This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists

  • Washington Post awards Pelosi 3 Three Pinocchios for CCW Tweet

    Washington Post awards Pelosi 3 Three Pinocchios for CCW Tweet

    Last week, Nancy Pelosi told the world that the Apocalypse is nigh because Americans will get a tax cut. This week she tweeted that “Inviting violent criminals to carry concealed weapons doesn’t save lives. Inviting domestic abusers to carry concealed weapons doesn’t save lives. Inviting convicted stalkers to carry concealed weapons doesn’t save lives. Yet the @HouseGOP just voted to do exactly that” refering to H.R.38 – Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017

    According to Fox News, that earned her three Pinocchios from the Washington Post Factchecker.

    “We wavered between Two and Three Pinocchios but ultimately settled on Three because her last line — ‘the @House GOP just voted to do exactly that’ — is so over the top and exaggerated,” the Fact Checker wrote.

    According to the text of the bill;

    This bill amends the federal criminal code to allow a qualified individual to carry a concealed handgun into or possess a concealed handgun in another state that allows individuals to carry concealed firearms.

    A qualified individual must: (1) be eligible to possess, transport, or receive a firearm under federal law; (2) carry a valid photo identification document; and (3) carry a valid concealed carry permit issued by any state or be eligible to carry a concealed firearm in his or her state of residence.

    Actually, Pelosi deserves four Pinocchios, but three is the most we can expect the Post to give to a Democrat.

  • New gun control legislation; old propaganda in a new wrapper

    The Atlantic reports that there’s new gun control legislation, known as the Fix NICS Act, coming down the pike to tighten background checks by making law enforcement agencies report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, (NICS) the names of people who shouldn’t have guns. Let me say up front that I fully support this effort, as does the NRA;

    “We applaud Senator John Cornyn’s efforts to ensure that the records of prohibited individuals are entered into NICS,” Chris Cox of the NRA said in a statement. “The National Rifle Association has long supported the inclusion of all legitimate records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.” The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry, put out a statement on Thursday in which it “praised U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for his leadership” on the bill.

    Gun-control advocates support the bill too, and say it’s evidence that common ground between Republicans and Democrats in the gun debate is possible. “This is both parties affirming that there are people that we believe should not have access to guns, and we want to make sure that the system is set up in such a way that we prevent access to guns for those people,” Christian Heyne, the legislative director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, which supports the legislation, said in an interview. “This is a real, genuine effort from people who couldn’t be further from each other on the other side of the aisle.”

    The problem with the legislation is enforcement. President Obama signed an Executive Order that was supposed to do the same thing. It made for good press, but it really didn’t change anything – after the Executive Order was signed, everyone put their feet up, lit a cigar and congratulated each other for “doing something, anything” and the EO was promptly forgotten.

    Before that EO, was the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 during the Bush Administration which “Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to: (1) authorize the Attorney General to obtain electronic versions of information from federal agencies on persons disqualified from receiving firearms; (2) require federal agencies to provide such information to the Attorney General, not less frequently than quarterly; and (3) require federal agencies to update, correct, modify, or remove obsolete records and notify the Attorney General of such actions to keep the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) up to date. Requires the Attorney General to submit annual reports to Congress on the compliance of federal agencies with such reporting requirements.” It actually rewarded states and federal agencies for doing what they should have been doing all along, but obviously, that didn’t work.

    So the new bill only regurgitates old legislation that was never enforced. I want to know how the new legislation will do anything better than the old legislation.

  • Chad Vachter does something against gun violence

    Chad Vachter does something against gun violence

    Chad Vachter, from Riverside, California, cried himself to sleep the other night when he heard about the school shooting in northern California committed by local lunatic Kevin Neal, he says. So in order to be seen doing something, anything, he had the local TV media, News Channel 8, come to his home so they could put video of him destroying his scary black rifle for their viewers.

    “I can’t do it,” he said. “I can’t have something in my house that so easily could become a part of another situation like that, and I’m not going to be desensitized to it. I refuse to.”

    Then Chad should kill himself, or, at least hack off his trigger finger, because the only thing in his house that would commit a school shooting is him. The scary black rifle that Neal used didn’t jump out of his house and run to the nearest school and start shooting people – it was the nut on the stock that police weren’t too concerned about when he started threatening his neighbors months before the incident.

    “The other night, when I read the thing about the school in northern California, I cried and I haven’t felt good since,” he said. “And although I’m still sad for all those victims and all the people affected, I feel like I’ve done the only thing that I can do in this equation. Even if it’s just a small thing, I did my part to make things better.”

    Vachter says he wants to be clear that he still supports the second amendment and will be keeping his shotgun and pistol. But he’s challenging other gun owners to destroy their assault weapons.

    I suppose if I destroyed my own scary black guns, that would make Chad feel better, too. It wouldn’t do anything, it wouldn’t make anyone safer, it wouldn’t save any lives, but Chad would feel better, and really, isn’t that why we’re all on this Big Blue Marble – to make Chad feel better?

    He could have busted up his rifle without having the media there to record his dedication to his newest cause, but the “something” that he did wouldn’t give him his 15 seconds of fame without the media.

    I hope Chad’s little display of theatrics got him the date with the guy he had his sights set on.

  • Fake news and guns

    Fake news and guns

    AFP reports that Quinnipiac University has polled 1,577 people and that 95% of them support background checks for gun buyers. The problem is that gun buyers are already required to be vetted with background checks.

    Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they supported a nationwide ban on sales of assault weapons while 31 percent said they were opposed.

    That was also a new high and up from March 2013, when 54 percent said they supported an assault weapons ban while 41 percent were opposed.

    That’s easy to believe because no one really knows what the media or the Leftists are calling “assault weapons”. Take this from USAToday;

    And this, from an Ohio affiliate of NBC;

    With all of the scary misinformation, fake news, if you will, who is really surprised about how the public answers polls.

    In other findings, 91 percent of those polled said they support a ban on sales of guns to people convicted of violent crimes.

    People convicted of felonies are prohibited from buying firearms now – they have been prohibited since the Gun Control Act of 1968 – you know, when Congress acted to prohibit people like Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray from getting their hands on guns.

    Thirty-four percent of those polled said stricter gun laws would help prevent mass shootings, but 62 percent said shooters would find a way around tighter laws and commit the crimes anyway.

    Yeah, gun control only affects law-abiding citizens from buying guns to protect themselves from the criminals who will always get guns. But, legislators got to legislate. The media has to create a crisis for the legislators to play to. You’d think that a responsible news organization would point out these fallacies in the poll, but then I’d be out of a job, wouldn’t I?

    ADDED: The Giffords have decided that the 2d Amendment isn’t about muskets, after all. They want gun control applied to black powder guns now.

    The group views the centuries-old firearms technology, which was rendered obsolete shortly after the Civil War due to advancements in self-contained ammunition cartridges and semi-automatic; self-loading firearms, as dangerous because a silencer can legally be attached to it without the paperwork or tax stamp associated with other firearms silencers.

    “Cue the .50 caliber muzzleloader, which delivers a particularly lethal .50 caliber round,” the report said. “This weapon is designed with a built-in device to suppress its sound. If any other firearm were built with such a device, it would be subject to the NFA as a silencer. But since this device is designed to suppress the sound of something that is exempt from federal firearms laws, it is not considered a silencer and not subject to the NFA. In fact, it is not subject to any laws at all and can be bought online.”

    The group called on Congress to take action and pass new laws restricting muzzleloaders and the other products outlined in the report.

    When was the last time a muzzleloader was used in a crime? In the last 150 years, I mean.

  • This is about Guns. That is all

    In case anyone is wondering, the state of Illinois has what can be politely deemed the strictest gun laws in the country. Illinois has ZERO reciprocity with other states regarding guns of any kind. If you’re coming from out of state to hunt deer or porcupines or whatever, you do need a hunting license, but that supports the state’s parks and recreation programs, including game hunting. However, you can’t have the guns riding shotgun in the rack in the pickup truck cab. And considering the theft rate in some areas, I wouldn’t do that, anyway.

    It doesn’t seem to matter that there is plenty of anti-gun stuff already in place. There is always some whining soul waiting in the shadows and corners to holler ‘more laws!!’ as loudly as possible, because – well, it gets attention for them in the media and lets them strut in front of the cameras a little bit.

    What annoys me more than anything else is that mindless and ignorant repeating meme that guns used in crimes are somehow bought legally. Nor does it matter that anyone, including me, can wave reports from the Tribune and other newspapers in the faces of these timid souls that their perception of guns associated with crime is 180-out wrong, unrealistic, and just plain incorrect.

    They find ignorance and corpse dancing to be a lot more attractive than the truth.

    There has been a bill SB1657 in the state legislature since February 2017 that requires gun dealers to have licenses, undergo background checks, etc. – you know the drill – in order to sell guns in the first place.  http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=1657&GAID=14&DocTypeID=SB&LegId=104404&SessionID=91

    The howling and fearful ignore the fact that the “trace” language only gets an original sale point for a gun used in a crime. They purposely fail to recognize that if a gun is stolen and used in a crime, it is not the fault of the dealer or the person who bought it.

    It would be nice if these tearful, fearful sobsters took a few minutes out of their precious time with online social media and paid attention to these things, but that would mean they’d have to acknowledge their mistakes and be in touch with reality. Giving up the addiction to electronic media would be quite painful for them.

    As this article from the Chicago Tribune, posted back in May this year, indicates, we already have everything in place addressed by SB1657. There is nothing new in it. Zero. Zip. Nada.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-gun-shops-harmon-senate-illinois-perspec-0511-jm-20170510-story.html

    And yet, in this morning’s paper is a letter to the editor from the pastor of one of the Baptist Churches around here that passing this bill will stop corrupt gun dealers. No, do not send him any “hate” mail. I’m sure he’ll get enough in-your-face backtalk from people who know better.

    Carjacking is rising in Chicago proper and is creeping out to the suburbs. The carjackers all have guns. They may not be trained in how to use them – probably throw the bullets at you – but the probability of any of them buying them legally is so far below ZERO that the Antarctic continent is warmer in the winter.

    As was indicated in an article I posted a few weeks ago, guns are frequently shipped from factories in freight cars that are parked overnight in railyards on Chicago’s south side. Those box cars are broken into all the time. One 2013 break-in resulted in 115 Rugers being stolen. Why so few? It was all the thieves could carry.

    I am sick of this ignorance and bullshit.  I don’t know how to shut it down when the facts fly in the face of the people who insist on jumping up and down in front of TV cameras about it. It is far past time that the facts start to overwhelm the hysterics.

  • Senators to introduce scary-looking rifle ban

    Senator Dianne Feinstein released a memo yesterday in which she announced the intention of a score of Democrat Senators to reintroduce an “assault weapon ban” to Congress. In the memo, she says that the group, including the usual suspects like valor thief, The Dick Blumenthal and Chuck Schumer, will specifically name 205 firearms which will be the targets of the ban and specifically exempt “more than 2,200 guns for hunting, household defense or recreational purposes” you know, as if they know which firearm is best for you and suits your purposes.

    Oh, by the way, there will be a “grandfather clause” so if you hurry out and buy one of the targeted modern sporting rifles now, you can own it after the ban takes effect. So, obviously, the Senators’ intent is to pump up rifle and ammo sales before Christmas.

    You know if these rifles are so dangerous, they should just ban them outright, but then they’d be assured of a political loss when they can’t get the votes to forbid possession of the rifles. The Senators think that they can incrementally encroach on our rights this way.

    Feinstein additionally warns about other measures they put on their Christmas list;

    Requires a background check on any future sale, trade or gifting of an assault weapon covered by the bill.

    Requires that grandfathered assault weapons are stored using a secure gun storage or safety device like a trigger lock.

    Prohibits the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines.

    Bans bump-fire stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at fully automatic rates.

    I don’t know how they figure that they’re going to get folks who sell guns out of their trucks in darkened parking lots and back alleys to conduct background checks, but there it is, another measure that only affects law-abiding citizens more than it affects crime or actual gun safety.

    I also don’t know how they’re going to ensure that I have trigger locks on my guns inside my home – unless they also plan on violating another of my Constitutional rights which prohibits unjustified searches.

    The Democrats are ensuring that Republicans triumph in the mid-term elections next year with the “assault weapon” ban, as well as helping with gun sales with their ill-considered grandfather clause. If they’re going to commit political suicide, they should go for an outright ban on sporting rifles and magazines. If they were truly committed to their intentions.

  • Dean Winslow and “insane” gun ownership

    Several people have sent us links regarding Dean Winslow’s comments during his confirmation hearing for his position as a chief of the military health system at the Pentagon. According to MSN, he told the Senate Armed Service committee;

    “I may get in trouble with other members of the committee just say how insane it is that in the United States of America a civilian can go out and buy a semi-automatic like an AR-15, which apparently was the weapon that was used [in the Sutherland Springs, Texas shooting],” Winslow said. “I think that’s an issue not as much for this committee, but elsewhere.”

    The question from Senator. Jeanne Shaheen, (D-NH) was in regards to the Texas shooter’s domestic violence conviction and whether he deserved a Bad Conduct or Dishonorable discharge. Luckily, Winslow’s remarks are about a subject clearly outside his area of responsibility in his new job. But then, Shaheen’s question was just her attempt to appear as if she’s paying attention to the news.

    Of course, Winslow is a retired Air Force colonel, you know, like other Air Force colonels who are squishy on guns while guns are in the news. Like I said yesterday, I don’t pay any attention to fobbits’ opinions on second amendment issues. As long as Winslow doesn’t have any real policy-making responsibilities on who gets to own what guns, I’m not going to get real exercised about it.

  • NICS: Garbage in; Garbage out

    Yesterday, we talked about the Sutherland Springs, Texas shooter, whatever his name was. We speculated whether or not he had correctly answered the questions on the ATF Form 4473 when he purchased his firearms and whether or not he popped hot on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check at the point of sale.

    Our buddy, Susan Keating at People reports that he wasn’t flagged at the point of sale;

    Kelley purchased two weapons legally from a Texas sporting goods store.

    “Based on information we received from law enforcement, we confirmed that the suspect purchased two firearms from two San Antonio locations, one in 2016 and one in 2017,” a representative of Academy Sports + Outdoors said in a statement to PEOPLE.

    “We also confirmed that both sales were approved by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS),” the company said. “We are cooperating with law enforcement as they investigate further.”

    According to NBC News, he didn’t get flagged on the NICS check because Air Force Office of Special Investigations never put the information about his court martial conviction for domestic abuse into the system;

    In 2012, Kelley was convicted at general court-martial on two charges of assault, the Air Force said. A retired Air Force colonel who supervised prosecutors when Kelley was tried said Kelley was convicted of fracturing his baby stepson’s skull and assaulting his first wife, Tessa, at Holloman.

    He was confined for a year, given a bad conduct discharge and reduced in rank to E-1, or airman basic, Stefanek said.

    Kelley’s name should have been entered in the National Criminal Information Center, Stefanek said, but the Special Investigations Office at Holloman failed to transmit the domestic violence charges.

    According to sources, only 80% of criminals get their names entered into the NICS system across the country. We here at TAH have been complaining about this since the Gabby Giffords shooting, when the shooter in that tragedy should have been arrested for his violent behavior and should have been flagged in the NICS system, but police failed to arrest him.

    In fact, most of the shooters in high-profile mass shootings should have been unable to buy weapons because of their mental state or prior criminal activities. Liberals complain about universal background checks, but what good is background checks if the database is incomplete?

    In January, 2016, President Obama made a big deal about his Executive Orders in regards to gun control. He boasted that his Attorney General would coordinate with states and law enforcement agencies to make the NICS more reliable. He added agents to the payroll and dumped money into the system and still we get Sutherland Springs.

    I fully support background checks, I don’t want criminals to be armed with legally-purchased guns. However if the government is just going to make grand gestures that don’t accomplish anything, what good are background checks?

    Legislators like mass shootings, even when the laws fail to prevent those shootings – they can write more laws they don’t intend to enforce, so they can write even more laws and look like they’re “doing something” to make us safer – feathering their own political nests.