Video has been released showing the tasing death of of a high school freshman who was tasered by police while riding an ATV, causing him to crash and eventually die.
The post Chilling Video Shows Cop Taser Boy Riding ATV—from His Patrol Car—Killing Him appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
To prevent mentally ill people from owning firearms is a severe form of "ableist" discrimination, and also opens the door for nearly anyone to be classified as mentally ill.
The post How Gun Control Laws for “Mentally Ill” Could Disarm Those Who Question Authority appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
A second Florida man, whose daughter survived the latest school shooting, has come forward alleging CNN was attempting to control the narrative on school violence by getting people to speak out against guns.
The post Second Florida Survivor Family Now Alleging CNN Scripted Narrative to Push Gun Ban appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com
Though the media often attempts to twist the gun rights debate into a web of complexity, gun rights is in fact a rather simple issue — either you believe that people have an inherent right to self defense, or you don’t. All other arguments are a peripheral distraction.
Firearms are a powerful epoch changing development. Not because they necessarily make killing “easier;” killing was always easy for certain groups of people throughout history, including governments and organized thugs. Instead, guns changed the world because for the first time in thousands of years the common man or woman could realistically stop a more powerful and more skilled attacker. Firearms are a miraculous equalizer in a world otherwise dominated and enslaved by everyday psychopaths.
The Founding Fathers understood this dynamic very well. Despite arguments from the extreme left falsely insinuating that the founders are essentially barbarians from a defunct era that were too stupid to understand future developments and technology, the fact is that they knew the core philosophical justification for an armed citizenry was always the most important matter at hand. Today’s debates try to muddle meaningful discourse by swamping the public in the minutia of background checks, etc. But the following quotes from the early days of the Republic outline what we should all really be talking about:
“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776
“To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”
– George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
– Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
– Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”
– Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833
“On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 12 June 1823
The inborn right to self defense and the ability of the people to maintain individual liberties in the face of tyranny supersedes all other arguments on gun rights. In fact, nothing else matters. This key point is so unassailable that anti-gun lobbyists have in most cases given up trying to defeat it. Instead of trying to confiscate firearms outright (which is their ultimate goal), they attempt to chip away at gun rights a piece at a time through endless flurries of legislation. This legislation is usually implemented in the wake of a tragedy involving firearms, for gun grabbers never let a good crisis go to waste. Exploiting the deaths of innocent people to further an ideological agenda is a common strategy for them.
This leads us to the recent mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The narrative being constructed around this event is the same as usual — that stronger “gun control and background checks” are needed to prevent such things from ever happening again.
Of course, Nikolas Cruz, the alleged perpetrator of the shooting, obtained his firearms legally and by passing existing background checks. Being that these background checks have been highly effective in stopping the vast majority of potential criminals from purchasing firearms through legal channels, one wonders what more can be done to make these checks somehow “foolproof.”
Around 1.5 million 4473 forms (background checks) have been rejected by the ATF in the two decades since more stringent background checks were instituted. As many as 160,000 forms are denied each year for multiple reasons, including mental health reasons.
So, the question is, did background checks fail in the case of Nikolas Cruz? And would any suggested amendments to current 4473 methods have made any difference whatsoever in stopping Cruz from purchasing a weapon? The answer is no. No suggested changes to ATF background checks would have made a difference. But there are stop-gaps to preventing mass shootings other than the ATF.
The FBI, for example, had been warned on multiple occasions about Cruz, including his open threats to commit a school shooting. Yet, the FBI did nothing.
Could the FBI have prevented the killings in Parkland by following up repeated warnings on Nikolas Cruz? I would say yes, it is possible they could have investigated Cruz’s threats, verified them and prosecuted for conspiracy to commit a violent crime, or at the very least, they could have frightened him away from the idea.
Was the Parkland shooting then a failure of background checks or a failure of the FBI? And, if it was a failure of the FBI, then shouldn’t anti-gun advocates focus on revamping the FBI instead of pushing the same background check and gun show “loophole” rhetoric they always do?
They aren’t interested in instituting changes at the FBI because this could help solve the problem, and they do not care about solving the problem, they only care about pursuing their ultimate goal of deconstructing the 2nd Amendment for all time.
Gun control advocates will conjure up a host of arguments for diminishing gun rights, but just like the background check issue and Nikolas Cruz, most of them are nonsensical.
They’ll make the claim that guns for self defense are fine, but that high capacity military grade weapons were never protected under the Constitution. “The founding fathers were talking about single shot muskets when they wrote that…” is the commonly regurgitated propaganda meme. This is false. High capacity “machine guns” (like the Puckle gun and the Girandoni rifle) and even artillery were actually common during the time of the founders and were indeed protected under the 2nd Amendment. In fact, the 2nd Amendment applies to all firearms under common military usage regardless of the era.
They’ll claim that high capacity “assault weapons” are not needed and that low capacity firearms are more practical for self defense. They obviously are ignoring the circumstances surrounding any given self defense scenario. What if you are facing off with multiple assailants? What if those assailants are mass shooters themselves and obtained their weapons on the black market as the ISIS terrorists in Paris did in 2015? What if the assailant is a tyrannical government? Who is to say what capacity is “practical” in those situations?
They’ll claim that tougher gun laws and even confiscation will prevent mass shootings in the future, yet multiple nations (including France) have suffered horrific mass shootings despite having far more Orwellian gun laws than the U.S.
Criminals and terrorists do not follow laws. Laws are words on paper backed up by perceived consequences that only law abiding people care about. The vast majority of successful mass shootings take place in “gun free zones,” places where average law abiding citizens are left unarmed and easy prey.
So, what is the solution that gun grabbers don’t want to talk about? What could have stopped the shooting in Parkland? What is the one thing that the mainstream media actively seeks to avoid any dialogue about?
The solution is simple — abolish all gun free zones. If teachers at the high school in Parkland had been armed the day Nikolas Cruz showed up with the intent to murder, then the entire event could have gone far differently. Instead of acting helplessly as human shields against a spray of bullets, teachers and coaches could have been shooting back, actually stopping the threat instead of just slowing it down for a few seconds. Or, knowing that he might be immediately shot and killed before accomplishing his attack, Cruz may have abandoned the attempt altogether. There is no way to calculate how many crimes and mass shootings have been prevented exactly because private gun ownership acted as a deterrent.
Most gun grabbers are oblivious to this kind of logic because they are blinded by ideological biases. Some of them, however, understand the truth of this completely, and they don’t care. They are not in the business of saving lives; they are in the business of exploiting death. They want something entirely different from what they claim they want. They are not interested in life, they are interested in control.
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You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com
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It’s becoming clear that most mainstream media news is nothing more than globalist propaganda. CNN’s Chris Cuomo proved that when he pushed a story about a lying kid who said he purchased an AR-15 without an ID. But Cuomo was busted, then continued to deflect from the fact that he pushed a fake story.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo retweeted the account of one @usaphotodude quoting a reporter named Cody Davis on Tuesday. The tweet read, “I was able to buy an AR-15 in five minutes. I’m 20 and my ID is expired.” There’s only one problem: that never happened. The article itself states, “After [the sales representative] walked me through the paperwork, all five pages of it, I told him I changed my mind and wanted to think more before I bought an AR-15. He told me it wasn’t a problem and listed the store hours if I wanted to come back. I then said thank you and walked back to my car.”
The tweet actually says that the gut never filled out paperwork, a necessary step to purchasing a gun, which would then be run through the background check system. But Cuomo obviously didn’t read that part or didn’t care. And then deflected the conversation and lied further.
Hey, @ChrisCuomo from CNN. Saw the article you retweeted: “I WAS ABLE TO BUY AN AR-15 IN 5 MINUTES”
Did you see the part where he admits to neither filling out the necessary paperwork (which would initiate the background check) NOR purchasing the AR-15? Weird. pic.twitter.com/wLfaiKCqaM
— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) February 21, 2018
According to the Daily Wire, when called on it, Cuomo tweeted, “Isn’t the point that the kid’s age and lack of ID wasn’t a deterrent? and this isn’t all gun shops. Place I bought my shotgun basically goes farther than the law requires and makes judgments about whom to sell to. Point is the system should be better.”
Which, of course, is not the point. The point is that Cuomo tweeted out false information. National Review’s Charles Cooke pointed that out:
This isn’t a response. This is a straw man that has nothing to do with what I said to you, and nothing to do with the topic at hand. You promoted somebody who lied, and then you lied about why you did it. https://t.co/ofsxeo9iRf
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 21, 2018
The point is, CNN is full of antigun wackos who don’t care about individual rights. As long as the government is all powerful and remains their savior, they will push propaganda and even bold-faced lies as a means of manipulating public opinion regardless of facts.
Spartansburg, PA elected a convicted pedophile as their fire chief. The mayor voiced her support for the firemen’s decision to appoint the pedophile as their superior. But a national outcry from good people had an amazing effect.
The post Town Elected Convicted Child Rapist as Fire Chief, So America Fired Back to Stop It and It Worked appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
So what’s Kiefer Sutherland’s character swearing an oath to, and how does that square with infringements on the right to keep and bear arms? (“Designated Survivor” Facebook photos)
That ABC’s “Designated Survivor” is a showcase for advancing “progressive” government objectives to include citizen disarmament is not news. I posted a link on my The War on Guns blog last April to a News Busters piece that appropriately described the program’s treatment of guns as “a dumpster fire of misinformation.” But I never watched the episode in question until recently and saw the extent of how bad it really was. (If you haven’t seen the show, this will contain spoilers.)
The premise revolves around efforts to pass a “background check” bill. The catalyst for that was the attempted assassination of the president (played by Kiefer Sutherland) and the execution of the vice president by his wife, both of whom were involved in the plot to kill the president as well as the wider plot that killed off the upper tiers of government by blowing up the Capitol during the State of the Union address. In other words, the “gun violence” was all initiated not by average citizens subject to going through NICS, but by a cabal including plotters in the highest levels of government. To top it off, the VP’s wife was violating the “gun-free zone” at the scene of her crime, Arlington National Cemetery.
The rest of the arguments for ending private sales are equally fraudulent.
The First Lady smacked down the lead “pro-gun” Senator by bringing up shootings in schools, malls and movie theaters. What that has to do with “background checks” was never questioned, leaving the viewer go believe the “solution” is to make them even more “gun-free.”
A woman at a town hall meeting tugged at everyone’s heartstrings recounting how her ex-boyfriend got out of prison (meaning he would have been a “prohibited person”) and shot her daughter to death with a gun he bought from an “unlicensed gun dealer” (which is an intentional deceptive conflating of private sellers with black market criminals).
President Kiefer used all the right buzzwords from the gun-grab narrative, terms like “common sense,” to then expand the prohibition pool with prior restraints on people who have never been convicted of any crime to include those caught in the mental health dragnet and those named on the deeply flawed “terror watch list.” And naturally he couched it as respecting the Second Amendment, all the while assuring the public with the ubiquitous “No one is talking about taking away anyone’s guns.”
Of course they are. “The newspaper of record” published an editorial that flat-out advocates “Repeal the Second Amendment.” Democrats introduced a joint resolution to do just that in 1993. The year before, a Republican introduced a bill to ban handguns. And the current crop of congressional monopoly of violence advocates is still trying to reinstate and expand upon the so-called “assault weapons” ban.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi let it out that concerns over a “slippery slope” were in fact real and part of the plan – as opposed to “paranoia,” which gun-grabbers had previously ridiculed gun owners over for pointing out.
Penn with Jarrett (Obama White House video screen shot)
“Designated Survivor” is lending itself to a propaganda effort the Obama administration made great use of to help “convince” the public to support its agenda: Valerie Jarrett made no secret of her efforts to convince script writers to push Obamacare in popular entertainment. And it’s no accident that series actor Kal Penn, also given a “consultant” credit on the show, served in the Obama White House as Associate Director of Public Engagement.
So just turn it off, right? Rip out the cable! Don’t watch the propaganda and there won’t be a problem?
Not quite.
First of all, some of us have to keep tabs on what the public is being subjected to if we’re going to stay informed on what those who want to disarm us are up to and what they’re doing to manipulate political sentiments of the electorate.
Second, a show like “Designated Survivor” reaches millions of viewers. When you see polls that tell you how the majority of Americans favor background checks, that’s because the only information they’re getting is through the anti-gun news media and through entertainment propaganda. An article like this, that counters the disinformation, will only reach a fraction of that amount, and most readers here will already be on the side of the right to keep and bear arms.
Too often, that’s an echo chamber.
So the questions then become, knowing overwhelming numbers of Americans are being swindled and also knowing the danger to all of us that poses at the polls, what can each of us do to alert more of our countrymen to the lies they’re being fed? And are we doing it?
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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work. You can donate HERE.
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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”
The post ‘Designated Gun-Grabber’ Shows Insidiousness of Hollywood Propaganda appeared first on Oath Keepers.
It’s fair to wonder if there’s an unstated political motive for a Bloomberg-backing “Second Amendment supporter” and a “gun safety advocate” to go after Adam Laxalt at the same time he’s announced his bid for governor. (Adam Laxalt/Facebook)
“Three Nevada residents are suing Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Laxalt in Clark County District Court over what they allege is the state’s failure to implement a new law requiring federal background checks on private gun sales,” a Friday report by Andrew Craft of Fox News states. “The lawsuit claims the governor is stonewalling efforts to enforce it.”
So good so far. Fair and balanced as advertised. They report, we decide.
He even does a good job explaining why Nevada has not enforced the law. Nevada Firearms Coalition explained it at the time:
“[T]he recent passage of the Nevada legislation regarding background checks for private sales cannot dictate how federal resources are applied,” Kimberly Del Greco of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division informed the Nevada Department of Public Safety in a Dec. 14 letter, meaning the FBI would not allow intermediaries to run background checks as required by the Act. Based on a resulting department clarification request to Laxalt on how to proceed, the attorney general concluded “citizens may not be prosecuted for their inability to comply with the Act unless and until the FBI changes its public position and agrees to conduct the background checks consistent with the Act.” (See correspondence here, posted by the Reno Gazette Journal.)
OK, so he’s got the fact and the timing right. What’s the problem?
Two that I see right off the bat, and they’re not inconsequential. The go to the heart of how the gun-grabbers identify themselves and how a supposedly objective media helps them perpetuate it:
“Dale Zusi, Vicki Delatorre, and Sydney Gordon are the three plaintiffs in the case and were instrumental in getting the issue on the ballot,” Craft writes. “Delatorre herself is a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment.”
No, Delatorre claims she’s a supporter of the Second Amendment, the one that ends in “shall not be infringed.” She’s actually one of those big “but” pseudo-supporters, as in “I believe in the Second Amendment but...”
And she’s advocating for prior restraints that can’t work without another huge and dangerous infringement. Per Greg Ridgeway, Deputy Director, National Institute of Justice, in his “Summary of Select Firearm Violence Prevention Strategies”:
“Effectiveness depends on the ability to reduce straw purchasing, requiring gun registration…”
Craft’s next bit of narrative parroting: Designating Elizabeth Becker “a local gun safety advocate.”
Some of us would argue the edicts she demands makes things a lot more dangerous, and just ceding to Delatorre or Becker their own characterizations without at least addng qualifiers like “self-professed” gives credence to their side. Because what they’re claiming to be is debatable.
If “progressive” Bloomberg citizen disarmament apparatchik Becker has any credentials in actual gun safety training, it’s a remarkably well-kept secret. Instead she’s a flack for Moms Demand Action, seeking a way to save face for gun-grabbers who incompetently (and sneakily) crafted their Question 1 ballot initiative, effectively blowing $20M in Astroturf funding.
It’s fair to wonder if the timing of this is meant as another sneaky way to publicly attack Laxalt’s just-annouced bid for governor.
And despite all the blathering about their citizen disarmament efforts being a “grassroots effort,” my analysis from a few years back showed “Nevadans for Background Checks” to be an Astroturf front group for Bloomberg’s Everytown.
Fox News has an unfair reputation for being “conservative,” presumably because most there (with a few notable exceptions) don’t wear “progressive” sympathies on their sleeves. When its reporters unquestioningly adopt the language of the left they cease being objective chroniclers and make it fair to wonder if it’s really unintentional because they just don’t kow any better.
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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work. You can donate HERE.
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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”
The post Reporting on Nevada Gun Measure Lawsuit Perpetuates Key Misrepresentations appeared first on Oath Keepers.
Malakoff, TX — As TFTP has frequently reported, if police officers are not held accountable for their actions in one department, they will simply change departments and continue abusing citizens. We call them gypsy cops. One such gypsy cop is Ernesto Fierro, whose time has finally come.
In 2005, Fierro was allowed to resign from the Dallas Police Department after he was involved in two hit-and-runs in which he fled the scene. That would be a felony conviction for the average citizen, but police officers are often given a pass for their crimes, allowed to resign and be employed elsewhere at another LEA (law enforcement agency).
Later, Fierro was employed in 2011 with the Ferris, Texas, Police Department when he was involved in the death of a motorcyclist during a high-speed chase. Had Fierro been held accountable for his actions in Dallas and later in Ferris, he might not have allegedly killed William Livezey Jr. (70), of New Sharon, Iowa. But, he was not held accountable and was therefore allowed to strike again.
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Fierro, the gypsy cop, left Ferris and was employed in Malakoff, Texas in April 2014 where he was a police officer. While riding his own personal motorcycle, Fierro was involved in a road-rage incident with Livezey, who was driving a tractor-trailer load of reclaimed barn lumber from his business in Taintor, Iowa, to a client in Houston.
The incident began when Fierro perceived Livezey to be trying to kill him with his truck. According to the DesMoines Register:
Fierro claimed in testimony that Livezey, who lived in New Sharon, Iowa, had “homicidal intent with his attacks of road rage” and came close to killing him while he was on his motorcycle.
But Fierro’s claims Livezey was trying to kill him were disputed by more than one witness who saw the gypsy cop driving erratically.
But witnesses said they saw the motorcycle weave from side-to-side and dart in front of Livezey’s truck at least 15 times, forcing it onto the shoulder. At one point, Fierro allegedly kicked the truck’s tire, witnesses told police.
Fierro then arrested Livezey for “aggravated assault” and placed the elderly man in handcuffs. That’s when the truck driver said he wasn’t feeling well. He told the other officers he was afraid Fierro was going to kill him. Fierro claimed he was faking his illness.
When backup officers arrived, Livezey said his chest was hurting “and he thought the other man was going to hurt him,” the lawsuit says. Fierro claimed Livezey was “faking” and just “putting on a show” to avoid going to jail.
The other officers who were on-duty, apparently realizing the man’s health condition was grave, took him out of handcuffs and placed him into his vehicle, where he turned purple and stopped breathing. Shortly after, he was declared dead of a cardiac arrest. The family sued the city of Malakoff, the police department, and officer Fierro.
READ MORE: Veteran Arrested For Freeing A Dog From A Hot Car, "I"ve seen enough death and destruction."
A judge removed the city and the police department from the lawsuit and allowed the suit to proceed against Fierro as the solely responsible individual for Livezey’s death. A jury found him guilty and awarded the family $6.3 million dollars as a civil penalty for causing the elderly Iowa man’s death. Fierro will be solely responsible for paying the judgment.
The Livezey family’s attorneys claimed Fierro “wrongfully and illegally handcuffed, arrested, assaulted, and detained which ultimately caused his death at the scene.” The jury agreed. Finally, after two hit-and-run incidents, and the deaths of two citizens, Fierro was forced to surrender his Texas peace officer’s license.
Finally, after two hit-and-run incidents, and the deaths of two citizens, Fierro was forced to surrender his Texas peace officer’s license. If Fierro had been held accountable for his actions when he was in Dallas, and been charged with felony hit-and-run, for example, maybe the two other individuals would still be alive today.
Fierro’s story is precisely why we at TFTP do what we do, to expose the double standard, and hold police officers to the same standard to which the rest of society is held.
Who are these guys? And how serious of a threat do they represent?
“Proposed Ohio ballot initiative would require background checks for all gun sales,” NBC4i Columbus reported Thursday. “The newly formed group calling itself ‘Ohioans for Gun Safety’ says they want ‘common sense’ background checks to stem the number of gun deaths.” They’re looking at how they can make that happen politically through a ballot intiative.
“Newly formed”? Who are these guys?
It’s essential to know who you’re up against.
Do they have big backers? Do they have the resources to run a professional PR campaign, buy TV time and become a credible threat? Can we follow the money, assuming there is any?
Ohioans for Gun Safety is still pretty obscure, so we need to work a bit to find out who’s behind them. I’m going to go through the steps I took in the hope that it may turn some reading this on to things you can do to check out hostiles making noises about going after our rights.
The first thread I pull is to try to see who is behind their website. In this case it’s registered by proxy, so that doesn’t help. And as a new group, they don’t yet appear on the Guidestar nonprofit information resource, so I don’t see anything about officers, revenues, tax filings/financials and the like.
Dead ends are a routine part of the process.
Next, because they are an Ohio group, I go to the Secretary of State’s corporate listing – that’s how Bloomberg’s infiltration of the states was first discovered and reported. Doing that let me find the Articles of Incorporation. They in turn listed an agent and an address, both of which pointed to a Columbus law firm.
So we know they’re setting up professionally, and in earnest.
And the organization’s “Groundbreaker” list provided plenty of names of members who have left internet trails to follow, many of them leading, along with an acknowledgment to the Cleveland chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. They’re into all things “social justice” with a special place in their hearts for citizen disarmament – what my friend and founder of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, the late Aaron Zelman, deemed “bagel brained.”
The group’s IRS filing says “NJW is a grassroots org of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideas into action,” and its 2016 “end of year” assets is just short of $16M.
They can do some damage with that, above and beyond the $31K the NBC4i report says they’ve collected to date via “house parties.” Meaning gun owners had best be aware of their presence and intentions, and prepared to counter the anticipated disinformation campaign that will surely accompany their ballot initiative effort.
Nothing this group does will prevent future victims like this man’s son.
In this case, going back to the NBC4i report, they offer nothing new and plenty that can be disputed, starting with the chosen face of their effort, a man whose son was murdered, and wants to do something to keep anyone else from suffering as he has.
That’s a noble desire. Every decent person can agree with that goal and sympathize with his loss. That said, the group he’s being exploited by doesn’t stand a chance of achieving that goal with their co-called “background check” bill.
His son’s murderer, with “prior drug convictions,” did not obey existing “gun control” laws ostensibly put in place to prevent people like him from even possessing a gun, let alone carrying one — and let alone then using it to hunt down another human being and execute him. What “law” could possibly compel compliant behavior on the part of monsters?
Besides, no less an authority than the National Institute of Justice concluded:
“Universal background checks … Effectiveness depends on the ability to reduce straw purchasing, requiring registration…”
So it’s not just “background checks” they want? But they’ll take that beachhead if they can and then use it as the launch point for their next incursion?
Lather, rinse, repeat, and with each gain decry the lack of “common sense gun laws” and accuse “the gun lobby” of refusing to “compromise.” And assure everybody that no one is talking about taking their guns.
Watch this group. Chances are nothing may come of it, at least in Ohio as things are at the present (and with only a handful of Facebook and Twitter followers). But you never know, and you never know how quickly things can change, especially now that the media has noticed and is helping them appear to be more than they are.
And watch for similar efforts emerging where you live. When they do, start pulling threads to gather intel on who they are, and on their alliances, capabilities and strength.
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If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please consider making a donation to support our work. You can donate HERE.
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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”
Miami, FL – The National Hurricane Center (NHC) Atlantic Ops, which provides analyses, forecasts, and warnings of tropical cyclones and disturbances over the Atlantic basin, is reporting that Hurricane Irma is now the most powerful hurricane in the Atlantic basin outside of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea in recorded NHC history.
“Preparations should be rushed to completion in the hurricane warning area,” the NHC cautioned.
#Irma is the strongest #hurricane in the Atlantic basin outside of the Caribbean Sea & Gulf of Mexico in NHC records https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/P8ebbQJR4k
— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) September 5, 2017
“Hurricane Irma is now expected to *exceed* the theoretical maximum intensity for a storm in its environment. Redefining the rules,” according to meteorologist Eric Holthaus.
Wow. Hurricane #Irma is now expected to *exceed* the theoretical maximum intensity for a storm in its environment. Redefining the rules. https://t.co/e4hPjQt159
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) September 5, 2017
The Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, urged the U.S. territories 3.4 million residents to seek shelter prior to the monster storm hitting the island – which is expected as early as Tuesday night.
“This is something without precedent,” Rossello told a news conference, noting that he will ask U.S. President Donald Trump to declare a federal state of emergency even prior to the mega-storm making landfall in an effort allow for the immediate disbursement of U.S. emergency funds.
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Ironically, with Houston, Texas still underwater from Hurricane Harvey – and Irma predicted to directly hit Florida – the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is expected to run out of money by Friday, according to a Senate aide, putting pressure on Congress to provide more funding this week, according to Bloomberg.
According to a report by Bloomberg:
As of 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which pays for the agency’s disaster response and recovery activity, had just $1.01 billion on hand. And of that, just $541 million was “immediately available” for response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Harvey, according to a spokeswoman for FEMA who asked not to be identified by name.
The $1.01 billion in the fund Tuesday morning is less than half of the $2.14 billion that was there at 9 a.m. last Thursday morning — a spend rate of $9.3 million every hour, or about $155,000 a minute.
The agency would be out of funds just as Irma, a category 5 hurricane, might start thrashing the coast of Florida.
“If it’s down to $1 billion or less, then I would say there’s a great concern,” said Elizabeth Zimmerman, who, until January, was FEMA’s associate administrator for the office of response and recovery. “Congress needs to take action very quickly.”
The Trump administration has already requested almost $8 billion in additional funding from Congress.
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As of now, FEMA has restricted spending to “immediate needs” — what it defines as “lifesaving, life-sustaining response efforts” — for Harvey and Irma.
Zimmerman said the agency must begin pulling money from other projects, but without an injection of funds, FEMA will likely not have the resources to deal with current and upcoming disasters.
“We’re not even at peak hurricane season,” Zimmerman noted.
Irma comes in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which caused widespread damage on Aug. 25, including flooding and power outages, while taking out nearly a fifth of all U.S. oil refining capacity.
Bloomberg reports that Irma’s current path – a direct impact with Florida – has prompted the state to prepare for the “catastrophic” system.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, while appearing on “Good Morning America” today, cautioned people to be prepared but to only take necessities as they flee from the hurricane.
A number of areas in Florida have seen gas shortages as the #nogas hashtag began appearing on social media sites on Tuesday. Gas stations in Tampa have run out of gas, and long lines have formed in both the Orlando and Miami areas, according to ABC News.
“We don’t see any widespread shortages and we don’t believe that we’re going to have them right now,” Scott told “GMA.” “I’m asking everybody as you get prepared, three days of water per person, three days of food. Take enough but take only what you need, don’t take more.”
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Jose is following behind Irma on a similar path. Jose officially became a tropical storm on Tuesday before noon with winds of 40 mph and is expected to become a Category 2 hurricane by the end of the week. It could skirt the most northeastern Caribbean islands, but so far it is not projected to be a threat to Puerto Rico or the U.S.
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While Floridians made preparations for Hurricane Irma, as of Wednesday morning, the Category 5 storm’s eye was clocking sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts over 200 mph.
Weather models predict the mega-storm will move north of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands by this afternoon, unleashing strong winds and heavy rain but not directly hitting the islands — with Irma predicted to make a “direct impact” on mainland Florida and travel straight up the middle of the state, according to the NHC.
The latest computer models, which project possible routes for the hurricane, show Irma could potentially move further to the east and threaten the Carolinas and the East Coast of the United States.
Irma “is the kind of storm where you get thousands of lives lost,” said Chuck Watson, a Savannah, Georgia-based disaster modeler with Enki Research told Bloomberg. “This is not going to be the big slow-motion flood like Harvey — this is a real, honest-to-God hurricane.”
While too early to determine the exact path of Irma in Florida, damage modeling for a direct hit on Miami reaches into the $200 billion range, according to Watson. For reference, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina topped out at $160 billion.
Only three Category 5 hurricanes have hit the contiguous 48 U.S. states, Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Weather Underground in Boulder, Colorado told Bloomberg. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 that devastated the Florida Keys, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Andrew that cut across Florida in 1992. Andrew was originally classified as a Category 4 storm only to be upgraded years later after further analysis.
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“It is obviously a rare breed,” Henson said. “We are in rare territory.”
As Ron Paul noted during Hurricane Harvey, the United States is only one fiscal hurricane away from economic devastation.
Federal flood insurance was almost $25 billion in the red before Hurricane Harvey. Congress will no doubt appropriate funding to pay all flood insurance claims, thus increasing the national debt. This in turn will cause the Federal Reserve to print more money to monetize that debt, thus hastening the arrival of the fiscal hurricane that will devastate the US economy.
As for who will come to the aid of the Americans hit hardest by the storm, Paul states the obvious.
The outpouring of private giving and volunteer relief efforts we have witnessed over the past week shows that the American people can effectively respond to natural disasters if the government would get out of their way.
Attention all former cocaine, heroin, and marijuana users! Would you like a job as a police officer?
As The Free Thought Project recently reported, states all across the union are lowering their standards for application and admission to become police officers. And now the mainstream media is picking up on the phenomena.
According to the New York Times, the very agencies which, for a hundred years or more, have locked people up for heroin, cocaine, and marijuana possession, are now courting former users to join their ranks. And the public is supposed to believe they’re not lowering their already low standards. Yeah right!
It’s already easier to become a police officer than it is to be a hair stylist. Now, police departments in metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Phoenix, and Detroit are getting desperate for new recruits. They’re needing 1,000 officers in Chicago, 300 in Phoenix, and 200 in Detroit.
Chicago, often called “Chiraq” because more Americans die from murder there than in war zones around the world, has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S. It’s also suffering from a lack of confidence in policing and police leadership.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthey in 2015 after the shooting death of African American Laquan McDonald by a White police officer set off a firestorm of controversy. The firing also had an unintended consequence, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, police stopped doing their jobs. Many resigned and relocated creating the 1,000 member deficit in the ranks.
In Phoenix, after a years-long battle with the Obama Administration, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was voted out of office. “Sheriff Joe” as he was known, was either loved or hated, but hardly anyone fell in-between. He’s retired now. And retiring with him are hundreds of more officers who were biding their time until retirement. The crisis is so bad, detectives are being reassigned as patrolmen.
Detroit’s issues may be more crime and economic related than simply not wanting to be an officer. Nevertheless, Detroit is seeking to fill hundreds of positions and have reported people simply aren’t interested in becoming law enforcement officers.
Now, apparently, police departments are getting so desperate, they’re willing to cut corners and lower both physical and drug-use requirements to attract more applicants. And the exacerbation is not limited to Phoenix, Chicago, and Detroit. The NY Times writes;
New Orleans, with more than 400 openings, no longer automatically disqualifies those who have injected heroin or smoked crack. Aurora, Colo., has stopped using military-style running tests, but now checks how quickly candidates can get out of a squad car.
Here’s a list of police department policy changes the Times documented;
1. Maryland changed its policy to allow for past drug use.
2. Louisville, KY no longer requires two years of college credits.
3. New Orleans dropped its no-prior-recreational-drug-use rule, now allowing for marijuana outside of last two years, and harder drugs, like crack and heroin, no sooner than 10 years prior.
4. NYPD now allowing turbans, beards, and studs.
Lowering the bar to allow drug use should come as no surprise given the fact that a federal court ruled police departments across the nation can discriminate against applicants who are too smart.
This decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to condone the ability of police departments to discriminate against smart people is one of the most profoundly ridiculous moves ever made. But it also tends to explain the state of police departments today.
It is important to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with someone who used to use crack or heroin. Beating an addiction takes very strong resolve and an epic level of dedication. That being said, however, police departments actually hinder that road to recovery by treating addiction as a criminal act.
It would take a true hypocrite to kick their habit without going to jail only to join the police department and throw people in jail for the very same thing.
So, in essence, the slogan, “If you don’t like police, next time call a crack-head,” is now being taken seriously by law enforcement agencies all across the country. It could now be re-written as “Crackheads wanted to become police officers: Old rules no longer apply. No education necessary. Here’s your badge and your gun.”
Instead of merely pointing out the idea that police are lowering their standards, it is also important to pose a solution to this problem.
The overwhelming majority of police work these days consists of revenue collection through the enforcement of immoral drug laws and traffic citations for victimless crimes, like window tint. If police departments across the country turned their focus from revenue generation to crime prevention, America would need fewer cops and animosity between the police and the policed would drop, dramatically.
To ignore the fact that the war on drugs is creating crime is a negligent and dangerous act. And, until it’s brought to an end, we can only expect this problem to get worse.
To learn how much better the situation in America can be by ending the drug war, check out our solutions page here.
Not only did Nevadans in all but one county (and most sheriffs) not support the Bloomberg measure, it was written so poorly the FBI said there was no way they could legally cooperate. So why is a police union representing members who took oaths to support the Constitution demanding enforcement?
“As the leader of the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers – the largest statewide affiliation of law enforcement associations in Nevada, representing more than 1,500 law enforcement professionals – I am calling on Attorney General Laxalt to do his job,” NAPSO executive director Rick McCann tells Reno Gazette-Journal readers. “As the state’s top cop, he can and should work with both Nevada’s Department of Public Safety and federal officials at the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) to find a path forward, ensuring that law enforcement in our state are protected when they risk their lives to protect ours.”
He’s referring to the Michael Bloomberg-led Question One “background check” initiative that passed in Nevada in November, albeit by less than one percent of the vote, failing in all counties but populated Clark (so much for the lie that voters overwhelmingly supported it). And Laxalt really had no choice, as the FBI has no authority to allow unauthorized intermediaries to run background checks, a determination made because state law was written in conflict with federal.
Unacknowledged by McCann is that a majority of Nevada sheriff’s opposed the initiative. And unaddressed is how the measure would protect lives, especially since even the National Institute of Justice admitted in its 2013 “Summary of Select Firearm Violence Prevention Strategies” that ““Effectiveness depends on the ability to reduce straw purchasing, requiring gun registration.”
Seeing as how violent prohibited persons are immune from being required to register because the Supreme Court ruled that would violate their Fifth Amendment-guaranteed right against self-incrimination, it would seem the very people McCann uses to justify his concerns will just keep on violating the law regardless.
Besides, note he didn’t say he wanted to ensure citizens are protected, and that plays on the same rationale he used when stumping for Question One’s passage:
“Our job is basically to protect officers around the state,” McCann said at the time.
Some might argue their members’ primary job is to keep the oath they took to the Constitution, that is, to “the supreme Law of the Land.’
Instead, it appears that NAPSO is in it for the self-interest first, and that’s evidenced by two other prominent political endorsements on their NCPSO/CWA-Local 9110 AFL-CIO website. In 2016 they backed Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto for the United States Senate and Dina Titus for the House of Representatives.
Here’s what NRA said about Masto and the Second Amendment:
She’s working to solidify that by backing a “path to citizenship,” which by all credible polls and real world experience adds to Democrat and anti-gun voter rolls.
And here’s what Titus had to say about guns:
“I applaud the President’s common sense reforms to our current laws, including universal background checks and stricter prosecution of gun-related crimes, as well as the pledge to improve the nation’s mental health system. I also support renewing the ban on assault weapons and limiting the size of magazines.”
“It’s time for Attorney General Laxalt to put public safety ahead of his personal politics and implement and enforce Nevada’s Background Check Law,” McCann concludes. “Other states have been able to implement similar laws because they have state officials willing to put the law ahead of powerful special interests and big money campaign donors.”
What, like Bloomberg and his fellow billionaires who dropped $20 million on Question One?
This McCann character seems as oblivious to the irony as he is to the rights of the people who ultimately pay for his position of privilege.
It doesn’t matter how quickly you complete and submit your application to buy and own a firearm in New York City. It still takes a very long time. The whole process, which can take less than 15 minutes in some parts of the country, lasts between 3 and 6 months in NYC. For gun rights advocates, the bureaucracy is unconstitutional. But for gun dealers, the long wait can make or break a man’s business.
For one Brooklyn weapons dealer, Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, the long wait was too much to bear, leading the gun dealer to offer up bribes to NYPD police officers to expedite the process for his customers. But instead of simply passing money in an envelope, Lichtenstein decided to record thousands of hours of conversations with officers involved in his bribery scheme.
While the NY Daily News identified Shaya as a “crooked gun broker”, some might say the real crooks are the cops who took his bribes. Thanks to his nearly 70,000 recorded conversations, we now know who some of those crooked NYPD cops are. But as The Free Thought Project has faithfully reported, you shouldn’t hold your breath in anxious expectation in seeing crooked cops spending time in prison. No, for police officers, there’s a double standard. Criminals like Lichtenstein spend years in prison, while police officers get the proverbial slap on the wrist, often having their cases dismissed, or losing vacation pay, but rarely spending any amount of time in jail or prison.
It’s unclear what Lichenstein’s motivations were for recording so many interactions with police officers. Maybe he considered the volume of information some sort of protection from prosecution. Or possibly, he wanted to document his difficulties with conducting his business dealings. At any rate, he pleaded guilty November 10th to bribing NYPD officers into expediting his gun permits.
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“I had a good and friendly relationship with New York City police officers. During these years, I gave police officers in the Licensing Division things of value, including money, knowing that by giving them those things, the officers would do me favors, including expediting gun license applications,” Lichtenstein, 45, said.
The NYPD officers involved are Sgt. David Villanueva, Officer Richard Ochetal, Deputy Chief Michael Harrington and Deputy Inspector James Grant. Only Orchetal pleaded guilty to charges relating to the probe, the others stand accused of various crimes related to the case. Villanueva is accused of accepting gifts in exchange for helping speed up weapons permits. Harrington and Grant are accused of being “cops on call” for Jeremy Reichberg (Brooklyn businessman also accused of doling out gifts to police officers) and Jona Rechnitz (wealthy donor to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio). Reichberg reportedly gave away several lavish gifts to several police officers. According to the NY Daily, he gave away Super Bowl tickets and trips to Brazil, and China.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Feds will aggressively prosecute the gun crimes with which the officers are implicated. But a closer look at the problem seems appropriate. In the past, gun permits weren’t even necessary to purchase a handgun or rifle. In fact, Roses department store used to sell Chinese made SKS semi-automatic military rifles out of fifty-gallon barrels. Adults and teenagers could easily walk by, pick one up out of the barrel, and carry it to the cashier to purchase. But after Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr., and the Brady Law was passed, the federal government decided then to regulate all firearms purchases, later instituting federal background checks for all Americans desiring to purchase firearms.
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Because of the regulations, stores were forced to place all their firearms behind locked cabinets or cease selling them altogether. Left-leaning politicians then began to pass legislation banning firearms, forbidding the possession of firearms within city limits, and making it nearly impossible in places like NYC to legally obtain, possess, and carry a firearm. Without such legislation, Lichenstein and all the officers involved would probably not find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
