SWATARA TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WHTM) — A story about a Midstate police officer is making its rounds on social media.
Officer Anthony Glass from Swatara Township Police was assisting an elderly man whose card was not working at the Capitol Diner. Police say the senior called them for assistance and that’s when Officer Glass showed up and paid the bill with his own card.
The man offered to pay Officer Glass back but he declined. A release from the Swatara Township Police Department praised Officer Glass saying, “One of the core values of the STPD is caring which was demonstrated by Of. Glass’ actions this morning.” Hundreds more are commending the officer for this act of kindness.
A new national gun surrender will allow people to anonymously hand in weapons and ammunition including heirlooms, shotguns and antique revolvers, as well as illegal stun guns and gas-firing blank pistols bought overseas.
Many such guns are held in innocence and ignorance that having them is against the law, according to the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (Nabis).
Weapons handed in during past surrenders included old wartime service revolvers, war trophies – including grenades – and gas-operated blank-firing pistols and stun-guns – bought during trips to Europe , or online.
However innocently held, such weaponry can be acquired by crooks through robberies or distributed to criminal networks in other ways.
The surrender – the first since 2019 – gives the opportunity to dispose of a firearm, gun components or ammunition by simply taking it to a local designated police station and handing it in.
The campaign will see nominated police stations flagged as locations for people to take guns, stun-guns, gas-powered weapons, imitation firearms, ammunition, hand grenades or other weaponry.
The surrender is starting on May 12, and runs for two weeks.
People should check police station locations in advance by visiting their local force website or calling 101.
Deputy Chief Constable Helen McMillan, NPCC lead for the Criminal Use of Firearms, said “We’re inviting people from May 12, for two weeks, to contact local police or attend local police station and surrender any firearms – or any type of weapon – that they’re concerned about, that they have in their possession.
“They can do that anonymously and there will be an amnesty for them in order to transport that weapon or be in possession of that weapon at the point they surrender it.
“No-one needs to be concerned about walking into a station or contacting their local force.
“We don’t need to know your name, we don’t need to know how you came into possession of it, all we need you to do is give us the gun.”
Gregg Taylor, Nabis ballistic expert, said thousands of weapons had previously been surrendered including “old Webley revolvers”, issued as service sidearms in the Second World War, which were typical of items found “hanging around in the loft for decades”.
Mr Taylor also urged people to check “blank-firer” imitation guns they may have, adding that the “gas-gun” type were “legal in Europe – but definitely illegal in the UK”.
“If you don’t know the status of the gun or are unsure – take the chance to hand it in,” he added.
He also said there were also “a lot of unregistered firearms and (particularly) shotguns, pre-dating the 1988 (Firearms) Act” in homes, often “hanging over the mantelpiece”, which should be handed in, if unlicensed.
The last surrender saw shotguns making up 69% of all lethal weapons handed in.
Changes to firearms’ laws last year also closed a loophole allowing people to own some old guns – particularly revolvers – perfectly legally as antiques, because they used ammunition in calibres which were no longer manufactured.
Ms McMillan urged antique weapon-owners to “know your gun, and know the law”, adding “if you are no longer in possession legally, surrender that weapon”.
Illegal possession of a firearm can mean five years behind bars and if you are found guilty of possession with intent to supply that can lead to a life sentence.
Like every “mass shooting,” a recent gunfight in Sacramento initially received breathless coverage in the media. But as the sordid details about the suspects became known, coverage of the bloodshed tapered off.
Six people died. It became clear the reason was gang violence. One of the shooters was recently released early from prison – jailed for the felonious assault of his girlfriend – against the recommendation of the parole board. The man was previously convicted on gun charges, and was also awarded a settlement from the state for alleged poor treatment while behind bars.
While devastating – particularly to the families involved – the incident was not amenable to the left-wing/media narrative about guns.
[T]here are a number of underlying truths that they will dare not share with the public. Because if they do, it will become clear that they and their policies are not the solution. They are, in fact, the root of the problem.
These truths, he stated, shred the alleged need for “common sense” gun laws.
Here are the truths Craig highlighted that shatter leftist lies:
It’s a violence problem, and not just guns. “[O]nly recent generations… have concluded that violence is an acceptable way to address the myriad of issues confronting them. The firearm is not the cause of this. In fact, it is not even the weapon of choice.” Most crimes involve other kinds of weapons or none at all. “Guns are no more the cause of this violence,” he wrote, “than cars are the cause of drunk driving.”
Gun laws are not a crime deterrent. “A 2020 study done as a part of the RAND Corporation’s Gun Policy in America initiative” found “there is zero evidence that gun control laws have any effect on violence in general or gun violence specifically.”
“Soft on crime” policies are the cause of rising crime. Spiking violent crime in the 90s led to more money for police and harsher sentences for crooks in the form of things like mandatory minimums. This led to a 20-year decline in crime. “While the media and politicians deny the correlation and instead seek to blame guns; the increase in crime, especially violent crime, directly corresponds with the change in our criminal justice policies.”
Gun control is racial. From “black codes” to California’s “Mulford Act” to gun ownership bans targeting Native Americans and Asians, “[g]un control has always been about keeping “Those People” from being able to own firearms.”
Commenting further on how “the gun debate has always been rooted in racism” with “those who push these policies [being] the true victimizers, Craig explained:
We are often told that young black and brown men are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. But it is rarely noted that young black and brown men are disproportionately the ones pulling the trigger. The sad fact is that people who seek to victimize others (black, white, Latin, Asian, etc.) tend to go after people who look like them.
So, while it is noble to try and reduce the number of young black men in our criminal justice system, we cannot ignore that in doing so, we have put black men, women and children at risk of being their victims.
At the same time, we are limiting the ability of these very same folks to be able to defend themselves from the very danger we have put in their path.
“If we are to ever address the scourge of violence in our streets,” Craig wrote, “it will only happen when we all come to grips with these and many other truths.”
I don’t like the phrase “accidental discharge” in most instances. After all, they’re not accidents. They’re generally the result of someone screwing up, which means their negligent discharges, not accidents.
Then there are those who think that the police are the only ones who really can be trusted with guns, in part because of those negligent discharges, because they’re the only ones with the proper training.
At least three Los Angeles Police Department officers inadvertently fired their weapons during just one week in late April, the police chief said on Tuesday, May 3.
Two shootings occurred when the officers were inside their apartments, each accidently firing the weapon and sending a round into the unit next door.
The third shooting was at LAPD’s Wilshire Division station on Venice Boulevard. The officer who fired it was handling a coworker’s gun.
“A round was fired in the detective’s squad room,” Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Police Commission. “The round was discharged directly into the floor.”
No one was injured in any of the shootings.
The sudden flurry of unintended shootings drew Moore’s attention and caused concern for some on the commission.
Moore said Deputy Chief Michael Rimkunas of LAPD’s Professional Standards Bureau was conducting an investigation into all three incidents.
Now, understand that even though I don’t believe police walk on water nor are super-trained badasses incapable of screwing up with a firearm, I will acknowledge that this is an anomaly. While officers do have negligent discharges from time to time, the fact that there were three in a single department isn’t common.
It suggests there is a training issue within the LAPD.
However, that’s not necessarily the problem. The officers could have gotten the proper training and still managed to screw it up. A lot of mistakes aren’t the result of insufficient training, but people figuring they know better than their training.
Plus, the LAPD isn’t exactly a small department. At any given time, there are thousands of officers doing something that may potentially cause a negligent discharge. If you look at each occurrence as essentially being random from a statistical point of view, then it stands to reason that sooner or later, you’d see bunches. This might just be one of those bunches.
However, I can’t help but remember things like this when someone tries to tell me I don’t have enough training to carry a firearm with me every day. That may or may not be true, but I do have enough training to keep my snot-slinger away from the bang switch, which seems to put me ahead of at least three LAPD officers right about now.
If they’re not just trusted to carry a weapon, but paid to do so, and are unable to match my own level of training, then I should be free and clear to carry a weapon.
Luckily, I live in a constitutional carry state, so no one can tell me no anyway, which is such a beautiful thing.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Before the Biden-Harris administration took over the White House, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives usually revoked an average of 40 Federal Firearm Licenses (FFLs) per year. But, in the 11 months since Joe Biden declared war on “rogue gun dealers,” the ATF has revoked 273 FFLs – an increase of more than 500%. However, rather than targeting the true rogues, Biden’s ATF is revoking FFLs for the most minor of paperwork errors, which were never a concern for the ATF until Biden weaponized the agency.
“This has nothing to do with the ATF and everything to do with the DOJ,” said John Clark of FFL Consultants. Clark is a firearm industry expert who said the ATF announced the number of revocations at a recent Firearm Industry Conference.
“The vast majority of the ATF don’t like this any more than the industry does,” he said. “It’s Biden.”
Clark and business partner John Bocker crisscross the country to help gun dealers fight back against Biden’s overreach – a service that is free to all members of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Their mantra is: “Get it right the first time.”
“Our goal is to prevent an incident from occurring,” Bocker has said. “Our goal is prevention – get it right the first time. We are the proactive and preventative arm of the NSSF.”
Nowadays, they’re extremely busy. “I had three revocation hearings last week,” Clark said.
Key to the massive increase in revocations is Biden’s zero-tolerance for willful violations policy, which Clark said relies upon a new definition of willful. If a dealer makes a simple mistake, they can now lose their license, because the new definition of willful states that the dealer knew the law, but willfully chose to violate it anyway – regardless of whether it was an oversight, an error by an employee or a simple paperwork mistake.
“They have twisted negligence into willful,” Clark said. “These are not uncommon errors that we’re seeing. Things happen.”
On paper, Biden’s new policy seems clear:
Absent extraordinary circumstances that would need to be justified to the Director, ATF will seek to revoke the licenses of dealers the first time that they violate federal law by willfully.
Transferring a firearm to a prohibited person
Failing to run a required background check
Falsifying records, such as a firearms transaction form
Failing to respond to an ATF tracing request
Refusing to permit ATF to conduct an inspection in violation of the law
However, Clark and Bocker are seeing these rules pushed far beyond the realm of common sense or fairness, and local gun dealers are paying the price.
For example, the transaction number for a NICS background check requires nine digits. If a gun dealer mistakenly omits a number, their license can be revoked for failing to run a background check. Under the Biden-Harris administration, there is no longer any room for human error.
Similarly, the ATF has started contracting out its trace requests, Clark said. He and Bocker have talked to a dealer whom the ATF accused of not complying with a trace request. They fault, they found, actually belonged to the ATF, which hadn’t updated its records from the contractors. Until this was clarified, the dealer was at risk of losing everything.
Biden first announced his zero-tolerance policy for “rogue gun dealers” in June of last year. He claimed these dealers were responsible for skyrocketing violent crime rates in major cities historically controlled by Democrats.
The violence wasn’t caused by weak prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals accountable, or gangs or underfunded police departments or by any combination thereof, he said. It was all the fault of “rogue gun dealers,” who Biden claimed willfully transfer firearms to prohibited persons, and/or refuse to cooperate with a tracing request from the ATF.
To vet Biden’s rogue gun dealer theory, the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project immediately sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the ATF, seeking the following:
Copies of documents that show the number of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) and their state of residence, who have been prosecuted for willfully transferring a firearm to a prohibited person over the past three years (from June 23, 2018 to June 23, 2021.)
Copies of documents that show the number of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) and their state of residence, who have been prosecuted for ignoring and/or refusing to cooperate with a tracing request from the BATFE, over the past three years (from June 23, 2018 to June 23, 2021.)
(Note: We did not seek the names or other identifiers of any FFL.)
We’re still waiting for a response.
In the 11 months since the FOIA request was filed, the ATF has not complied with the law. The ATF is in a trick-bag of sorts. They can comply with federal law and provide the documents, which will likely reveal that Biden’s rogue gun dealer policy is just a ruse, or they can continue to deny and delay the FOIA request even though their actions violate federal law.
Takeaways
If there is a dealer who transfers firearms to prohibited persons, fails to conduct background checks and ignores requests from the ATF to help trace firearms used in a crime, they should lose their FFL. I don’t know anyone who disagrees with that. However, these are not the type of dealers the ATF is targeting at Biden’s behest. The Biden-Harris administration has ordered the ATF to revoke FFLs for even the most minor of paperwork errors, solely to support its rogue-dealer myth.
There is no doubt Biden will soon hold a press conference touting the effectiveness of his zero-tolerance policy and the hundreds of “rogue gun dealers” whose licenses were revoked as a result. What he won’t mention is that none of the dealers who lost their livelihoods contributed to the skyrocketing violent crime rates of major metros. They were simply law-abiding men and women who made a minor paperwork error, which Biden has now criminalized as part of his ongoing war on our guns.
This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.
About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is already facing the distinct possibility of a recall election over his soft-on-crime policies, and I doubt this is going to be helpful to his defense. The liberal prosecutor has declined to file felony charges against the man who assaulted comedian Dave Chappelle during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this week after concluding that the actions did not rise to the level of a felony offense.
Isaiah Lee, 23, was charged instead by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office with single misdemeanor counts of battery, possession of a weapon with intent to assault, unauthorized access to the stage area during a performance and commission of an act that delays an event or interferes with a performer.
“This alleged attack has got to have consequences,” City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a video statement announcing the charges.
Feuer — a candidate for Los Angeles mayor — added, “My office takes protecting public safety extremely seriously and we are going to vigorously prosecute this case.”
I’m sure that Feuer, who’s a longtime anti-gun activist, will be happy to soak up the press attention that he’ll get for prosecuting Lee, who allegedly had a replica handgun that disguised a knife blade in his hand as he rushed the stage and tackled Chappelle on Tuesday evening. But should his office really be the one to handle this case? The misdemeanor charges aren’t likely to result in much time behind bars if Lee is convicted, and honestly, if his victim weren’t a celebrity the odds of him avoiding jail entirely would be in his favor.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Gascon’s office declined to pursue felony charges because while Lee had a weapon on him, he never had the chance to use it on his target, and since Chappelle wasn’t injured, the crime didn’t rise to the level of a felony assault with a deadly weapon regardless of Lee’s intentions.
This is a pretty high-profile example of Gascon’s alleged leniency towards criminal defendants, and it comes as the organizers of the recall campaign against the prosecutor announced they’ve hit a milestone in their efforts to gather enough signatures to get the recall on the ballot this fall.
Today, the Recall DA George Gascon campaign announced it has collected over 400,000 signatures as of May 1st, with thousands more being turned in daily. The recall campaign has now raised over $6 million to support the effort. To get the recall on the ballot, the campaign must collect 566,857 signatures from registered Los Angeles County voters (10% of the total current registered voters). The deadline for submission to the Registrar is July 6, 2022. “We are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel – there is a legitimate pathway to qualifying the recall by the July 6th deadline if we do not let up.”
The recall campaign might want canvass for signatures outside some of the comedy clubs in L.A. and ask patrons, employees, and comedians to sign on after Gascon’s decision, because while it might be legally defensible, it’s likely to be pretty unpopular at a time when crime continues to surge in Los Angeles and many residents say they feel increasingly unsafe.
Police help terminally ill girl, 16, check off a bucket list item… by letting her fire a TASER at an officer
A terminally ill teen has fulfilled her dying wish of firing a Taser at a police officer
Alyssa Elkins, 16, has leukemia and has been given one to six months to live
Officers at Newark Police Department agreed to let the girl fire at one of them
Alyssa drew up a bucket list of things to do including petting a miniature pig
A terminally ill teen has fulfilled her dying wish of firing a Taser at a willing person weeks after she drew up a bucket list of things she would like to do before she passes away.
Alyssa Elkins, 16, is suffering from leukemia and decided not to go through with a second round of treatment to spend more time with her family.
And the young woman from Morgan County in Ohio decided that firing a taser at a police officer volunteer was one of the things she most wanted to do after doctors gave her between one to six months to live earlier this month.
The 16-year-old prepares to fire at Sgt. Doug Bline who is flanked by two assisting officers
Newark Police Department, New York agreed to partake in the unique event after her family and friends contacted the force for filmed event.
The first to volunteer out of six, Sgt. Doug Bline, was selected to receive the tasering and after some training, Alyssa, who donned a fitted Newark Police uniform shirt with her name on it, took aim and fired.
Around 50 people were in the room to witness the girl, from a farm in the village of McConnelsville, shoot at the policeman who winced in pain and slowly fell to the ground, flanked by two other officers, after she pulled the trigger.
Sgt. Al Shaffer asked those present to shout ‘Taser! Taser! Taser!’ with Alyssa firing on the third ‘Taser.’
Alyssa also took up the unexpected opportunity to fire at her uncle Barry, who is a State Highway Patrol trooper and gave her the inspiration to fire a Taser after she watched a video of him getting hit by one during his police training.
The Taser makes impact and the officer winces in pain and Alyssa can barely look
Bline falls to the ground. He said the pain he endured was worth it for Alyssa’s happiness
Connell asked if her uncle had done anything in the past that she might like to get back at him for to which she agreed, reported the Columbus Dispatch.
‘It’s painful, but given her situation, it’s a no-brainer,’ said Bline, the first officer to be shot.
‘If I were her parent in this situation, I’d be happy to know that someone was willing to do this for her.’
He also said it was an educational opportunity to show that Tasers ‘are a very safe, effective way to subdue someone.’
A photo from the Alyssa Elkins Support Page. A post from January 23 read: ‘The results to Alyssa’s biopsy shows that she has indeed relapsed and has leukemia. She has decided to refuse another transplant. As it has a much higher risk of relapse then even the first’
Her bucket list also included petting a miniature pig which came along to the taser firing with her.
Speaking on the day Alyssa said: ‘God loves everybody and he’s for us and not against us. He puts us through trials,’ she said. ‘In the end, I’m not really scared. If he takes me, I know where I’m going.’
‘She’d never hurt anyone,’ said her mother Tiffany Elkins. ‘My other daughter wasn’t even sure Alyssa could push the button, that she’d be too afraid to hurt somebody.’
Tombstone, AZ--(Ammoland.com)- On May 2, 2022, the New York Attorney General’s Office filed its Second Amended Complaint against the National Rifle Association.
Not only the Association but its Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre, Secretary, and General Counsel John Frazer, Former Treasurer and CFO Wilson “Woody” Philips, and Former Deputy CEO Josh Powell.
As with the original complaint and the previous amended complaint, this one is full of very specific, largely verifiable, and utterly damning charges against NRA’s top officers and executives. Many of the previous accusations have been admitted to by some of the various parties, while Woody Phillips has refused to answer most questions, based on his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
It needs to be understood that LaPierre and the others are not named in the suit based on their positions within the NRA, as when someone sues a state and names the Attorney General or the governor as a representative of the state. The four named defendants were named for specific actions each is accused of, and the NRA itself is named for failing to stop them. With that in mind, legal experts said early on that the NRA’s best defense against the suit would be to adopt the following policies:
Remove the named defendants from any position of power within the Association – particularly any position that would allow any of them to have any oversight or influence over the Association’s legal strategy in battling the suit.
Initiate a thorough internal investigation by a Board-appointed committee with the power to get answers to its questions.
Adopt a policy of full cooperation and transparency working with state regulators.
Institute strict policy and oversight rules to correct and avoid future problems, that would be backed up by consequential enforcement.
Plead victim status to the court, declaring that, if the named defendants (or others) abused their positions, then the NRA was the victim, not the perpetrator, and therefore should not be penalized.
A genuine response to the allegations would go a long way toward blunting the very real political motivations involved in the suit. New York Attorney General Letitia James is a highly motivated political actor, and she has not been shy about expressing her animosity toward the NRA, its mission, and its members. The Association should deal cautiously with her office, and request that the judge make sure that this personal and political bias doesn’t taint the case or cause undue injury to the Association.
This animosity on the part of AG James has actually been one of the strongest arguments from defenders and apologists of Wayne LaPierre. They point to James’s hatred of the NRA, and her political ambitions, and conclude that the whole case is just trumped-up lies and political theater.
The problem with that assertion is that LaPierre himself has admitted under oath that most of the charges against him are true.
He admits to billing the NRA for personal travel for himself and his family. He admits to improperly accepting gifts from major vendors, and awarding those same vendors multi-million-dollar contracts with no competitive bidding. He admits to giving multi-million-dollar severance packages to retiring and even fired employees, usually in exchange for them signing a strict nondisclosure agreement about NRA activities.
And he admits to giving contracts to family members and former staffers, often with little or no performance requirement attached. He also admits to doing all of this without clearing it, or even reporting it, through or to, the NRA Board, as required by state law and NRA policy.
His main defense in all of this, is to claim that either, it wasn’t improper, he didn’t know it was improper, and/or he didn’t know what other people were doing. Not a very impressive defense from a CEO who’s being paid in excess of $1.6 million per year.
One is reminded of Bart Simpson’s all-purpose defense: “Nobody saw me! I wasn’t there! You can’t prove a thing!”
So the big question is: Why is Wayne LaPierre still controlling the NRA?
Why would any organization facing existential threats – most of those threats based on accusations of misconduct and dereliction on the part of its chief executive – allow that executive to continue to hold inordinate sway over the organization? And why would any organization facing this kind of turmoil in its executive offices allow that same executive to retain control over the legal strategy of the organization in addressing the charges?
An equally perplexing question, is why the Board has so far not even attempted to rein in its rogue executives?
As noted above, NY AG Letitia James hates the NRA and all it stands for, and she wants to see it destroyed. The judge in the case has already taken dissolution of the Association off the table as a potential punishment, should the AG win her case. Her latest Amended Complaint focuses less on the NRA as a target, and more on the officers and directors – as it should – with the complaint calling for severe financial penalties and restitution payments from the Association’s wayward “leaders.” The complaint calls for the removal of LaPierre and his followers, but only as part of the penalty phase of the trial. That isn’t going to happen until sometime next year.
Meanwhile, LaPierre and company remain in control of the Associations resources, and most importantly, in control of its legal strategy – which amounts to shoveling millions of dollars into the pockets of New York lawyer William Brewer, who was originally hired by LaPierre to head off a threatened lawsuit from the NY AG back in 2018. Obviously Brewer failed in that mission, but he’s been very successful at extracting cash from the Association.
Brewer has reportedly been drawing over $2 million per month, averaging around $30 million per year, for the past 3 years. At the same time, NRA membership numbers have been in a nosedive, fundraising has collapsed, and the Association has cut practically all of its core programs to the bone.
If LaPierre and his enablers were to be removed from power now, the Association might do what they should have done from the beginning: Claim victim status and reorganize, without the crippling payments to the Brewer law firm. With that, they should be able to start recovering membership and see improvements in their fundraising, not to mention begin to recover the trust of its members. But that would not be seen as a good thing by Letitia James. Those steep legal bills, along with the potential of a court-mandated lawsuit against the NRA from the NRA Foundation, if things go as expected in a lawsuit filed by the AG of Washington DC, could totally bankrupt the NRA, and that would be a big win for Letitia James.
I’m not an attorney, but I’ve spoken with knowledgeable attorneys, and they keep coming back to the need for the NRA to distance itself from the accused “leaders,” even if only with temporary furloughs or compartmentalizing them away from certain aspects of the Association, particularly the legal strategy. They have also suggested that the NY AG could – and should – force this action by filing a request for partial summary judgment based on the admissions already submitted by LaPierre and some of his supporters. LaPierre has admitted to a variety of offenses, any one of which would fully justify his removal from office. Other NRA “leaders” have also admitted to various transgressions and failures in their fiduciary duties. With those admissions, it should not be difficult to convince the judge to remove LaPierre and the offending officers on the basis that they are using the NRA’s resources to protect LaPierre and themselves, rather than fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities to the NRA and its members.
Wayne LaPierre, along with NRA President Charles Cotton, 1st VP Willes Lee, and 2nd VP David Coy, should be the subjects of a motion pointing out that they have all admitted to actions that should disqualify them from participating in the management of the Association, and especially anything to do with setting legal strategy.
If protecting the assets and interests of the Association’s members is of any concern at all to the attorneys in the NY AG’s Office – as the law states are their primary obligation – then they would have such a motion filed within days.
While we would hope that such a motion would be filed and addressed by the court prior to the Members’ Meeting in Houston on May 28, 2022, that seems unlikely, so NRA members must press the attack from different directions. The primary tactic must be to pressure NRA Directors to do what they should have done at least three years ago: Remove Wayne LaPierre. The best opportunity for the Board to take this action will be at the Board meeting on Monday following the Members’ Meeting. At that time, it will only take a simple majority of Directors to elect new leadership.
New NRA Leadership ~ LTC Allen West?
A group of concerned NRA members, including former and current members of the Board of Directors, want to draft former Director, LTC Allen West to run for the Executive Vice President position at the meeting in Houston. West has the support of many and could work with reformers to clean up the NRA and get it back on the right track, and he has a record of integrity and effectiveness.
Along with electing LTC West to the position of Executive Vice President, the Board needs to elect a slate of officers to back West in his reform efforts, and to lead the NRA’s legal strategy going forward. All of this makes it absolutely critical that every NRA Director attend the meetings in Houston, and be prepared to stand up for the membership. It’s equally critical that NRA members attend the Members’ Meeting on Saturday the 28th, 2022, to call out the lies and corruption, and to put some starch into the backs of the Directors. We also have a campaign underway to recruit, nominate, and elect a slate of reform candidates for the Board of Directors in the 2023 election.
Much more information about all of this is posted on our website, www.FirearmsCoalition.org, with both the first and second Amended Complaints, along with the Responses to the first one from LaPierre and the NRA. It’s a lot to digest, but it’s critical reading for anyone concerned about the future of the NRA.
I hope to see you in Houston.
NYS Second Amended Complaint against the National Rifle Association, May 2022
2020 People of the State of NY v NRA & Co May 2022 Amended
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona, and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
An 88-year-old retired NYPD cop living out his golden years in Ireland was busted in a dragnet worthy of a Hollywood movie — for keeping an old, decommissioned revolver in his home.
The daring morning police raid was the largest in recent memory in the tiny village of Swanlinbar, County Cavan, population 200, when up to 10 armed officers in six vehicles descended on the picture-postcard hamlet.
“I said to them, I wish it was f–king loaded because I would have blown every f–king one of you away,” Jude McGovern recalled to The Post. The firing pin was removed from the gun a long time ago, and it is no longer functional.
“Can you imagine?” the outraged octogenarian said. “About 10 of them forced in my front door around 9:30 in the morning when I was out of the house, and then I come back and find four of them going through my furniture looking for my gun.”
Jude McGovern, a retired NYPD cop living in Ireland, had his home raided because he kept a decommissioned revolver at his residence.John McVittyTen police officers descended on Jude McGovern’s home in search of his gun.John McVitty
The April 9 seizure came after a local judge signed a warrant citing “unlawful possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances” in the Main Street apartment where McGovern lives with his two Jack Russell terriers.
The feisty Irishman, who grew up in Swanlinbar, speculates that law enforcement learned about his relic of a firearm from social media, after a visitor to McGovern’s home a few years ago snapped a playful picture of the gun and posted it on Facebook.
Ireland’s police force, known as An GardaSíochána (Irish for “Guardians of the Peace”), told The Post it does not comment on named individuals, but did confirm it executed a search warrant.
McGovern once worked as a correction officer at Rikers Island.John McVitty
“A suspected unlicensed firearm was seized and sent to the Ballistics Unit for analysis,” the statement said.
The former lawman — McGovern also served as a correction officer at Rikers Island — said Irish cops told him they would return his gun “when it was justified by a gunsmith that it is inoperable.”
McGovern insists he was cleared to purchase the firearm for personal protection when off duty during his law enforcement days in New York. He bought the Smith and Wesson five-shot revolver in Lower Manhattan in 1968. McGovern would carry it in a holster on his leg. Before he returned to the old sod in 1996, McGovern said he had the firearm decommissioned in New Jersey for $175.
Irish police confirmed they executed a search warrant but could not name an individual.John McVitty
Although McGovern never declared the gun on his return to Ireland, he did declare it and completed the paperwork at Newark Airport before his 1996 departure for Ireland.
He said the piece holds “sentimental value” to him.
McGovern says the dramatic dragnet shattered his nerves, and he’s had to take pills to calm down.
McGovern said he never declared the gun in Ireland but did declare it in Newark in 1996 before leaving the US for Ireland.John McVitty
McGovern immigrated to the US in 1957, joining the same US Army division based in Fort Hood as Elvis Presley, although he never met the King. He said his military career took him to Germany and Greenland.
In 1965, McGovern and a partner, FDNY firefighter Jack Farley, opened The Moonshiner on 94th Street and Roosevelt Avenue near Shea Stadium, a pub popular with Mets players.
In 1968, McGovern joined the NYPD, and later switched to Corrections.
McGovern joined the NYPD in 1968 after a stint with the US Army.John McVitty
McGovern is now the talk of Swanlinbar, a village about 100 miles northwest of Dublin. But he says he’s no criminal.
“No common sense prevailed in this incident,” McGovern told The Post. “I enjoy my few rum and cokes at night but I didn’t drink during Lent. I am not interested in doing anything notorious at 88 years of age.”
Gregg Taylor, Nabis ballistic expert, said thousands of weapons had previously been surrendered including “old Webley revolvers”, issued as service sidearms in the Second World War, which were typical of items found “hanging around in the loft for decades”.
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