Category: Cops

Gee I wonder why The Governor is being so quiet about this shooting? Here are a few inconvenient FACTS to consider

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 13, 2022
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Sacramento Shooting Leads to Ridiculous Anti-gun Response

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2022

Sacramento Shooting Leads to Ridiculous Anti-gun Response

In the early morning hours of April 3, shooting erupted near the corner of 10^th and K Street in downtown Sacramento, Calif. The shooting resulted in the tragic deaths of six people and the wounding of 12 others. Police are still investigating at press time, but the facts suggest multiple shooters were involved in the incident and that the shooting shared characteristics more in common with general street violence than the type of indiscriminate crimes typically used to promote gun control efforts.

The incident was dubbed a “mass shooting” by many in the media. This, as Northeastern University Criminologist James Alan Fox has noted in a March 6, 2021 USA Today item titled “You’re right to be confused about the number of mass shootings,” can be misleading. The professor explained,

A corollary concern, besides whether the threshold [for a mass shooting] is based on deaths or injuries as well, is the varying nature and location of mass shootings. [One measure of “mass shootings”] include[s] a large share of family shootings in private residences as well as gun battles related to gang conflict or illicit drug trade…

What truly frightens folks are the seemingly indiscriminate and deadly shootings in public locations — a restaurant, shopping mall, theater, church, school, and now supermarket. Such dreadful events can happen to anyone, at any time, and without warning.

Immediately after the incident, President Joe Biden put out a statement demanding more gun control. The April 3 press release demanded, “Ban ghost guns. Require background checks for all gun sales. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.” The statement stood in contrast to that put out by the usually flamboyant Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose office noted that the incident was still being investigated, before offering a much milder call to “bring an end” to such violence.

California already has four-fifths of the gun control measures that Biden proposed. Obviously, none of these measures prevented the Sacramento shooting.

Ban on so-called “ghost guns” (privately made firearms)

Cal.Penal Code § 29180 requires that a person, “prior to manufacturing or assembling a firearm,” apply to the California Department of Justice for a unique serial number. The law then demands “[w]ithin 10 days of manufacturing or assembling a firearm… the unique serial number or other mark of identification provided by the department shall be engraved or permanently affixed to the firearm.” The person is then required to notify the state that they have complied with the marking requirements of § 29180. Further, § 29180 required owners of all privately made firearms manufactured prior to enactment of the statute to comply with the statute’s marking provisions.

Those found in violation of § 29180 face up to a year in prison for an offense involving a handgun and six months in prison for an offense involving a long-gun.

California has also severely curtailed the sale of common parts used by firearm hobbyists to make their own firearms. Defined as “precursor parts” by Cal.Penal Code § 16531, these items are subject to the same background check requirements as firearms under state law.

Criminalization of private transfers

Cal.Penal Code § 28050 requires that “[a] person shall complete any sale, loan, or transfer of a firearm through” a licensed firearm dealer pursuant to a background check. Further, Cal.Penal Code § 26500 provides “[n]o person shall sell, lease, or transfer firearms unless the person has been issued a” dealer license.

Illegal transfer of a firearm is punishable by up to six months imprisonment.

Ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms

California banned commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms (often mislabeled “assault weapons”) in 1989.

Cal.Penal Code § 30600 provides,

Any person who, within this state, manufactures or causes to be manufactured, distributes, transports, or imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives or lends any assault weapon… except as provided by this chapter, is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for four, six, or eight years.

Cal.Penal Code § 30605 provides,

Any person who, within this state, possesses any assault weapon, except as provided in this chapter, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.

Ban on standard-capacity magazines

Cal.Penal Code § 16740 defines “large-capacity magazines” as “any ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.” This definition includes the standard capacity magazines sold with America’s most popular firearms.

Cal.Penal Code § 32310 provides,

any person in this state who manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, buys, or receives any large-capacity magazine is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.

and,

any person in this state who possesses any large-capacity magazine, regardless of the date the magazine was acquired, is guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) per large-capacity magazine, or is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) per large-capacity magazine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment.

The truth is that California’s gun control regime places it below the Constitutional floor when it comes to respect for the Second Amendment right. This may be made clear in the coming months in the U.S. Supreme Court case New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

The suspects

As of press time, police have made three arrests in connection with the Sacramento shooting. As these individuals have not been convicted of any crime in relation to the shooting they will be referred to as Suspect 1, Suspect 2, and Suspect 3 in order of arrest.

According to Sacramento NBC affiliate KCRA, Suspect 1 is a 26-year-old male and was booked on charges of “assault with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.” Summarizing Suspect 1’s criminal history, the news outlet reported,

[Suspect 1] has been wanted in Riverside County since 2015. Jail records show he has an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

According to court documents, [Suspect 1] “inflicted bodily injury resulting in a traumatic condition” to his spouse.

[Suspect 1] pled guilty to the charge in 2014 and was sentenced to 30 days of custody and 36 months of probation.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to NBC News that [Suspect 1] later violated two terms of probation: the community service requirement, and the 52-week class requirement.

A $5,000 bench warrant was issued by the court in 2015.

KCRA 3 Investigates also learned [Suspect 1] spent time in an Arizona prison. He was released in 2020 after serving just over a year-and-a-half for violating probation in separate felony convictions for attempt to commit aggravated assault in 2016, and a conviction on a marijuana charge in 2018.

Suspect 2 is the 27-year-old brother of Suspect 1. According to the Sacramento Bee, Suspect 2 was booked “on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.” The Los Angeles Times reported that Suspect 2 was also charged for being in “possession of a stolen handgun that was converted to be a fully automatic weapon.”

In an article titled, “A D.A. issued dire warnings about the Sacramento gun battle suspect. He was released early from prison anyway,” the Los Angeles Times noted,

The man arrested for possessing a machine gun at the scene of Sunday’s deadly shooting in Sacramento was allowed to leave prison in February despite opposition from the county’s district attorney to his early release…

Almost exactly a year ago, Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert’s office opposed [Suspect 2’s] release from state prison to the Board of Parole Hearings in a two-page letter… The district attorney’s office asked that he not be freed because he is a career criminal and a danger to the community.

The district attorney’s letter explained,

“[Suspect 2] has committed several felony violations and clearly has little regard for human life and the law, which can be shown by his conduct in his prior felony convictions of robbery, possession of a firearm and prior misdemeanor conviction of providing false information to a peace officer.”

The paper reported that Suspect 2 was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on two felony assault charges for beating his girlfriend with a belt and entered the California state prison system in January 2018. Despite, the district attorney’s pleas, Suspect 2 was released in February 2022.

Summarizing Suspect 2’s criminal history with firearms, the prosecutor explained,

In January of 2013, just six months after his eighteenth birthday, [Suspect 2] was contacted by law enforcement officers. [Suspect 2] attempted to discard an assault rifle which he had concealed in his waistband under his clothing. The rifle had a pistol grip and the capacity to accept a detachable magazine in front of the pistol grip. [Suspect 2] was also found to be in possession of two fully loaded twenty-five round magazines for the assault weapon.

Suspect 3 is a 31-year-old male and was arrested on charges of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. According to an account from USA Today, Suspect 3 “was caught on camera wielding a firearm after the shooting, though police do not believe the weapon was used in the shootout.”

Presented with the facts about California’s gun control regime and the criminal histories of those arrested in connection with the Sacramento shooting, it is clear that no amount of gun control could have made a difference in the Sacramento tragedy. Moreover, other criminal justice interventions, perhaps measures tailored to those who actually commit violent crime, clearly had the best chance of preventing this tragedy.

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Not Even ATF Can Verify ATF’s ‘Ghost Gun’ Claims by Lee Williams

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 13, 2022
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3D Printed Ghost Guns — Not Even ATF Can Verify ATF’s ‘Ghost Gun’ Claims

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has a unique reputation among federal law enforcement agencies. Quite frankly, the ATF is well known for not always telling the truth. Whether its firearm statistics, after-action reports downplaying the body count of their latest sting to backfire or quotes from senior executives, any information coming from ATF is always suspect and must always be verified.

Verifying ATF information is not easy either. They put up a lot of roadblocks. The ATF ignores Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and its spokespeople rarely answer their phones or return emails. It’s as if the ATF doesn’t want the public to peek behind their curtain, because they too are scared of what will be found.

For example, one senior ATF official – Carlos A. Canino, former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the ATF’s Los Angeles Field Division – can be credited for jumpstarting the war on homemade firearms, so it is especially important to verify everything he has said. After all, last year the ATF announced notice of proposed rulemaking that could regulate many of the core components of homemade firearms. To be clear, Canino’s quotes caused all of this.

In 2020, activists from the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun empire asked Canino about the prevalence of homemade firearms in California. An earlier study said 30% of the guns recovered by ATF in California were unserialized “ghost guns,” but Canino said the real numbers were actually much higher. “Forty-one percent, so almost half our cases we’re coming across are these ‘ghost guns,’” Canino told the anti-gun activists. That was all it took. The entire gun-ban industry jumped on Canino’s statement like a duck on a June bug.

The war on homemade firearms had officially begun, and ATF’s Los Angeles SAC fired the first shots.

Unverifiable

Erik Longnecker likely will not have a long or prosperous career at the ATF. Longnecker, the program manager for the ATF’s Public Affairs Division’s Office of Public and Governmental Affairs, has a habit of returning emails from investigative reporters. This is rare and not exactly career-enhancing at the ATF.

In a lengthy email chain yesterday, I asked Longnecker to verify Canino’s comments and to add some context. Specifically, how many firearms did ATF’s Los Angeles Field Division seize? Did the 41% constitute five or six homemade firearms or were there hundreds or thousands.

To be clear, Longnecker was unable to verify Canino’s statement or add any context.

“I contacted the Los Angeles Field Division earlier today after your initial email, and their Public Information Officer was unable to verify any figures provided in 2019 by former-SAC Canino without knowing the time-period(s) he used for his comments,” Longnecker said in the email. “For that reason, we rely on verifiable data generally documented on our website or obtained through a FOIA request.”

Longnecker supplied statistics about the numbers of homemade firearms he claimed were recovered by law enforcement at possible crime scenes nationwide from Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2020, which were submitted to ATF for tracing – a total of 23,906 guns during the five-year period, or roughly 13 guns per day.

2016: 1,750
2017: 2,507
2018: 3,776
2019: 7,161
2020: 8,712

“I am not aware of any other verified PMF (Privately Made Firearm) data that has been published by ATF,” Longnecker wrote.

This is outrageous. The entire war on homemade firearms was based on alleged ATF data, which the ATF now claims it cannot verify. Civil rights are about to be violated, and gunmakers and firearm parts manufacturers are about to be put out of business, all based on spurious data from a former ATF official who the agency now appears to have disavowed.

Weaponized Data

“ATF does not label any firearm as a ‘ghost gun,’ but prefers to use the term ‘privately made firearm,” Longnecker explained during our correspondence Monday.

Whatever… No one seems to have told the Biden-Harris administration about the ATF’s preferred label. Like the anti-gun industry, the White House grabbed onto Canino’s comments and took off.

“In May 2021, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a proposed rule to help stop the proliferation of “ghost guns,” which are unserialized, privately made firearms that are increasingly being recovered at crime scenes and have been identified by law enforcement officials as a serious threat to public safety. Today, criminals are buying kits containing nearly all of the components and directions for finishing a firearm within as little as 30 minutes and using these firearms to commit crimes,” according to a White House Fact Sheet published last week, in the section titled: “Reining in the proliferation of ghost guns.”

The Chicago-Sun Times is the latest media outlet to glom onto the fact-free ghost-gun cavalcade, in an editorial titled “‘Ghost’ guns are a gift to criminals. It’s time to ban them.”

“Ghost guns are firearms purchasers assemble themselves without serial numbers, making them easy to obtain and hard to trace. Some are ‘printed’ on 3-D printers and include no metal, allowing owners to carry them through metal detectors undetected,” the paper’s editorial board wrote. Note: If some of their readers try to carry a “ghost gun” through a TSA checkpoint, they and the editorial board will likely be very surprised at the outcome.

The Chicago newspaper cited Canino’s fictional statistics and used the tired attempt at attribution – police say.

“Police say ghost guns are a growing problem,” the newspaper wrote. “Last year, they confiscated 455 ghost guns in Chicago. In 2019, law enforcement agencies recovered 10,000 ghost guns nationwide. In 2020, 41% of the ATF’s cases in Los Angeles were ghost guns.”

Police Don’t Say

None of the senior law enforcement officers I’ve interviewed about homemade firearms have said they’re a problem. Most haven’t seen any – not one. Several had their staff check their property rooms for homemade firearms recovered from crime scenes. None were found.

Several top cops accused the ATF of conflating homemade firearms with factory-made guns that have had their serial numbers illegally altered or removed, which could account for ATF’s high number of trace requests. I asked Longnecker about this. His response was somewhat vague:

“ATF investigates the criminal possession and other criminal misuse of both commercially manufactured and privately made firearms. These privately made firearms can be made from multiple sources and frequently lack serial numbers and other markings which generally make the firearms more difficult to trace,” he wrote. “ATF also investigates the criminal possession and other criminal misuse of firearms that have had serial numbers altered or obliterated. Firearms that have had serial numbers partially or fully obliterated usually have other markings that assist in the positive identification and tracing of the firearms. ATF uses this information to identify firearms trafficking patterns and related crimes.”

Takeaways

The war on homemade firearms – like the war on guns itself – is based on false claims, skewed statistics, faulty logic, and lashings of media hype. Both seek to demonize an inanimate object and punish legitimate gun owners for the sins of a few bad men. Whether you own a homemade firearm or not, we must all push back against what is an assault on our civil rights. Clearly, the gun-ban industry is using its bump stock template to target yet another legal product. Their move was expected, similar to their ongoing effort to ban pistol braces.

ATF’s role was expected too. They’re clearly assisting the anti-gunners by pumping up the number of tracing requests by combining homemade firearms with factory guns with altered serial numbers. How else could they claim “ghost guns” are a growing problem, right?

I have said before no one makes a better case to abolish the ATF than the ATF.

Then, as now, the country would be safer without them.

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.

Lee Williams

Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Born again Cynic! Cops Hard Nosed Folks Both Good & Bad

The breeding-ground for “woke” District Attorneys and politically correct prosecutions? – Stolen from Bayou Renaissance Man

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 10, 2022
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The New York Post says the problems originated at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Ground zero for woke district attorneys is a left-wing think tank in the heart of the Big Apple.

The soft-on-crime approach espoused by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other progressive prosecutors in troubled Democratic cities has been nurtured and advanced by a policy center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, no less.

. . .

The Institute’s symposiums and issue papers hold forth on topics such as race, officer-involved deaths and bail reform — all in a concerted effort to change the role of the prosecutor to be more proactive and less punitive.

“No one should be defined by their bad conduct alone,” the Institute’s “Vision for the Modern Prosecutor” declaration says about the accused.

Its position papers endorse charging accused criminals with fewer serious crimes or keeping them out of jail entirely. And it recommends that offenders not be called as such, but rather something that respects their “humanity.”

The Institute’s paper on “Creating a Culture of Racial Equity” suggests that a hotline be created for district attorneys so “whistleblowers” can turn in “internal obstructionists” not on board with their boss’ woke policies.

Another treatise on “How Prosecutors Can Support a Reimagined Police Response” bizarrely suggests celebrating times “when prosecutors exonerate someone.”

. . .

The institute says in its 2020 primer on “Prosecutorial Culture Change” that the job of the head prosecutor “is not to ‘win’ cases, impose long sentences, or ‘beat’ the defense. Instead, it is to promote safety, accountability, healing, trust, and empowerment.”

. . .

One CUNY professor called the Institute elitist and said it operates with “a smug sense of righteousness and smartness.”

“All of this unravels when you take it into communities, when you deal with victims,” the professor said. “This kind of rigid ideology does not survive the battlefield of reality in the community.”

Thomas Kenniff … said fair treatment was a noble objective but “can’t be a code word for abandoning the traditional role of the prosecutor — which is to assign consequence to crime.”

There’s more at the link.

Yes, I’d say that’s the problem, right there. When you turn “woke” scholars loose in an academic ivory tower, divorced from the problems of the real world, it doesn’t take long for the iron to enter their souls – and rust there. They lose sight of the effects of their nicely theoretical policies, and blather on about “equity” and “fairness” and all that stuff. Meanwhile, those of us who have to live every day with the criminals they set free to continue their lives of crime . . . we see it rather differently.

When I worked as a prison chaplain, I used to say to opponents of private ownership of firearms, and concealed carry permits, that I wanted them to come and spend just one day at work with me, surrounded by felons of the worst kind (I was stationed in a high-security penitentiary). I told them that when they left the place that evening, they’d do so permanently convinced of the error of their former attitudes, because encountering such felons “in the raw” is an eye-opening and life-changing (not to mention frequently very frightening) experience.

They didn’t believe me, of course – the convinced liberal seldom, if ever, allows the real world to challenge his or her preconceptions – but I knew the truth, and they didn’t. I’d learned it the hard way. They’d been shielded from that.

That’s the problem with these professors. They think they understand reality. In fact, they understand only a very limited subset of reality, the liberal cocoon in which they’ve lived most of their lives. They’ve never had to live in fear of a violent felon kicking down their doors and assaulting, robbing, raping or murdering them – but that’s a daily reality in many of our inner cities.

Instead of siding with the victims, as they should, they see only the liberal shibboleths that elevate the offenders onto a pedestal of victimization, deprivation and circumstance. “They couldn’t help it! They’re products of their environment!” scream the liberals. Yeah, right. So are their victims – but there are a lot more victims than perpetrators, and none of the former developed the habits of the latter. That argument fails in the face of that logic.

Criminals gonna criminal, to coin a phrase. It’s been that way since Cain killed Abel, and nothing’s changed since then. Nothing will ever change, because human nature is the same as it’s always been. Prosecutors and District Attorneys who fail to recognize and deal with that reality are putting the rest of us at risk, and should be dealt with accordingly.

All About Guns Cops Stupid Hit

Just another reason why I could never be a Cop!

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 10, 2022
2 Comments on Just another reason why I could never be a Cop!

https://youtu.be/LVkFbnuDhsE

All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Born again Cynic! Cops

The Hypocrisy of Gun Control Elitists

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 9, 2022
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The Hypocrisy of Gun Control Elitists

In 2020, then-presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was asked how he could continue to demand gun control while being protected by private guards equipped with the same firearms and magazines that he wanted to ban others from owning. “Does your life matter more than mine or my family’s or these people’s?” Bloomberg’s response, in essence, was that he was not an ordinary person. He was a celebrity and billionaire who received more threats than most people: “That just happens when you are the mayor of New York City or you are very wealthy.”

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Grand Jury Chooses Not to Indict Man from Viral Texas Porch Shooting by JORDAN MICHAELS

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 8, 2022
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*The jury ruled that Carruth was justified in his use of deadly force.*

A Texas grand jury decided not to recommend charges against a man who shot and killed his girlfriend’s ex-husband in a viral incident caught on video in November.

After three days of deliberation, the Lubbock special grand jury voted not to indict Kyle Carruth, the man who shot and killed Chad Read during a dispute about the whereabouts of Read’s children.

Shortly after the incident, Lubbock Police Department transferred the case to the Texas Attorney General for its review. Lawyers for the AG’s office presented the case to the grand jury.

Following the ruling, the law firm representing Read’s widow vowed to pursue their client’s claims in civil court.

”The criminal justice utterly failed Jennifer Read, the widow of Chad Read,” they said. “Chad Read was involved in a heated discussion with his ex-wife concerning custody of his son. The video shows that Kyle Carruth injected himself into that discussion. We believe there was no legitimate reason for Kyle Carruth to bring a deadly weapon to an argument that he wasn’t even a part of. Chad Read died unarmed, shot, and killed while simply trying to determine the whereabouts of his son.”

Carruth’s lawyer also responded to the ruling.

“We are appreciative of the wise decision of this extremely hard-working, independent, Grand Jury,” David Guinn said. “Rarely does a Grand Jury work for three days on one case alone. Those Lubbock citizens must have learned everything imaginable about every aspect of the case and the people involved.”

As GunsAmerica reported at the time, the incident sparked a furious debate about the proper use of deadly force.

Video from the incident from multiple angles shows Carruth telling Read to “get off of my property,” and then go inside. Read says he is at the house to pick up his son, and Carruth returns moments later with what looks like a pistol-caliber carbine.

“Leave!” Carruth orders Read. “Right now, motherf-ker.”

“Do it,” Read replies, continuing to walk toward Carruth. “You’ll better f-king use it motherf-ker, because Godd-nit, I’ll take it from you and f-king [unintelligible],” Read continues, screaming directly into Carruth’s face and leaning into his body.

Carruth shoots into the porch at Read’s feet, but the larger man does not back down. Read swings Carruth out into the yard, and when Carruth regains his footing, he shoots Read twice.

Read falls to the ground while Carruth stands next to him on the porch. “I told all of y’all to leave,” Carruth says. “None of y’all should be here. I asked you to leave. I did everything. I did not want to do any of this.”

Read died later that day.

Carruth is the former husband of Anne-Marie Carruth, a Texas district court judge.

Carruth’s lawyers argued that the homicide was justified under Texas’ “castle doctrine” while attorneys for Read’s wife argued that Carruth failed to de-escalate the situation and used a gun even though no physical threat to life or property existed, according to KCBD.

No criminal charges or arrests have been made in this case.

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ATF Bows to Everytown Pressure, Revokes FFL of Nevada Gun Maker by JORDAN MICHAELS

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 8, 2022
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*Everytown has a new strategy to put gun makers out of business. (Photo: NRA-ILA)*

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) caved to pressure from the anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety this week when it revoked the federal firearms license of a gun maker in Nevada.

Everytown joined forces with Kansas City officials in filing a lawsuit against the ATF last year. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim the federal agency had improperly issued a federal firearm license to JA Industries, which the plaintiffs claim was knowingly selling firearms to gun runners.

In response to the lawsuit, the ATF announced this week that they had issued JA Industries a notice of revocation of its firearms license. The agency did not take this action in response to a court order — they did so “voluntarily,” according to their letter. Everytown claims this is a “first-of-its-kind victory for gun safety.”

“We can only hope this decision marks the beginning of a new era at ATF, one that is consistent with President Biden’s commitment to holding rogue and reckless members of the gun industry accountable for breaking the law and putting lives in danger,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “After decades of serving as the gun industry’s lapdog, it’s time for ATF to do its job and be the American people’s watchdog.”

As GunsAmerica reported last year, Everytown claimed JA Industries and its owner, Paul Jimenez, had been selling firearms to illegal gun dealers in Kansas City. But according to an affidavit written by an ATF agent, it’s unclear how much Jimenez and his employees know about that illegal activity.

The Kansas City gun runner who purchased firearms, James Samuels, usually ordered the firearms from Jimenez and had them sent to a local FFL. At one point, however, Samuels had 11 firearms shipped directly to his house. When Jimenez Arms employees contacted Samuels and asked him about straw purchasing, he claimed that his FFL had moved and assured them that he made buyers pass a background check before purchasing.

In its list of “allegations” against Jimenez, Everytown accuses the gun maker of selling cheap guns “that are particularly attractive to traffickers.”

They also claim that Jimenez was cited in 2012 and 2017 for “serious recordkeeping violations,” but the ATF decided to hold a warning conference in lieu of revocation. If those violations were so “serious,” it’s unclear why the ATF didn’t revoke Jimenez’s license.

Of course, whether Jimenez deserved to have his license revoked is beside the point. Now, Everytown knows to go after gun dealers and manufacturers by suing the ATF, and Biden’s ATF will respond according to their wishes.

JA Industries was an easy target, given its connection to a convicted gun runner. But you can be sure that we’ll see more of these lawsuits while an anti-gun president runs the Department of Justice.

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Now here is an interesting Point to ponder upon!

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 8, 2022
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What is the cause for the Growing Number of Rampage Killings in the World since 1960? I debate with Rod Liddle

05 August 2019 4:03 PM

Inconclusive Musings About Two Mass Killings in the USA

I do not think I know anything like enough about the two mass murders in the USA to have much to say about them yet. So here are some inconclusive musings.

But I note here that, as in all my writings on such subjects , stupid people are banned from reading what follows. If you don’t know whether you are stupid or not, I also advise you not to read it. If you find yourself thinking that I am trying to excuse mass murder, then that means you are definitely stupid, for I am clearly not doing that. You should go and lie down until the mood has passed. Alas, the stupidity will persist.

As usual, I wait for facts before reaching conclusions, which slows me down among all the others rushing to judgement. Sometimes, as I know from the case of the Quebec City mosque killer, Bissonnette, here… https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/04/reposted-in-the-light-f-new-information-another-mass-shooter-turns-out-to-have-been-taking-mind-alte.html

…crucial facts do not come to light for long months, even years, after these events – if they ever do. In my experience, police all over the world are sublimely uninterested (in Britain actively uninterested) in the drug use of the perpetrators of such crimes, and often only stumble across them by accident.

But there are some features of the El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, killings on which I will comment. As usual, the reporting concentrates upon the horror of the crimes, as it must. It is then swiftly followed by standard-issue editorialising about guns and gun control of the usual sort. This neglects to notice that mass gun ownership is not new in the USA, but dates back to the foundation of the country. Yet these rampage killings only really began about 50 years ago, and have been growing more common in the past five years. So in simple logic, the free availability of guns alone cannot be blamed for these incidents.

But in this case there is also quite a lot about the supposed ‘right-wing extremism’ of one of the two accused, the alleged El Paso killer Crusius. (Not the other killer though, see below) I have discussed the significance of such affiliations here in long posts on the Jo Cox murder here https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/04/my-reply-to-the-secret-barrister-.html

I would also draw readers’ attention to what I wrote about the Charlottesville killer, Fields, two years ago (the caveat still very much applies ) https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/08/on-the-miserable-events-in-charlottesville-virginia.html

My questions, as to what might have caused Fields to become mentally ill enough to be rejected by the US Army in the first place, were not purposeless. I stick by my belief that, if you find a mentally-ill young person in the modern world, you will almost certainly find a current or former marijuana user. But this grows harder to establish definitively, as police in many jurisdictions long ago gave up even cautions or diversion programmes for those found in possession of marijuana, and are not interested in probing it now. In fact they are positively uninterested, because the connection makes their abandonment of law-enforcement look foolish. So while five or ten years ago their drug abuse might have been recorded, it is not now.

More than a year after his crime, in November 2018, the range of drugs (potentially amphetamines, ‘anti-anxiety’ medication and SSRIs) , which Fields may have been legally taking, possibly all at once, was briefly revealed at his trial: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/james-alex-fields-trial-deadly-charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-set-n939991 The key passage reads : ‘Fields later told a judge he is being treated for bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and ADHD.’

‘Treated’, of course, means ‘given drugs’. We still do not know what illegal drugs Folds may have taken before he became mentally ill. But it is not hard to guess.

I recently checked for the latest information on the mass murderer Roof, whose crime has been attributed to a political motive (though as usual it is hard to see how such a filthy act could possibly have aided any cause to which it is attached) and found this https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-dylann-roof-20170202-story.html . His admitted problems include a ‘Mixed Substance Abuse Disorder, a Schizoid Personality Disorder, depression by history, and a possible Autistic Spectrum Disorder.’”

Well, that is pretty much evidence of substance abuse. Which substance or ‘mixed substances’ would you guess might be involved here in the origins of the stated ‘disorder’ ? Me too. Likewise the word ‘Schizoid’ tends to be associated with drug-related mental illness. ‘Depression’ is generally treated with powerful SSRIs, and Autistic Spectrum Disorder can be treated with Risperidone, an antipsychotic. In modern America, none of these things would be considered abnormal enough to merit special note, especially once Roof’s crazed action had been attributed to the white supremacist opinions which he holds, insofar as such a person can be said to hold opinions. To me, and to anyone familiar with the subject of side-effects of legal medications, and indeed the problems associated with marijuana, these are flashing red lights. But they emerged quietly 18 months after he was arrested for the murder of nine people, and long after most people had lost interest in the case.

I have also addressed the subject of the supposed political affiliations of other violent, irrational, apparently politicised persons in this article on the Leytonstone knife attacker, Muhaydin Mire here . (‘You ain’t no Muslim , Bruv!’) https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2016/08/the-man-who-thought-tony-blair-was-his-guardian-angel-yes-really.html

I strongly recommend that you follow the link. There is much fascinating material in it which you will not easily find elsewhere, about unhinged people and religious and political affiliation.

My point is that it is possible for people who are unhinged (usually by legal or illegal psychotropic drugs and sometimes by both in succession) to espouse ostensibly political views, but this does not necessarily mean that they can correctly be classified as political actors. I know too little about Crusius to say anything other than ‘Can we wait for a bit more information?’

But in reports that I have seen, the strong interest in Crusius’s supposed right-wing extremism (I note that the suggestion that he posted a raving manifesto before his alleged crime is as I understand it not yet proven) is not matched by concern about alleged left-wing opinions held (according to the ‘Heavy’ website) by the (now dead) suspect in the Dayton, Ohio killing, Betts . See for example https://heavy.com/news/2019/08/connor-betts/

Attempts to analyse Betts’s Twitter feed (I use his original spellings etc) found that ‘he described himself as “he/him / anime fan / metalhead / leftist / i’m going to hell and i’m not coming back.” He wrote on Twitter that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added, “I want socialism, and i’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.” The Greene County Board of Elections lists his party as “Dem.” ‘. When Donald Trump was elected President he is said to have tweeted that ‘This is bad’.

I don’t propose to make anything of this in itself. Rather the opposite

These vague semi-literate mutterings obviously cannot be used to attempt any link between Betts and the American left. And, by the way, I am not suggesting any equivalence between seething racial bigotry and peaceful mainstream Democratic Party leftism, in case anyone was hoping to pin that on me. They are obviously utterly distinct. To make such a connection between Betts and the Democrats would obviously be absurd. In which case, perhaps some similar caution should be observed in the case of Crusius. This is not to exonerate any purveyors of hate. What they do is wrong even if it has no connection with Crusius. It is to avoid misunderstanding the reasons which led to this crime, because we are anxious to give it a political explanation.

Crusius’s alleged actions may well be as unconnected to his supposed politics as those of Betts, though I doubt my plea for this will get much of a hearing.

What I am saying here ( see especially the Muhaydin Mire case, referenced above) is that crazy people quite often adopt political causes to make themselves feel important and part of a movement. But they do this because they are crazy, not because they are really political in nature. The affiliation is part of their craziness, and can’t be equated with the genuine, rational political affiliations of sane people. The interesting question is ‘why are there now so many more crazy people than there used to be?’

I still wonder what, if anything, these two alleged culprits will turn out to have objectively in common, when we know all that there is to be known about them – if we ever do. But until we do, I must be inconclusive, and speculative. So please don’t tell me I have reached any conclusions here. As Sherlock Holmes always said, it is a capital error to theorise without data. Not, alas, that it stops everyone else.

Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Cops

Peter Von Frantzius specialized in arming the city’s criminals by Max Allan Collins & George Hagenauer

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 7, 2022
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Peter Von Frantzius specialized in arming the city's criminals - Scena Criminis

On September 25, 1925, Spike O’Donnell flattened as Frankie McErlane sped by bullets spraying wildly over the corner of 63rd and Western. O’Donnell walked away from the shooting unharmed and unaware he had survived the first Chicago gang shooting involving a Thompson submachine gun.

A month later, after practicing with the novel weapon. McErlane returned. This time, he successfully wounded O’Donnell brother and a new deadly era in gang warfare had begun.

The Thompson submachine gun weighed 8 1/2 pounds and could fire up to a thousand 45 caliber pistol cartridges per minute.

At close range, It could pierce quarter-inch steel armor plate or cut a man in half. Since the Thompson was a totally new type of weapon, no existing gun statutes regulated it – and anyone could buy one by mail or from a sporting goods store.

In 1925, the average Thompson retailed for 175 USD.

Northwestern University law school alumnus, National Rifle Association member and owner of Sports Inc., Peter Von Frantzius specialized in arming the city’s criminals. As the Thompson gained in popularity, Von Frantzius became the area’s chief supplier.

Al Capone was fascinated by the distructive power of McErlane’s “Tommy Gun” and acquired Thompsons for his own men.

Capone’s purchases were always legal; crooked judges issued gun permits for Capone and his mobsters. Several members of the gang, including Capone, carried actual Cook County Deputy badges, complete with the right to bear arms!

All About Guns Cops

Top 3 Self-Defense Mistakes Made After a Defensive Incident

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 3, 2022
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