Rep. Gabrielle Giffords AZ GOP Auctions Gun Like
The One Used to Shoot Her

http://www.tmz.com/2011/09/03/gabrielle-giffords-congresswoman-shooting-arizona-republican-gun-auction/
So far ... this wins craziest story of the weekend ....The Republican Party in Pima County, AZ is raffling off a gun almost identical to the one used to shoot the Congresswoman in that very same county ... Gabrielle Giffords.

The online newsletter (see below) went out last Friday and features on page 3 a chance to win "a Glock 23 .40 handgun for just 10 bucks." But hang on -- if your name is drawn, you don't just win the gun ... you get "three 12-round magazines, adjustable grips, and a case."


A Glock 19 handgun was allegedly used by Jared Loughner in an attack on January 8, 2011 that injured 13 (including Rep. Giffords) and killed six.

Michael McNulty, Giffords' campaign manager, told the Arizona Republic he was "struggling for the words to describe my reaction" to the raffle.

The interim chairman of the Pima County GOP told the paper he was surprised at the reaction, saying Rep. Giffords owned a Glock herself and was an outspoken supporter of the Second Amendment. He explained, "That Glock is no more responsible for those deaths and the congresswoman's injuries than a Number 2 pencil is responsible for cheating on a test."

Translation -- guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Real translation -- This guy doesn't have a clue.

Report: Manufacturers lost track of more than 16,000 guns since 2009

Washington (CNN) -- Thousands of firearms have gone missing from manufacturers' inventories since 2009 "without a record of being legally sold," according to a report released Thursday by a gun control advocacy group.

The report by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence put the number of missing weapons at 16,485.

"It is shocking that gun makers are so oblivious to public safety that they lose track of thousands of guns every year," Henigan, acting president of the Brady Center, said in a statement. "Given the lethality of its product, the gun industry has a special duty to act responsibly. Instead, it has a scandalous record of carelessness."

The Brady Center report suggests that some guns may never have had serial numbers stamped into them, making them virtually impossible to trace. The group says that the missing guns are often used by criminals precisely because they are so hard to trace.
The report does not mention which manufacturers are reported to having missing firearms. The Brady Center says the data was collected from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives report that was presented to the gun industry last month.

But the report also states that ATF conducts their compliance examinations at only about 20% of gun dealers and manufacturers each year, and says as a result, "The 16,485 'missing' guns are likely a vast undercount of the total number of guns that disappeared from gun manufacturers in the last two and a half years."

Andrew Molchan, Publisher of American Firearms Industry Magazine, slammed the report in a statement to CNN.

"The Brady spin and implication that some manufacturers, whose names are not mentioned so we can't check the charges, are knowingly selling guns before they are logged into the manufacturer's records is absolutely ridiculous," Molchan said.

According to ATF statistics, more than 5 million firearms were made in the United States in 2008 by about 4,487 manufacturers. The federal law enforcement agency is in charge of inspecting companies that make and sell firearms to make sure they are in compliance with federal laws.

The ATF says about 600 agents did more than 10,000 inspections last year, but the Brady Center says the agency isn't able to do enough because it lacks manpower and money.

The ATF said it had not read the report and would not comment.

The Brady Center is an advocacy group for tightened gun laws and was named after Jim Brady, President Ronald Reagan's press secretary, who was shot in the head in the attempted assassination of Reagan in 1981.

http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?expire=&title=Report%3A+Manufacturers+lost+track+of+more+than+16%2C000+guns+since+2009+-+CNN.com&urlID=459617937&action=cpt&partnerID=211911&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2011%2FUS%2F09%2F01%2Fmissing.guns.report%2F

Gunning for the truth

By Boston Herald Editorial Staff  |   Thursday, September 1, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com/  |  Editorials

The man on whose watch the now infamous “Fast and Furious” anti-gun trafficking operation went afoul has now been sent off to where he will no longer be an embarrassment to the Obama administration.

Ah, we must be approaching another election season.

Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms since 2009, will become a senior adviser on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy, where presumably he won’t get into any more trouble.

Also being thrown under the Obama re-election bus was U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, who oversaw prosecutions related to that same operation.

The idea behind Fast and Furious was to go after gun smugglers selling their wares to Mexican drug cartels. That was the idea, anyway. But the execution of the 15-month operation was flawed in the extreme. ATF lost track of at least 2,000 guns sold as part of the program. Two of the guns were found at the scene of a shootout in the Arizona desert last December in which a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed. Other ATF-bought guns were found at crime scenes in Mexico and on our side of the border.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating the Fast and Furious operation. In the course of that probe they found e-mails indicating that Melson had been regularly informed about problems with the operation. The committee rather wisely isn’t abandoning its investigation just because Melson has been allowed to take the fall.

In fact, when questioned by congressional investigators Melson alluded to his frustration with Justice Department officials who had prohibited him from testifying before Congress for months.

“There are still many questions to be answered about what happened  . . .  and who else bears responsibility,” said Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

No kidding! The committee shouldn’t stop just when things are getting interesting.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1362827

Obama shakes up gun agency over botched Mexico sting

By Jeremy Pelofsky | Reuters – 19 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration announced on Tuesday a major shake-up of the U.S. agency that botched an attempt to track arms flowing to drug cartels in Mexico after weapons were allowed to flow freely across the border.

Kenneth Melson, who has been acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was reassigned after admitting mistakes in the sting operation meant to try to crack down on weapons reaching violent drug gangs from U.S. gun stores.

In further fallout from the operation, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke, has resigned effective immediately and the lead prosecutor on the case, Emory Hurley, has been reassigned too, according to an Obama administration official.

Another administration official said the shake-up at ATF was a chance for a "fresh start given everything they've gone through lately."

The sting operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious," has spawned congressional and internal Justice Department probes and put the Obama administration on the defensive about whether dangerous weapons were knowingly allowed to cross the border.

Authorities had hoped they would be able to follow the guns to cartel leaders, but ATF agents did not track the weapons after they were transferred from the initial buyer to others who smuggled them across the border. Some agents have testified that they were not allowed to continue the pursuit.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Melson both issued statements but steered clear of any comments about the controversy. Holder has referred the entire matter to the department's inspector general for an investigation.

Melson will be reassigned to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy as an adviser on forensic science, the Justice Department said. The U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Todd Jones, will serve as acting ATF director starting on Wednesday.

MEXICO COMPLAINS ABOUT GUNS FLOWING

Mexican authorities have complained bitterly about the flow of guns from the United States across the border where gangs have battled with each other and with the Mexican authorities, straining ties between the two countries.

Some 42,000 have died since 2006 as a result of the turf wars. The congressional investigation has turned up evidence that guns sold in the sting have been showing up at numerous crime scenes in the United States and in Mexico.

U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died in a December 2010 shootout on the American side of the border and two guns found there have been traced to the sting. It is not yet known if those guns were used to fire the fatal shots.

Some of the weapons recovered at crime scenes include powerful AK-47s and .50 caliber rifles.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress have been demanding the Obama administration explain who knew what and when about the ATF program, which was conceived of and run out of the agency's Phoenix division.

"There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility," said Republican Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House of Representatives' Oversight Committee which is probing the matter.

"But these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels," he said.

For years the ATF has been without a director confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The position has been the source of tension between advocates and opponents of gun control.

President Barack Obama has nominated Andrew Traver of the agency's Chicago office to the job, but the gun industry has opposed him. Melson is a career federal employee.

Obama will need to nominate someone to fill the U.S. Attorney post. Burke previously served as chief of staff to Janet Napolitano when she was Arizona governor. He was interviewed earlier this month by congressional investigators, a spokeswoman for Issa said.

Melson was interviewed on July 4 by congressional investigators. At that time he acknowledged mistakes had been made and other law enforcement agencies had had critical information that they did not share about their

http://news.yahoo.com/atf-chief-reassigned-botched-sting-161949768.html

Dead Canadian Polar Bear Haunts Michigan Hunter

By Bill Singer | Forbes – 11 hrs ago

Don’t get me wrong, I love polar bears. Fact is, I have a Baccarat crystal polar bear on my desk (see photo to the right).

I also like panda bears, brown bears, and grizzlies.

Of course, on occasion, some of those furry fellas forget to stay on their side of the line and stray over onto ours and things don't always end well for the humans. On the other hand, a lot of those inter-species encounters are our fault and, unfortunately, things don't always go well for the bears.

The Trophy

As such, consider this oddball criminal case of 73-year-old Jenison, Michigan, resident Rodger Dale DeVries.

It seems that Mr. DeVries obtained a hunting license from the Nunavut Territory in Canada for the purpose of killing a polar bear from the Foxe Basin in November 2000. Hunter DeVries was apparently successful with his undertaking because he had the polar bear mounted as a trophy and stored in Canada.

Where In The World?: Sadly, I’m a bit geographically challenged. Where the hell is the Nunavut Territory? Ahh, I looked it up and learned that it's this big chunk of land that was separated in 1999 from the Northwest Territories. Hey, I used to watch Sgt. Preston of the Yukon when I was a kid. I remember the Northwest Territories and that wonderful dog King.

Okay, so I digress. (Like what else is new?)

Since May of 2008 when polar bears were listed under under the Endangered Species Act as “threatened", the Marine Mammal Protection Act (“MMPA”) automatically prohibited the importation of polar bear parts or trophies for personal use from any part of Canada. That's good news for polar bears because they like their parts and don't relish the thought of becoming a trophy.

The Secretary of the Interior can make a determination that a given region is capable of maintaining a sustainable population level -- which sounds to me like a green light to hunt down any animals so designated.  Fortunately for polar bears but unfortunately for DeVries, the Secretary never made such a determination for polar bears from the Foxe River Basin.  I guess that you can kill all the polar bears you can find in Canada as long as you don't import them as trophies or transport their parts back into the USA.
All of which may explain why DeVries stored his dead bear in Canada.

On July 3, 2007, DeVries traveled to Canada and picked up his polar bear trophy from a storage unit, and, along with his two minor grandsons, put the polar bear trophy in his own boat and traveled from Ontario, Canada, across the border to Raber Bay, Mich. Shortly after the July 4th holiday, DeVries again moved the bear trophy, this time to his home, and then sold the boat.

Long Paw of the Law

At the time, of all the motor boatin' of the dead bear trophy with the grandkids, DeVries allegedly knew that polar bears from the Foxe Basin could not be imported into the United States and that he was breaking the law.

Another Bill Singer Digression: I dunno about you but I was truly intrigued to read of the illegal boat transportation into the USA by a grandad and his two minor grandchildren of a polar bear trophy taken from a storage unit in Canada. You just don’t read things like that everyday in my rustic hometown of Manhattan Island.

At some point, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement

investigated the comings and goings of DeVries’ polar bear trophy. Unfortunately for DeVries, that investigation prompted the filing of criminal charges by the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Environmental Crimes Section.

On Aug. 22, 2011, DeVries pleaded guilty to illegally importing his polar bear trophy and is awaiting sentencing in September 2011. The maximum statutory sentence for this criminal violation is one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000. 

I'm not sure what happens to DeVries' polar bear trophy.  Maybe it gets extradited back to Canada? I do know that I'm keeping my Baccarat crystal polar bear no matter what!

http://news.yahoo.com/dead-canadian-polar-bear-haunts-michigan-hunter-120458583.html

S.A. gun store sues ATF

Shop says agency has exceeded its authority.

jbuch@express-news.net

Updated 10:53 p.m., Thursday, August 25, 2011

 

A San Antonio gun shop is suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arguing the agency exceeded its authority by ordering licensed dealers to report some rifle sales.

The store, 10-Ring Precision Inc. on Blue Crest Lane on the North Side, is challenging a policy ATF put into place last month requiring firearms sellers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to report the sale of two or more of certain rifles over a five-day period in an effort to reduce gun smuggling to Mexico, where drug-related violence killed 15,000 last year.

In the lawsuit, 10-Ring states that unlike handgun reporting requirements, which are required by Congress, the requirement to report the sales of semiautomatic rifles with detachable clips and larger than .22-caliber outside the scope of a criminal investigation goes beyond ATF's authority.

The company also claims ATF is violating its customers' privacy by keeping a database of arms sales, which will discourage purchases.

“The rub for them is that first of all, it's going to cost them time and money to implement this because these forms have to be filled out, they've got to set up systems to keep track of sales of rifles,” said Richard Gardiner, a Virginia lawyer and former counsel for the National Rifle Association. “That's an expense. And then if they don't do it, they're subject to license revocation.”

Two Arizona gun sellers, one of which Gardiner represents, and an Albuquerque, N.M., gun store are challenging ATF's policy as well.

A spokesman for ATF said the bureau has authority under the 1968 Gun Control Act to collect data about firearms sales.

“ATF will vigorously defend its authority to collect information about multiple sales of certain rifles from (licensed dealers) in the four states along the Southwest border,” bureau spokesman Drew Wade wrote in an email.

Alex Hamilton, 10-Ring's president, said the lawsuit speaks for itself, but dinged ATF over the revelation that an investigation by agents in Arizona resulted in guns reaching criminals in Mexico.

“They're punishing dealers for their gun smuggling,” Hamilton said.

The ATF has reported that 70 percent of the 29,284 firearms Mexico submitted to the U.S. for tracing in 2009 and 2010 came from this country.

It's not clear how many more firearms were seized in Mexico during that time period.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/SA-gun-store-sues-ATF-2141623.php#ixzz1W7ovbxqm

Obama's under-the-radar gun controlBy: Chuck Norris August 24, 2011 04:34 AM EDT

Not long ago, the gun control advocates Jim and Sarah Brady visited the White House. President Barack Obama reportedly told them that he was working on new gun control schemes “under the radar.” It’s been said that guns have two enemies – rust and politicians. Rust never sleeps, and neither do those who would seek to restrict our constitutional rights. So let me tell you about a meeting you weren’t invited to, where those people were planning an attack on our rights that’s very much “under the radar.” It happened in July at the United Nations headquarters in New York, at a meeting to draft of what they call the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. An Arms Trade Treaty doesn’t sound bad in concept — isn’t that what the U.N is for? The problem, however, is what U.N. diplomats consider to be “arms.” To you and me, the word means tanks, fighter jets, missiles, that kind of thing. But look no further than the U.N. plaza to see what the silk-stocking set considers “arms.” There you will find a bronze statue of a simple .38 revolver — with its barrel tied into a knot. Remember no other country in the world enjoys America’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms. This is why the vast majority of U.N. diplomats believe that an arms trade treaty must reach into your gun safe and mine. There is little question that this treaty would require additional restrictions on our Second Amendment rights. Consider the comments of a spokesman from “Project Ploughshares,” a Canadian arms control group. “From a humanitarian perspective,” the spokesman told the Canadian Postmedia News “all firearms need to be controlled, and that’s the bottom line.” This attitude has spooked even Canada’s government, which typically embraces a disarmament agenda. During the meeting, Canada put forth a panicky petition for a hunting rifle exemption in the treaty. Mexico immediately objected. For an administration with a secretive itch for gun control, the situation is ideal. They can let the United Nations do the dirty work of drafting onerous new restrictions on civilian firearms, then package them inside a treaty with legitimate measures to control true military armaments. The U.N. has scheduled the treaty to be finished in July of next year — just in time to go to the Obama White House for ratification. That’s “under the radar” for you. But one risk of operating under the radar is that you can’t see the moves of your opponents. This is not the first U.N. gun-control rodeo for my friends at the National Rifle Association. They know treaty ratification requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Thirty-four senators would have to vote no to block the treaty. While the rest of Washington was fixated on the debt ceiling debate, the NRA quietly marshaled opposition to the treaty among pro-gun senators. Fifty-eight senators have now called out the president on his plan. Led by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), 45 Republicans and 13 Democrats have written two strong letters —one from members of each party — to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. All the senators have vowed to oppose any treaty that restricts civilian firearm ownership. What’s ironic is that the United States already has the world’s preeminent system for regulation of true military arms sales. If the rest of the world merely adopted the U.S. regulatory regime, there would be no need for an Arms Trade Treaty. But rather than harmonize other nations’ patchy regulations on arms transfers, the diplomatic crowd would rather force Washington to hew to its utopian vision of global disarmament. If this were only a partisan exercise in bashing Obama and the U.N., one could be forgiven for concluding it has no substance. But 13 Democratic senators clearly think otherwise — a sign that this debate is far from over. Chuck Norris, an actor, martial artist and author, is the honorary chairman of the National Rifle Association’s voter registration program, Trigger the Vote.

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