NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS in New York his department is looking to deploy Terahertz Imaging Detection scanners on the street in the war on “illegal guns.”
Kelly said the scanners would be used in “reasonably suspicious circumstances” and intended to cut down on the number of stop-and-frisks on the street. So called stop-and-frisks are considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
New York City is largely a Second Amendment free zone. The city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has said that citizens “acting outside of any governmental military effort” should not be allowed to protect themselves with firearms.
“The NYPD and Department of Defense are working together testing Terahertz Imaging Detection, a new way to get concealed illegal weapons off the streets,” CBS reports. Terahertz Imaging Detection measures energy radiating from the body up to 16 feet away and can detect anything blocking it.
The ACLU and civil libertarians oppose the effort to use the technology on the street. “It’s worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police Department when you’re doing nothing wrong,” the NYCLU’s Donna Lieberman said.
In addition to violating the Fourth Amendment, the proposed technology would subject citizens to a documented health risk – the destruction of DNA.
Studies reveal that THz waves “unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication,” according to MIT’s Technology Review.
For more information, see this paper posted at the Cornell University Library.
If we are to believe CBS, most residents either are not concerned about the privacy aspects of the technology or think it is a reasonable trade-off to stop gun crime and terrorism.
CBS does not mention the ability of THz to destroy DNA. If they did, no doubt most people interviewed would oppose the new technology.
Police, along with the U.S. Department of Defense, are researching new technology in a scanner placed on police vehicles that can detect concealed weapons.
“You could use it at a specific event. You could use it at a shooting-prone location,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez on Tuesday.
It’s called Terahertz Imaging Detection. It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun...[Full Article]
Trillions of electrons – and tens of thousands of gallons of ink, before that – have been spilled in the never-ending debate over stopping power. People have nearly come to blows over which caliber is the most effective. It seems safe to assume that the majority of shooters are convinced that bigger is always better. “I wouldn’t be caught dead carrying anything with a caliber that doesn’t start with a 4.” How many times have you read that one? Or heard it at the range? I’m a photographer and the same thing happens when the question is cameras. Nikon, Canon, Leica, Hassy, yadda, yadda, yadda. But as it turns out, guns are very much like cameras. No matter what the brand – or caliber – the one you have with you is always better than the one you don’t…[Full Article]
WASHINGTON — US firearms sales reached a record 129,166 during last week's Black Friday that kicked off the holiday shopping season, a 32 percent increase from the previous all-time high, officials said.
The FBI confirmed the jump from the last peak of 97,848 weapons sold during Black Friday of 2008, telling AFP that "we do not have an explanation for the increase."...[Full Article]
LA Time Probe reveals that the U.S. agency running the 'Fast and Furious' anti-gun-trafficking operation didn't know about the alleged FBI informants. Congressional investigators are looking into the matter.
Suspected members of the Zeta drug cartel are arrested in Guadalajara. Weapons also were seized. (STRINGER/MEXICO, REUTERS / June 17, 2011)
By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau
July 17, 2011
Reporting from Washington—
Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday.
The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them.
The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across the border and unravel the cartels' gun smuggling networks. The gun tracing largely failed, however, and hundreds of weapons purchased in U.S. shops later were found at crime scenes in Mexico.
The scandal has angered Mexican officials and some members of Congress. Investigators say nearly 2,500 guns were allowed to flow illegally into Mexico under the ATF program, fueling the drug violence ravaging that country and leading to the shooting death of a U.S. border agent.
In a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, the investigators asked why U.S. taxpayers' money apparently was paid to Mexican cartel members who have terrorized the border region for years in their efforts to smuggle drugs into this country, and to ship U.S. firearms into Mexico...[Full Article]
Evidence indicates that the ATF not only provided weapons to Mexican drug cartels and gangs but also trafficked guns to criminal gangs in Honduras, including the murderous MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, known to work with the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Sinaloa, the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico, has worked closely with Wacovia Bank. Last March, the bank revealed in court it had laundered nearly $400 million through a network of exchange houses, or casas de cambio, between 2004 and 2007.
MS-13 is known for it brutality, including the murder of 28 Hondurans when gang members sprayed a bus with automatic gunfire in 2004.
New revelations about the federal operation – dubbed Castaway – came to light after Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and acting ATF Director Ken Melson.
“In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Bilirakis wrote to Holder and Melson.
“Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source,” the journalists wrote.
The ATF did not respond to the story when it was posted on July 6. The information also found its way to Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Member Charles Grassley.
The corporate media has yet to give Operation Castaway the coverage so far afforded to Operation Fast & Furious.
Media Matters, the propaganda operation funded by the globalist George Soros, claims reportage on the growing scandal is some sort of right-wing conspiracy and defends the mendacity of government bureaucrats who have made excuses for the illegal operations.
Obama has said AG Holder was not aware of Fast & Furious, so it is safe to assume the Holder and the Justice Department will claim they know nothing about Operation Castaway as well.
As noted by Joseph Alan Sanchez writing for Infowars.com on Tuesday, the U.S. has shipped weapons south of the border for over a decade.
“For at least a decade now, covert operation specialist Celerino ‘Cele’ Castillo III has been telling the world that the U.S. has been shipping guns south of the border on a regular basis as a sidebar to revelations of drug running from South America into North America. And now in the summer of 2011, the BATF is under fire for observing the sale and distribution of machine guns into Mexico. Congressional testimony in recent months is revealing a calculated plan called Operation Fast and Furious,” writes Sanchez.
Adding weight to Castillo’s accusation, one of the kingpins of the infamous Los Zetas drug running gang, Rejón Aguilar, told Mexican federal police earlier this month that the group purchased its weapons directly from U.S. government officials.
For his truth telling efforts and his Iran Contra whistleblowing, Castillo was convicted in 2008 on federal charges of dealing firearms without a license in a case marked by numerous irregularities and peculiar coincidences that raised the specter of a frame-up.
Despite the denials, congressional Republicans believe the Fast & Furious scandal reaches the highest levels of the Justice Department.
They have asked the attorney general’s office to turn over a sweeping trove of emails, documents and other material to determine Washington’s role in the “reckless” operation that allowed U.S. semiautomatic weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It should be obvious by now that the ATF is a renegade federal agency. Hearings should be held immediately calling for its decertification and the systematic disarming of its agents.
“Let’s transform them back into the stamp clerks (suitable for affixing labels on wine and whiskey bottles) that they once were. Then the only harm they can inflict on the body politic would be paper cuts,” writes Charles Heller, Executive Director of Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
“Take away their badges. Badges are symbols of honor from a country as great as ours. BATFE Agents can carry business cards, like any other overpaid, tax consuming, foot dragging bureaucrat. Let’s convert these morally challenged individuals from jackboots to fur boots, or at least gumshoes without guns,” Heller concludes.
In addition to providing weapons to violent drug cartels favored by bankers, the Fast & Furious operation was cooked up to make it appear Americans legally selling firearms are engaged in criminal activity.
Democrats have wasted little time blaming the Second Amendment for the violence spawned by Mexican drug cartels and gangs using weapons provided by the U.S. government.
In June, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, tried to affix blame on law-abiding Americans.
His effort, however, was doomed to failure – at least in the “rightwing” media singled out by Media Matters and its patron, George Soros – when news of the complicity of the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and a renegade ATF hit the streets.
How in the world are Americans living in the southwest United States supposed to sleep peacefully at night when the U.S. government has given thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels and continues to leave the border completely wide open? The brutality and viciousness of Mexican drug cartels is almost beyond description, and yet the U.S. government has armed them to the teeth and does next to nothing to stop their incursions into U.S. territory. "Project Gunrunner" was supposed to be a U.S. government initiative to fight the flow of guns into Mexico. Instead, it has now come out that ATF agents were ordered to facilitate the acquisition of thousands of U.S. guns by Mexican drug cartels and then halt surveillance on where those guns where going. One of these operations was known as "Fast and Furious" and the revelations that are now coming out have Congress in an uproar. If the full truth about what has been going on is revealed to the American people it is going to turn Washington D.C. upside down. (Read More.....)
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck is proposing that the city require BB-gun replicas of actual firearms to be brightly colored so that police officers don't mistake them for real weapons.
The proposal, which the Los Angeles Police Commission will consider Tuesday, comes after two shootings involving officers and people with replica weapons, including one in which a teenager was wounded. Under the new rule, all such toys sold inLos Angeles would have the "entire exterior surface of the device white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink or bright purple."...[Full Article]
For Radio Shack customers in Montana, a satellite dish network package arms them with more than just a remote.
It also comes with a gun.
Or, if customers don't qualify (or for some reason don't want the firearm), they can receive a $50 Pizza Hut gift certificate.
When reached by phone, a store employee told the News that people had been flocking in for the deal. So much so, store owner Steve Strand told the Ravalli Republic newspaper, business had tripled...[Full Articles]
Light, compact and quick handling – they are great weapon for smaller shooters and females. Back in the 80′s and early 90′s Iver Johnson made one that came with came with a Choate pistol grip stock (folding also) that I thought was awesome. Always like the classic lines of the carbine. I have handled several but honestly have never shot one.
My brother has an old military M1 Carbine and I can truly see the value in this weapon. Back during the Korean war the M1 was not well received. I think that many of the issues were caused from a lack of maintenance as well as expecting more than the design of the gun would deliver. Regardless – .30 Carbine cartridge is capable if used within its acceptable range of about 100 yards or so. The .30 Carbine has ballistic very similar to the .30-30 Winchester – probably the most popular deer hunting cartridge ever.
Military M1 Carbine
Auto-Ordnance makes a new M1 which is available in a variety of formats – wood stock, plastic stock, folding stock, etc. I like the Auto-Ordnance however it is very expensive. My local gun shop sells one for over $700. That is a bit pricey for an M1 in my opinion.
Auto-Ordnance M1 Carbine
M1 Carbine with folding stock - great "Bug Out" gun
I have seen military grade used M1 Carbines for between $400-$500. Not too shabby.
Accessories are not very plentiful for the M1 Carbine however they can be customized in a few ways. Magazine capacity is typically 15 or 30 rounds. From what I have read – the 15 round mags are more reliable and the 30 round mags do better when only loaded with 28. Like an AR – 2 M1 Carbine magazines can be clipped together. See here.
The are not very many stocks available to accessorize with. My personal favorite is the Choate pistol grip folding stock as seen on the Auto-Ordnance as well as the M1 Carbine pictured below.
Choate folding stock
For optics a scope or red dot mount can be mounted. UTG make a scope mount with 1 inch rings combo for around $18.00 or if the rings are not wanted – there is this. If I had an M1 Carbine – open sights would probably be satisfactory but I do like the red dot option.
“Tactical” today generally means being able to mount a flashlight or laser to the weapon. This is possible with a Ultimak rail system. See picture below (as well as the Choate stock picture above):
Of course, regular items like slings and cases are readily available.
One of the great things about living in the United States (at least for now) is the ability to choose from a HUGE selection of firearms which to arm yourself with. The M1 Carbine is one of many.
Anyone wish to share their experiences with the M1 Carbine?
In anti-handgun Chicago, criminals aren't bothered by Mayor Richard Daley's handgun ban. They haven't been bothered for years.
And so another Chicago police officer was shot to death. But it wasn't during a traffic stop or some hunt through an alley after a drug sting.
Thomas Wortham IV, 30, was a victim of a robbery, shot down outside his boyhood home in the staunchly middle-class Chatham neighborhood, his body dragged 100 feet or so by the getaway car.
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The thugs were trying to steal his motorcycle, a gift to himself upon his return from a second tour of duty in Iraq as a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard.
Wortham, a patrol officer, was helping his neighbors reclaim a troubled neighborhood park, the scene of several recent shootings.
"He was the best of us. He was a role model. He was 30 years old, a grown man, a police officer, a soldier, a man of service," said Ald. Freddrenna Lyle, 6th, who has known the Wortham family since she was a child.
"It was 'Yes, ma'am' and 'No, sir' from him. He had self-respect. He was teaching these young men how to be men," she said.
I talked to Lyle on a side street in Chatham just after she'd paid a long condolence call to the Wortham family, as neighbors stood out on their sidewalks, agonizing over the loss.
The front lawns were neat and small. Backyard gardens were places of old-fashioned flowers, peonies and phlox and tea-roses. It is a neighborhood carefully tended.
At that moment, Mayor Daley was holding a news conference, another dog-and-pony show at City Hall to demonstrate his tough stance on crime.
He called it to express his concern that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the city's handgun ban. There were guns on a table as props, so much eye candy for the cameras.
A reporter asked the obvious question: Given the numbers of shootings in the city, isn't the handgun ban ineffective?
The question was more than fair. In Chicago, the only people who are confident in their 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms are the criminals, the cops and the politicians.
Law-abiding citizens can't own handguns. They don't have an army of bodyguards, as does Daley. Political hacks have guns. They get out the vote for his machine.
And the retired neighbor who's never been arrested in his life? Oh, no. If he has a gun, it would be anarchy in the streets, according to Daley.
Confronted with a logical question, here's what the mayor did: He picked up a rifle from the prop table of guns, raised it and began to babble.
"It's been very effective," said Daley of the handgun ban. "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."...
But even I was a bit taken aback this morning when the mayor grabbed a rifle and threatened to shoot me.
The mayor was holding a press conference to discuss what the city was doing to prepare for the Supreme Court’s expected decision to overturn the city’s gun ban. The short answer: all sorts of things, but we’ll just have to wait until the court weighs in next month to find out the details. “We’re hoping for the best,” Daley said.
Guns are one of the mayor’s favorite soapbox topics—he regularly goes out of his way to point out that he despises gun manufacturers and “extremists” like the NRA. “It’s really amazing how powerful they are,” he said today, standing next to a table covered with handguns, rifles, and even a machine gun that police had seized. “They’re bigger than the oil industry, bigger than the gas industry, bigger than Google, bigger than President Obama and the rest of them."
Daley also likes to highlight what he considers to be flagrant hypocrisy on the part of the defenders of gun rights. “Now you can’t walk into the Supreme Court—you have to walk in the side way. They’re going to barricade the doors or something now. I mean, they’re barricading the doors but they’re saying everyone else should have guns. That’s the thing that bothers me in Washington. As you know in Washington all things are being barricaded, all federal buildings. But they’re saying everybody else should be able to carry guns.”
But even supporters of tough gun regulations—myself included—have to admit that it's not clear how much they reduce violence. Despite having some of the most restrictive laws in the country, Chicago is a national leader in shootings and murders, and the mayor himself noted that “we’ve seen far too many instances in the last few weeks” of firearm violence, including the shooting that left a cop dead last night.
So I asked: since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it’s been effective?
I’m hardly the only guy who asks the mayor things he doesn’t want to answer, and I’ve been responsible for at least one of his huffing, puffing, ranting tangents, which generally get the press corps laughing, thus enabling him to move on to the next question without giving a real answer to the one at hand.
He grabbed a rifle, held it up, and looked right at me. He was chuckling but there was no smile.
“If I put this up your—ha!—your butt—ha ha!—you’ll find out how effective this is!”
For a moment the room was very, very quiet. I took a good look at the weapon. It had a long bayonet. (Was it seized during the Civil War?)
“If I put a round up your—ha ha!”
The photographers snapped away. Suddenly everybody started cracking up.
Daley went on. “This gun saved many lives—it could save your life,” he said—meaning, I think, that getting that gun off the street might have saved many lives, including mine.
And he went on some more. “We save all these guns that the police department seizes, you know how many lives we’ve saved? You don’t realize it. First of all, they’re taking these guns out of someone’s hands. They save their own life and they save someone else’s. You cannot count how many times this gun can be used. Thirty, forty times in shooting people and discharging a weapon. I think it’s very important.
“Next will be hand grenades, right? We’ll say that hand grenades are OK. I mean, how far can you go in regards to mass weapons? To me, any gun taken off saves thousands of lives in America. I really believe that, I don’t care what people tell me. You have to thank the police officers for seizing all these weapons. We lead the country in seizing weapons. This is unbelievable.”
Mexican President Felipe Calderón called upon the United States Congress to re-enact the assault weapons ban in a bid to disarm the American people as they are integrated into the North American Union system. Further, he placed blame for fueling drug cartels and gang violence squarely on the United States and their supply of firearms.
President Obama joined in his cause, making the startling declaration that “We are not defined by our borders” during a press conference welcoming Calderón on the White House lawn. Such a statement with immigration AND “weapons” problems on the border? Whatever happened to the Robert Frost adage ‘Good fences make good neighbors‘?
Alex Jones responds to these radical statements in a video address, questioning Calderón’s wherewithal to scold the United States or meddle with its internal affairs, particularly when Mexico has become such an unmanageable, nightmarish police state– where, by the way, there is a total gun ban for ordinary citizens.
Calderón told the United States that it must “regulate the sale of these weapons in the right way.” He continued:
“Many of these guns are not going to honest American hands. Instead, thousands are ending up in the hands of criminals.”
Calderón’s Call to Disarmament is particularly inappropriate before Congress, who are Constitutionally barred from making any law which would violate any part of the Bill of Rights– secured to the people and several states in balance against the power given to the Federal Government. Further, Calderón’s plan holds the same fallacy as other attempts at gun control. If carried out, banning “assault” weapons would empower– rather than restrict– narcotrafficking gangs and leave “good” people helpless. It would not, as he naively intends, curb cartel violence or dry out the tools of their intimidation.
Yet his proposals have long been advanced and supported by the likes of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, among others. President Obama voiced general support for a renewed ban last year, but acknowledged that it would be difficult to achieve politically. Moreover, Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder has also expressed support for re-enacting a gun ban, but has shied away from it while the White House has kept it quiet purposely to avoid political damage to other parts of President Obama’s already wildly-radical agenda. Last year, Newsweek scolded Eric Holder for “backing away” from the ban issue and failing to support an issue ‘important to Mexican officials.’
A MESSAGE FOR ARIZONA
President Calderón also used the opportunity to amplify his criticism of Arizona’s immigration laws, a position which is hypocritical on several points. First, why would he have a voice among Mexican people who fled at all costs from the failing and violent narco-state which he heads? Furthermore, how can the Mexican President decry the efforts of Arizona to control its borders and maintain stability, when Mexico has considerably more severe laws against illegal immigration than that recently introduced by the under-pressure border state.
Though Calderón issued a tongue-in-cheek travel advisory to ‘visiting’ Mexican citizens warning them to be wary of the strict new attitude in Arizona, it is his own country which has grown wild with corruption, violence, drug cartels, authoritarian police and the unsustainable blow of mass exodus which has turned Mexico into a vacuum and failed state. While the United States has attempted to progress on issues of discrimination, Mexico continues to openly oppress its minority groups and stifle attempts at resistance. Despite this distinction, many sanctuary cities across the United States have joined with Calderón and proposed bans on Arizona of their own.
‘SOUTHBOUND FLOW OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS’ ISSUE RAISED TO PROMOTE NORTH AMERICAN INTEGRATION
Most of all, the two heads of state, Calderón and Obama, have demonstrated a reckless and uncaring attitude towards curbing illegal immigration– which threatens to wreck both countries. Yet they have pushed hard for amnesty and other provisions to legalize workers and prevented any attempts to impede the open flow of goods and people across the border.
They have both worked furiously to fast-track North American regional integration. They met in Guadalajara in August 2009 alongside Canadian PM Stephen Harper to continue– largely in secret — the agenda announced under the Bush-era Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America agreement (talks included the hot-button issue of “illegal southbound flow of American guns and cash that helps fuel this extraordinary violence”).
President Obama– for someone who claimed ignorance about the North American Union during his 2008 campaign [video]– certainly has gone a long way in supporting the total destruction of United States sovereignty, all while embracing cheap globalist clichés, obliterating the economy and opening-up the floodgates to labor replacement from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Politicians– through NAFTA, WTO, CAFTA and SPP agreements, among others– are ushering in a corporatist-controlled North American Union, alongside a longer-term global merger. Robert Pastor and other key architects from the Council on Foreign Relations clearly designed the North American Union to circumvent the confines of the U.S. Constitution, and such a system is unlikely (once in power) to allow or accept the resistance of an armed population.
UNITED NATIONS ATTACK ON THE SECOND AMENDMENT
Unfortunately, the United States has long-ago set its course in that direction, having signed onto the United Nations treaty and its disarmament plan, already poignantly and also frighteningly symbolized by the monument outside its headquarters of a tied-up gun barrel, rendered incapable of effective action.
Clearly, Calderón and Obama now hope to finish the deal.
At the same time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recently renewed her campaign for the UN Small Arms Treaty (NEW START), urging the Senate to ratify the treaty signed back in December with the Russian Federation. Clinton utilized frightening Cold War rhetoric about the proliferation of nuclear armaments to argue for the control of “small arms.” Unless the Senate ratifies the treaty, Clinton argued, there would be no existing protection against a nuclear threat (despite a valid 2002 treaty). She stated:
“The choice before us is between this treaty and no treaty governing our nuclear security relationship with Russia, between this treaty and no agreed verification mechanisms on Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, between this treaty and no legal obligation for Russia to maintain its strategic nuclear forces below an agreed level.”
To fulfill the UN’s mandate of eventual disarmament (of private, citizen-held arms) or to listen to the dictates of a corrupt puppet-figurehead like Calderón is to commit treason against the American people and our way of life. How many authoritarian regimes in the 20th and 21st Centuries have taken away its people’s arms, only to enslave and exterminate them? How could we in the United States allow ourselves to be disarmed at a time when law enforcement along the border have warned citizens to buy guns because its sheriffs, police and other authorities cannot protect the border zone?
Calderón should take the advice not of his flattering host Obama, eager to dismantle America’s strengths, but from his harshest critics, who would gladly embrace a neighbor, were he not spitting on our culture and seeking to undermine it through diplomatic channels or base immigration-attrition. We at Infowars.comhave already recommended that he get the hell out of our country and refrain from being the pot who called the kettle black. His country has too many problems for him to be busy with the lessons America should learn. He should go back to Mexico and start on his own mess. Let’s hope he takes the recommendation.
(Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged the U.S. Congress on Thursday to reinstate a ban on assault weapons to help cut cross-border gun smuggling and reduce drug gang violence for its southern neighbor.
In a speech to a joint session of Congress, Calderon described efforts to fight organized crime in Mexico, where 23,000 people have been killed in drug violence since he came to power in late 2006 and launched an army offensive.
Washington is also aiding Mexico's battle against drug gangs with a 2007 pledge of $1.4 billion for equipment and police training to help fight the cartels that ship some $40 billion worth of illegal drugs north each year.
The drug violence has become a major political test for Calderon and a growing worry for Washington and foreign investors as violence has spread across the southwest border.
"There is one issue where Mexico needs your cooperation. And that is stopping the flow of assault weapons and other deadly arms across the border," Calderon said to a standing ovation from U.S. lawmakers...
saluki420—May 21, 2010 — WASHINGTON Mexican President Felipe Calderón asked Congress on Thursday to renew an expired U.S. ban on assault weapons to help in his war with drug cartels
[Webmaster - As Presidente Calderon stated, it is the responsibility of United States citizens to ensure that firearms do not get into the hands of criminals...so my solution to this dilemma is that law abiding United States citizens should purchase MASSIVE amounts of firearms and ammunition...to keep them from getting into the hands of criminals. I don't this this is exactly what Caldron envisions, but I think that my proposal is a lot more sensible than reinstating the assault weapons ban.
Remember, the Second Ammendment, gun ownership by private citizens, is the last line of defense against all out tyranny. All dictatorships must first remove firearms from the population before they can make their big move.
Some of my colleagues on the web are saying that Fox News Chicago reporter Tera Williams "revealed her bias" about the relative efficacy of Chicago's absurd gun buyback program.
In yet another TV report on this meaningless program, reporter Williams was interviewing a Chicago resident on his thoughts about the whole thing. The resident told her, "it's a good way to start," to which Williams said "Something's better than nothing, right?"
Well, no it's not, Ms Williams. This program has been a complete failure for making a dent in the violence and shootings in the City of Chicago. While other great cities of the nation have seen falling murder rates over the last decade, Chicago has seen its rate rise. Even as this waste of money and time of a program was started in 2006, the murder rate has not been positively affected by the program. In fact, this year the city has already experienced over 100 shooting deaths and we aren't even at the half way point in the year yet...
[Webmaster - Gun buyback programs are becoming more prevalent nationwide. Churches are frequently used to spearhead these initiatives. Fascist and Communist regimes have always sought to disarm the populace before unleashing the full force of their tyranny. They are afraid of resistance from the masses. How many criminals and "gang-bangers" do you really think will be turning in their weapons? All these programs do is sucker the sheeple into giving up their means of self-protection.]
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (WPIX) - Hundreds are expected to drop their weapons Saturday at part of Brooklyn's gun buyback program.
Workable handguns or assault weapons can each be exchanged for a $200 bank card, with no questions asked. Rifles and shotguns can be turned over for a $100 bank card, while BB guns, pellet guns and air pistols can be traded in for a $20 bank card.
There is no limit on the number of guns each person can turn in, but no more than three can be exchanged for the bank cards.
Participants are reminded to carry their guns in plastic or papers bags, or in a shoe box. Those traveling by car should transport the guns in their trunk.
The program is a joint effort by Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, along with the NYPD, local lawmakers and church pastors...
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Los Angeles residents can receive a gift card or prepaid credit card worth up to $200 Saturday by turning in guns today at a number of locations across the city.
Under L.A.'s one-day Gun Buyback program -- which will run from 10 a.m. through 3 p.m. -- residents will be able to surrender their firearms in exchange for a Ralphs grocery store gift card or a prepaid Visa card.
The amount of the gift cards will depend on the type of firearm. For assault weapons, the amount can be $200; for handguns, shotguns and rifles, up to $100.
"Last year, we reclaimed 1,700 guns and assault weapons (in) the most successful gun buyback program in the United States of America," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said last month while announcing the program.
"The LAPD is focused on this. Our Gang Reduction and Youth Reduction Office is working with intervention workers to really reach out. Our hope is that this is going to be even more successful that last year."
Opponents of gun control have questioned the value of gun buyback programs, expressing doubt that a significant amount of criminals will turn in their guns...
[Webmaster - Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, is opposed to Arizona's attempt to curtail illegal immigration and he has called for a boycott of Arizona.]
There are now 5 states, Wyoming, Montana, Tennessee, Utah and South Dakota, that have passed laws for self declared exemptions from federal gun regulations on weapons made, bought and used inside state borders, according to WND reporter, Bob Unruh. Wyoming’s new law includes language that makes it a felony for any U.S. agent to “enforce or attempt to enforce” federal firearm regulations, which could be punishable by a fine of $2000 and/or imprisonment.(1) This week, Wyoming passed a 10th Amendment Sovereignty Resolution as well.
Gun control is not only a 2nd Amendment issue, it also relates to other parts of the Constitution.
Gun control is not only a 2nd Amendment issue, it also relates to other parts of the Constitution. The 2nd Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”...
WASHINGTON – Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.
Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters...
Talk about improbable odds. The guns used in the Pentagon and Las Vegas courthouse shootings came from the police and court system in Memphis, Tennessee.
John Patrick Bedell’s gun originated with police in Tennessee.
“Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.”...
ODOT worker who'd been put on leave is mentally evaluated after buying handguns, AK-47
Concerns about an Oregon Department of Transportation employee who purchased several guns after being placed on leave prompted law enforcement across Southern Oregon to step in.
Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man — whose name wasn't released — into protective custody Monday morning in the 500 block of Effie Street, Medford police said in a news release.
He was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation...
So far that is roughly 14,000,000+ guns bought last year! The total is probably more as many NICS background checks cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time by individuals.
To put it in perspective that is more guns than the combined active armies of the top 21 countries in the world. countries by number of troops
Of the NICS background checks preformed less than and average .005% were denied, showing, overwhelmingly, that law abiding American citizens are the ones buying guns and that criminals are getting their guns elsewhere.
14,033,824,000 billions rounds of Ammo Assuming each gun buyer bought 1000 rounds of ammo for each purchase, and you and I know that it is way, way more than that, that would be easily 14,033,824,000+ billions rounds of ammo fired by USA gun owners.
What percent of people were killed or injured by this ammo…it is just to infinitesimally small for me to calculate?
Crime At Record Lows This record year in firearms background checks show that Americans are solidly in-favor of exercising their civil right to Keep and Bear Arms.
In a year were crime has reached an all time record low what is plainly clear is that more guns equal LESS CRIME!...
The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.
"As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters...
The nation's Homeland Security officers lost nearly 200 guns in bowling alleys, public restrooms, unlocked cars and other unsecure areas, with some ending up in the hands of felons. The problem, outlined in a new federal report, has prompted disciplinary actions and extra training.
Most of the misplaced weapons — including handguns, shotguns and military rifles — were never found. "Most losses occurred because officers did not properly secure firearms," says the Homeland Security inspector general report...
Inspector General Report Says Weapons Were Left in Public Restroom, Bowling Alley Among Other Places
(CBS) Federal law enforcement officers don't always secure their weapons while they're securing the homeland and end up losing their guns on the job, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general.
Nearly 200 weapons - including handguns, shotguns and military rifles - were misplaced from 2006 through 2008, left behind in such places as a fast-food restaurant's restroom, a bowling alley and on a car's bumper, as explained in a USA Today article on the report...
Most of all, the two heads of state, Calderón and Obama, have demonstrated a reckless and uncaring attitude towards curbing illegal immigration– which threatens to wreck both countries. Yet they have pushed hard for amnesty and other provisions to legalize workers and prevented any attempts to impede the open flow of goods and people across the border.
Unfortunately, the United States has long-ago set its course in that direction, having signed onto the United Nations treaty and its disarmament plan, already poignantly and also frighteningly symbolized by the monument outside its headquarters of a tied-up gun barrel, rendered incapable of effective action.
