The Associated Press reports the 29-year-old officer, a five-year veteran of the force, was shot in the abdomen “just below the vest.” The officer was shot after chasing a suspect into a backyard, where “a struggle ensued” that ended with the suspect taking the officer’s gun and shooting him with it.
Another officer then entered the backyard and killed the suspect.
Chief Acevedo responded to the incident by denouncing those who will offer sympathy for the officer while refusing to support gun control.
He said, “We were in Washington Monday talking about gun violence in our city, in our community, in our country, and I don’t want to hear from politicians tomorrow about how much they care about my cop.”
He added, “If they’re not here to talk to us about solutions, then don’t bother showing up to the Houston Police Department.”
Acevedo took time to thank Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) for coming out in support of gun control after the August 31, 2019, shooting in Midland-Odessa. On September 2, 2019, Breitbart News reported Patrick’s call for action against private gun sales.
The right answer for today is “Using theft of a police issued weapon to shoot police to press for more gun control.” For today, that is. With Art Acevedo, tomorrow is another day to use his workers to press his own agenda.
Publix is the latest retailer asking customers to leave their guns at home.
The Lakeland-based supermarket chain joins the growing chorus of national retailers asking customers not to bring guns into stores in states where it is legal to openly carry firearms.
“Publix respectfully requests that only law enforcement officials openly carry firearms in our stores,” the chain told the Sun Sentinel in a statement.
This one is disappointing, since I like the Publix right down the road from me and sometimes open carry there. I’ve been told by the store manager that he doesn’t mind it and that they (Publix) follow state law. I guess not now – they apparently all follow Florida state law. I wonder how Floridians would feel if we imposed our laws on them?
It’s all part of the shaming of gun owners in America, and they’ve buckled to the pressure. I’m willing to bet that not a single instance of trouble has ever occurred due to open carry. This is all about political statements. What a shame. I never thought I would have to post about Publix and gun control at the same time.
I’ll have to send their CEO, Todd Jones, a letter at todd.jones@publix.com.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering a pitch from former NBC Chairman Robert Wright, a presidential pal, for a research program aimed at preventing mass shootings by electronically monitoring people who have received psychiatric diagnoses. That Orwellian plan may or may not be defeated by its utter impracticability.
Wright has dubbed his idea SAFEHOME—an acronym for Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes. The Washington Post reports that his three-page proposal imagines using “technology like phones and smart watches” to “detect when mentally ill people are about to turn violent.” The idea, the papersays, is to look for “small changes that might foretell violence.”
Ouija boards, palm readers, witches, warlocks, carnival fortune tellers, tribal witchdoctors, and “small changes that might foretell violence.”
It’s all the same thing to me, and if you have any sense at all, you too. The Bible clearly says that those guilty of divination will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, and that the Lord hates such people (Galatians 5:19-21, Leviticus 19:24-32, Deuteronomy 18:9-15, Jeremiah 27: 9-19, Exodus 22: 18-19, 1 Samuel 15:23, Isaiah 2:5-8).
Despite this slight downward trend, expanding background checks still enjoys 93 percent support in the latest poll. That support has remained relatively consistent, with the Quinnipiac poll finding the same level of support in June 2016 as in August 2019 and the ABC/Washington Post poll finding the same level of support in May 1999 as in September 2019.
As I said, carefully. I’ve always told you this was a load of crap, and the author, Stephen Gutowski, does a good job of showing why.
However, while expanding background checks to cover intrastate used gun sales between private individuals has enjoyed consistently high support in polling, it has been far less popular when proposed as ballot initiatives.
Both Nevada and Maine voted on universal background check initiatives in 2016. While Quinnipiac polls put support for the policy at 93 percent in June 2016, neither initiative came anywhere close to that level of support. Nevada’s initiative passed with only 50.45 percent support—a victory of 0.9 percent. Maine’s universal background check initiative failed, with 51.8 percent voting against it.
Nevada’s initiative, which required the FBI to conduct background checks on private sales, was never implemented. The state attorney general determined there was no way for Nevada to force the federal agency to conduct the checks. Instead, Nevada Democrats passed a similar bill along party lines this year that implemented universal background checks without using the problematic language.
The results came despite gun control proponents massively outspending gun rights proponents in both states. Gun control groups involved in the races spent a total of $25,373,391.76 while gun rights groups spent $7,898,134.10—a threefold advantage for the gun control groups.
So what you’ve learned isn’t just that the statists want you separated from your firearms. You already knew that. They fear you, and thus they want you unarmed. What you’ve learned is that they’re lying when they tell you that 93% of the American public wants you disarmed and wants a national registry of guns.
And also what you’ve learned is that when these pollsters and the democrats try to sell that to Trump, they’re trying to separate him from his voting base for the upcoming election. Whether Trump, who believes in literally nothing at all, believes this crap polling remains to be seen, 3D chess and all that claptrap from the fanbois.
As a leader in the FBI, I had the opportunity to work closely with the folks who run the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. I have tremendous respect for them, the demands of their work, and the professional way they do it. As a gun owner and former FBI firearms instructor, I also respect the Second Amendment and appreciate the importance of doing background checks in a way that does not unduly burden law-abiding citizens. From this experience I know there are two simple changes Congress could make to the existing law that would make NICS more effective and the country safer.
First, Congress needs to make clear what it means to be a fugitive.
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, which required a background check before any person can purchase a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer, prohibits the purchase of a firearm by anyone who is a “fugitive from justice.” For almost two decades, the FBI interpreted this to mean that if a NICS check revealed that the purchaser had an outstanding warrant, the sale would be denied.
But in 2017 the Department of Justice issued new guidance limiting the fugitive prohibitor to apply only to people NICS could prove had crossed state lines to avoid prosecution or testifying in a criminal trial.
This new standard levied a burden the FBI could not possibly carry. The minimal information provided by prospective gun purchasers does not give the NICS examiners any insight as to why that person might be running from the law. The FBI lacks the legal authority, resources, or time to fully investigate every gun purchaser with a warrant. This new DOJ guidance ultimately led to the purging of 500,000 records from the NICS database — essentially greenlighting firearms purchases for half a million fugitives.
Congress could change this gap with a stroke of the legislative pen by simply making clear that anyone with an outstanding warrant — for anything — qualifies as a fugitive and is therefore prohibited from purchasing a firearm.
So first of all, he recommends that if you have an outstanding warrant issued by your county Sheriff for failing to show up as a juror, you cannot purchase a firearm. Let’s continue.
Simply giving NICS additional time to conduct this research would be an easy, inexpensive way to eliminate an obvious vulnerability.
In many cases, it is simply not possible to answer these questions in three business days. Additionally, the compressed time deadline adds unnecessary pressure and stress to the work of examiners who are already challenged by enormous volume.
Well isn’t this just rich. Andrew McCabe is recommending more manpower for the FedGov, greater delays, and a larger volume of names on the NICS who cannot legally purchase weapons.
Tom Gresham, the host of Gun Talk, a nationally-syndicated radio show, says he will personally stop shopping at Walmart, and many of his listeners have told him they’ll do the same.
“The gun owners of America are not fooled,” he said. “Walmart has staked out its position in the culture wars, and we, the 100 million gun owners who don’t commit crimes, are like, wait a minute, you just threw us under the bus.”
Gresham, who has been carrying a concealed weapon for more than 25 years, says he hardly sees anybody openly carrying weapons near New Orleans, where he lives. “I probably have seen one person open-carrying this year,” he said. “But I know thousands of people who conceal carry every day.”
Walmart’s new policy prohibiting open carry, he says, doesn’t affect him. But the way he sees it, “these companies are doing nothing other than trying to show that they’re one of the cool kids.”
And although he’s carried around a firearm for at least 25 years, Gresham says it’s not something he likes to advertise.
“Getting away and being a good witness is often the best course of action,” he said. “If nobody knows I’m carrying a gun, it gives me an opportunity to do that.”
Um … what?
Being a good witness to what? People getting shot while you slip away? Or have I misinterpreted that?
Being a good witness in terms of hiding your gun so that you don’t have to explain it? Or do I misunderstand?
What’s he talking about? I’m not sure, but I don’t like it. As I’ve explained before, no man lives forever, and it matters how you die. I refuse to allow a criminal to kill innocent women and children because I wanted to “slip away,” while hiding my gun does that for me.
This is just more of the same shaming of gun owners we’ve witnessed over the last several years. At some point men have to have scruples and spine, and at some point men have to stop hiding their guns under a bushel.
If I’ve misinterpreted what Mr. Gresham is saying, he’s welcome to drop by and elaborate or correct me. But based on my reading of the Holy Writ, God expects more of men than that, especially men whom He has called to Himself and given His name.
You’ve seen the lists, whether open or concealed carry. What gripes me is when gun writers participate in the self-immolation and embarrassment of carrying a gun. Witness Karen Townsend.
As I wrote earlier this week, this is a solution looking for a problem. Open carry isn’t common, even in gun-friendly Texas. Just as I said about being a Kroger customer, I’m a Walgreens customer and I have never seen anyone take advantage of open carry laws in the store I patronize in Houston.
None of the retailers are saying exactly how they will enforce their decision. In Texas, a retail store must post signs in English and in Spanish that state that store’s gun policy. Store management can ask a customer to leave or call law enforcement over violations to the posted policy.
So according to Karen, if more people did choose to open carry, she wouldn’t have a case to say this is a solution in search of a problem. In other words, it actually would be a problem demanding a solution.
Folks, the right reaction isn’t to say that open carry isn’t really practiced that much. That’s saying that there isn’t much exercise of our rights, which is a sad admission of failure on the part of the gun community. Don’t defend gun ownership that way. Don’t respond to the controllers by saying that the practice isn’t really that common anyway.
I’ve observed elsewhere that “All of these things are signs and symptoms of the fact that gun owners have been taught by society to respond like dogs or other pets by “operant conditioning.” The first time you ever openly carried caused you some degree of self consciousness, didn’t it? Just go ahead and admit it. It’s useful to demonstrate my point.
Gun owners, and in particular open carriers, are treated like second class citizens, inferior men, uncouth savages, like those who have no etiquette, when exactly the opposite would have been true two hundred years ago. That’s one reason I openly carry when I can. In some small way I want to change all of this. I open carry “For the peace, good and dignity of the country and the welfare of its people.” So should you.”
According to an application for a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 5, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn’t provide download numbers, so it’s unclear how many iPhone owners could be swept up in this latest government data grab.
If the court approves the demand, and Apple and Google decide to hand over the information, it could include data on thousands of people who have nothing to do with the crimes being investigated, privacy activists warned. Edin Omanovic, lead on Privacy International’s State Surveillance program, said it would set a dangerous precedent and scoop up “huge amounts of innocent people’s personal data.”
As always, the pretext is law enforcement.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department is seeking information as part of a broad investigation into possible breaches of weapons export regulations. It’s looking into illegal exports of ATN’s scope, though the company itself isn’t under investigation, according to the order. As part of that, investigators are looking for a quick way to find out where the app is in use, as that will likely indicate where the hardware has been shipped.
First, I don’t believe it will be that easy regardless of what they say. Second, let’s grant for the sake of argument that FedGov really is pursuing the data to enforce export control regulations. I don’t care. I have the same opinion on the matter as I do about SWAT teams busting down doors in an effort to find evidence of Marijuana sales before being flushed down the toilet.
I simply don’t care. If you want to enforce that law, then find another way to get your evidence. Or better yet, go find and deport illegals rather than worry about things like this. In other words, go do something the constitution demands you do instead of stretching the boundaries of something you choose to do.
Third, I don’t for one second put past FedGov to lie to the bench in order to build databases of law abiding citizens of who owns what.
This is an all around bad precedent, and it portends very cold winds in the annals of the American police state.
Following initial reporting on the government demand from Apple and Google of user data for the Obsidian 4 app, ATN stated on Friday that they were not aware of the government’s request for information from the tech giants until a Forbes article broke the story. ATN advised they would not be turning over user information to the DOJ unless required by law.
“ATN has not been contacted by the Department of Justice, Apple, or Google,” the company said in a statement to American Military News on Friday.
“ATN will protect its customers and their identifying data to the absolute extent possible under U.S. law.
Very well, but that’s not Apple or Google. Do not trust Apple or Google.
Purportedly to fight street violence, Germany’s Weimar Republic in 1931 decreed gun registration, but warned that the records must not fall into the hands of radical elements. Unfortunately, those radical elements — the National Socialist Party led by Adolf Hitler — seized power in 1933 and used those very same records to disarm political opponents, rendering them incapable of resistance. Disarmed German Jews paid the price in the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, a major step in the road to the Holocaust.
Political protest and violence in France prompted Prime Minister Pierre Laval in 1935 to decree firearm registration and repression of the right to assemble. What could possibly go wrong?
The registration records were critical to the Nazis, who overran France five years later, imposing the death penalty for those not turning in their guns, and conscripting the French police to ferret out violators. Despite the chance of being executed, numerous French citizens hid their firearms instead of surrendering them.
The same Pierre Laval became the chief collaborator of the Nazis during the occupation. French newspapers regularly reported the names of gun owners shot by firing squads.
The brave French, who held onto their guns despite the threat of execution, formed the basis for the French Resistance. To be sure, they never had sufficient arms, and prewar restrictions on “military-style” firearms hampered their efforts, leaving them with inferior weapons. Yet, they were able to commit acts of sabotage, gain intelligence, and sustain an underground movement to assist the Allies. After D-Day, they engaged in open armed resistance.
Such experiences are as old as humanity. Tyrants, conquerors, and dictators of every breed disarm their subjects in order to dominate and exploit them. It’s an iron law of history. Has it lost its meaning today?
Universal background checks are no good without a national gun registry, and vice versa. This is why such cannot be allowed.
6 years ago
