a downright disgusting way to do so. While calling for “common-sense laws” he writes:
“If today is an average day in America, eight children and teens will be shot to death before the rest are tucked into bed. Each day, our nation’s weak gun laws fail to protect our children, whether it’s a 9-year-old born on 9/11 and killed while visiting her congresswoman in Tucson, or a college freshman, eager to learn, yet gunned down with 31 others in classrooms at Virginia Tech.”
By citing those examples he implies that these are daily occurrences. That is akin to suggesting that heading to work in New York City could result in your office tower being the target of a terrorist attack, or that Japan is hit by earthquakes and tsunamis every week.
Of course Vice, who happens to be a lawyer for the Brady Campaign also makes another foolish statement on how states with what he calls “strong” gun laws suffer because of states with “weak” laws:
“But our country’s weak gun laws allow traffickers and killers to stockpile guns in states with weaker laws and smuggle them into our communities. In New Jersey, strong laws make it so much harder for criminals to get firearms that guns flood in from states with weak gun laws at a rate seven times higher than the number of crime guns trafficked out of the state.”
The problem with this argument is that it doesn’t explain examples such as Chicago, or Washington, D.C. These are dangerous cities now because criminals obtain firearms illegally and leave the residents undefended. His argument is also flawed, surprising because as a lawyer he essentially argues for a living. Read this again:
“In New Jersey, strong laws make it so much harder for criminals to get firearms that guns flood in from states with weak gun laws.”
In other words, the so-called strong gun laws only mean criminals look elsewhere, and thus break the law to do so. Wouldn’t this imply that criminals would turn to smuggling in guns from other countries as well if there were national “strong” gun laws? Those strong gun laws thus are NOT working to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. And instead of going after the criminals, this lawyer is blaming the system instead of the criminals. And some how this is “common sense.”
Media Mostly Ignores Gun Crime Drops in Virginia Bars and Restaurants
The Richmond Times-Dispatch offered a story this past weekend, and the news was not really all that surprising. What is more surprising is that the media seems to ignore it, possibly because they predicted the opposite. The paper offered this reporting:
“Virginia’s bars and restaurants did not turn into shooting galleries as some had feared during the first year of a new state law that allows patrons with permits to carry concealed guns into alcohol-serving businesses, a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis found.”
Not only did the bars not turn into shooting galleries, but crime was in fact down as the paper notes:
“The number of major crimes involving firearms at bars and restaurants statewide declined 5.2 percent from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, compared with the fiscal year before the law went into effect, according to crime data compiled by Virginia State Police at the newspaper’s request.”
The question is whether this story will continue to be ignored? We suspect that if this had been the opposite and crime increased the media would have been all over this story.
No Surprise Hear – Cars Kill More Than Guns in NYC
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Mayors Against Illegal Guns might want to consider targeting a bigger threat to New York residents, namely cars. According to multiple stories, including one from NYC blog Gothamist more residents in the Big Apple are killed by cars than guns. The site offers this information:
“New York City’s roadways are crowded, we can all agree, but who knew they were paved with blood? In the past decade more New Yorkers have died in traffic than from guns, a new report, Vision Zero from Transportation Alternatives reveals. Which helps explain how traffic incidents cost the city over $4 billion in 2009.”
And yet to hear Bloomberg and his ilk talk about it guns are out of control and destroying the city.
Tijuana Mayor Arrests Over Guns
While much of the news this past weekend was related to Al Qaeda and the fallout from the calls for Muslim-Americans to buy guns and commit acts of terror, there was another news tidbit worth noting.
Former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon has been arrested on suspicion of illegal weapons. Imagine that… didn’t the Showtime series Weeds have a corrupt Tijuana mayor?
With Rhon be accused of having 88 unlicensed weapons we can’t help but say this is life imitating art.
